Audit Objective
Did Town of Elmira Fire District No. 1 (District) officials establish long-term capital and financial plans?
Audit Period
January 1, 2022 – December 31, 2024.
We extended the audit period back to January 1, 2007 to determine Board-estimated replacement costs, January 1, 2020 to analyze reserve balance trends and forward to April 2, 2025 to estimate vehicle replacement costs, useful life and the creation of a new capital plan.
Understanding the Audit Area
A fire district (district) should have written long-term capital and financial plans to balance capital priorities with fiscal constraints while also transparently communicating a district board’s (board’s) intentions to taxpayers, residents and other interested parties.
The District is governed by an elected five-member Board of Fire Commissioners (Board), responsible for the general management and control of the District’s financial operations including adopting annual budgets and establishing long-term capital and financial plans. The Fire Chief (Chief) oversees all firefighters and other administrative staff and is responsible for providing budget input and information for operational and capital needs to the Board.
The District’s budgeted appropriations for 2025 totaled $920,505 and the District’s vehicle capital reserve (Reserve) fund balance totaled $971,000 as of December 31, 2024.
Audit Summary
District officials did not establish or adopt up-to-date long-term capital and financial plans. As a result, the Board did not convey long-term goals to taxpayers, residents and interested parties in a transparent manner.
The District had five vehicles at or beyond their useful life estimates in 2025. We estimated that the total vehicle replacement cost of these five vehicles was approximately $2.3 million1 in 2025. However, the Reserve fund balance totaled $971,000 as of December 31, 2024. If all five vehicles at or beyond their useful life estimates were replaced in 2025, the District may face a shortfall of approximately $1.3 million.
Because District officials did not maintain a long-term capital plan for vehicles or plan for future financial operations, the Board’s ability to effectively manage the District’s finances was hindered. Therefore, potential large increases to real property tax levies may occur when assets are needed in the future. As a result of our audit, the Board and Chairman of the Board (Chairman) created a new capital plan that projected reserve contributions, vehicle replacement costs and useful life through 2054.
The report includes two recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the District’s long-term capital and financial planning. District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they have initiated corrective action.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the State Comptroller’s authority as set forth in Article 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law. Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix C.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. Pursuant to Section 181-b of New York State Town Law, a written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report must be prepared and forwarded to our office within 90 days. To the extent practicable, implementation of the CAP must begin by the end of the next fiscal year. For more information on preparing and filing your CAP, please refer to our brochure, Responding to an OSC Audit Report, which you received with the draft audit report. We encourage the Board to make the CAP available for public review.
1 We recognize there are numerous variables that will affect this estimation. The intent of this estimation is to illustrate the potential financial impact on the District’s identified capital needs. See Appendix B for additional information on the calculation methodology.