Cal Markert applauded vigorously when auditors declared that Jefferson County will not have to deal with federal funds doled out because of the pandemic much longer.

“It is a lot of responsibility and requirements and took a lot of man-hours to make sure we do it right,” the county manager said. “We’ve still got some more to go and are still trying to do it right. We may make mistakes but I’m glad we got the bulk of it expended in a quality manner.

“That was a responsibility we weren’t built for but we had to get geared up and do it,” Markert said, looking to no longer having that responsibility. “It’ll free up some man-hours to do some other things now.”

Carol Phillips and Jennifer Williams of Warren Averett CPAs and Advisors presented a pair of audit reports – the uniform guidance audit report for Jefferson County for the year that ended Sept. 30, 2024, and the Community Development Block Grant report.

The auditors issued an unmodified, or clean, opinion, on the scheduled expenditures of federal awards. They also issued an unmodified opinion on compliance for major programs – CDBG, Emergency Rental Assistance Program and the COVID-19 state and local fiscal recovery funds.

“We did not have any exceptions or findings this year, which is excellent, another year of no findings,” Williams said. “Again, kudos to the entire team for all of the hard work that is done.”

The auditors acknowledged that compliance attributes the federal guidance requires are “very picky (and) very, very specific.

“It takes a lot of effort to make sure that you are reading all of those regulations and complying with them,” Williams said. “It’s not a small task to keep up with the federal government, especially in these days when things are changing so rapidly. I know that’s been on everyone’s mind lately but everything was in good shape.”

Phillips echoed Williams compliment of the county’s finances.

“As Jennifer mentioned, the bar is really low on reporting findings and the rules are very picky,” she said. “We, for the most part, almost always have findings. (Not having findings) is a huge accomplishment and y’all need to recognize your team.”

Said Williams: “It is a big undertaking by Angela (Dixon, the chief financial officer), and her entire team. They do an excellent job in getting us everything that we need for that compliance audit. We found that the schedule was prepared correctly and accurately and no difficulties were encountered in the audit or disagreements with management.”

Total expenditures were about $63 million in fiscal 2024, compared to $48 million the prior year. The increase was attributed to the county spending down Treasury relief funds that were provided to deal with challenges brought on by the pandemic.

“That will start to tail off in the next year or a year and a half,” Williams said.

Dixon, the chief financial officer, attributed the clean audit to her “dream team” of directors Rosemary Courington and Malinda Parker, principal accountant Joy Mitchell and chief accountant Natasha Kathiany.