News Flash

City of Durango News Flash

Posted on: August 3, 2023

The city's comprehensive financial report for 2022 is now available

Durango, CO: All right all you policy wonks: The city’s annual comprehensive financial report for 2022 is now available on the city’s website for you to dig through and see what’s what when it comes to how the city spent your tax dollars, and specifically, whether it was done appropriately.

Short answer: Absolutely, yes. “This is a clean, unmodified opinion, and this is the best opinion that you can get,” Paul Kane told councilors at the July 18 study session. Kane is the audit partner with Eide Bailey, the independent auditor that reviewed the 2022 data. “Any other CPA firm looking at these numbers should come up with the same opinion.”

Mayor Melissa Youssef thanked the auditors and staff at the study session. “No material findings from our auditors is truly a significant milestone and a tribute to the hard work, dedication and transparent governance that we’ve upheld,” she said. Eide Bailey’s commitment to excellence “holds us to the highest standards of accountability,” said Youssef.

Highlights of the audit:

The city’s total assets increased from $448 million to $469 million.
Total liabilities decreased from $81 million to $76 million, primarily related to paying down long-term debt.
The net position of the city government – the balance sheet for the city – increased from $364 million to $389 million. Investment in capital assets is 70% of the net position, said Kane.
Total revenues increased from $89 million to $103 million. The most significant increases were sales taxes ($2 million higher in 2022 versus 2021), lodgers’ tax ($2 million) and airport income ($7 million), he said.
Total expenses also increased, by $3.8 million, primarily from general government expenses and Parks and Recreation, but the increase was offset by decreases in other departments, mainly public safety and public works.

While the city would like to think it was a perfect audit, in all fairness there was one issue noted by the auditors, related to a grant given to the city under the Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Program. “Too much revenue was recognized on that program so there was an adjustment to get deferred revenue stated properly which was cash received by the federal government less cash spent. The rest should be deferred to a future year,” said Kane. The city has taken the appropriate corrective action to ensure appropriate compliance moving forward.

Eide Bailey has been auditing the city for years. “I’ve been doing the audit since 2019 so this shows the growth in your net position,” Kane told councilors. “It’s going in the right direction.”

Councilors were supportive of the work done by the city’s Finance Department. “This is a testament to you and your team in the back,” councilor Dave Woodruff told Devon Schmidt, the city’s acting chief financial officer. “What a great job to not only get it done but to get it done on time.”

Councilor Gilda Yazzie said she was “really impressed” with the audit. “Thank you Devon for getting us back on track because when I was a civilian not on city council I was worried about when we had discrepancies in the financial plan here at the city,” said Yazzie. “Going through a large audit like this and doing all the checking and rechecking and documentation, and you don’t know what they’re going to look at, and then only coming up with one material finding, I think that’s outstanding.”

For more information on the 2022 audited financial reports go to the city’s budget webpage.

To receive updated news from the city, sign up at Notify Me and select "City of Durango News Flash"