Audit Objective
Did the Village Board of Trustees (Board) receive the financial reports needed to monitor the Village’s financial operations and make strategic decisions and ensure that the required annual financial reports (AFRs) were filed with the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC)?
Audit Period
June 1, 2023 – March 31, 2025.
We extended our audit period to review the filing status of the Village’s 2021-22 through 2024-25 AFRs as of September 22, 2025, and also to review activity in liability accounts related to developer deposits back to June 2021.
Understanding the Audit Area
The Board is responsible for the overall management of the Village. The Board needs timely financial reports to allow the Board to evaluate the Village’s financial position, including potential overspending, revenue shortfalls or money owed by or due to the Village, to make informed financial decisions and properly monitor and manage operations. The Board-appointed Clerk-Treasurer is the chief fiscal officer and is responsible for preparing the Village’s monthly and annual financial reports and filing the required AFR with OSC.
The Village’s budgeted appropriations for the 2024-25 fiscal year totaled $8.9 million, funded primarily with real property taxes, ambulance charges, intergovernmental charges for fire protection and ambulance services, and State aid.
Audit Summary
The Board did not ensure monthly and annual financial reports were prepared and provided to the Board members. As a result, the Board lacked the information necessary to adequately monitor financial operations, make informed financial and strategic decisions, assess the Village’s financial standing at year-end and did not ensure the Village filed an AFR in accordance with New York State General Municipal Law. The lack of financial reports and AFR filings also impacted the Board’s transparency with taxpayers and residents.
The Board did not:
- Receive monthly budget status reports, a balance sheet or trial balance reports, and treasurer’s reports to monitor financial operations.
- Adequately monitor the budget throughout the fiscal year and make budget modifications in a timely manner. For example, six months after the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year, the Board approved budget modifications totaling approximately $830,000 that were needed to address accounts that were overexpended during 2023-24.
- Monitor reported balances in the developer deposit liability accounts, which are used to account for funds (deposits) received from developers and used to pay associated engineering and legal fees for certain projects. As of January 31, 2025, the Village’s balance sheet included seven developer deposit liability accounts with negative balances totaling $52,577, which indicates the Village did not receive sufficient funds from project developers to cover the associated expenditures.
The Clerk-Treasurer did not:
- Perform bank reconciliations in a timely manner and document the reconciliations for all bank accounts.
- Perform the closing of the monthly financial records in a timely manner, which caused a delay in the availability of monthly financial reports to the Board and department heads.
- File AFRs with the New York State (NYS) Office of the State Comptroller as required by General Municipal Law (GML) Section 30. As of September 22, 2025, the Clerk-Treasurer had not yet filed the AFRs for the 2022-23, 2023-24, or 2024-25 fiscal years.
The report includes 15 recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Village’s financial reporting. Village officials generally agreed with our recommendations, and their response is included in Appendix B.
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. A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report should be prepared and provided to our office within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of the New York State General Municipal Law. 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 in the Village Clerk’s office.