City earns clean bill of health via audit

At the Monday, Dec. 1, Tecumseh City Council meeting, council members heard two presentations, one on the 2014 Fiscal Year Audit and another from the treasurer, Leisa Still. With the audit, Tecumseh received its 17th consecutive Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2014.“This is quite remarkable,” said Mark Kettner, Principal-in-Charge of Governmental Audit, Assurance and Outsourcing Group for Rehmann, which completed the audit. “It is a great indication of the board and management and staff that are very concerned and interested in doing things right.“I think you’ve done a very good job compared to many of your neighbors in terms of looking at that and saying this is a benefit that we really can’t support and sustain it and you’ve taken action to change that — not an easy thing to do,” Kettner added about the city’s unfunded liabilities.According to Kettner, out of the city’s $5-million-plus budget, the fund balance was close to breaking even. The city budgeted $178,214 in appropriations, but actually spent $136,218. The Treasurer’s Report laid out numerous upgrades and improvements that have been made since Still filled the position in June 2012. In June 2013, the city upgraded all of its accounting software to BS&A Financial Suite, which allows department heads to access their financial information in real time. Looking ahead, the report noted that the BS&A Cemetery Management program will be added in January 2015. “The major accomplishments, and most of them are technology related, were for better productivity and to give the taxpayers more options,” Still said. Online, the city upgraded from Internet Services to Accessmygov to contain tax and assessing information. In Still’s report, she noted, “The new site is much more user friendly and has more information available for the public and saves time on phone calls.”The report also noted the change from United Bank & Trust (UB&T), after being a customer for over 50 years, to Old National was not easy, noting, “Old National does not operate the same as United Bank & Trust and unfortunately we do not have some of the same benefits we enjoyed with UB&T since the merger. City staff has spent a lot of time with this move since most of our account numbers changed. We are moving along with Old National, but it is certainly different.”Going forward, the report mentioned future goals and objectives, which included continuing to cross-train employees, looking for investing opportunities that can provide Tecumseh with more earnings, but at the same time protecting taxpayer’s money and continuing upgrading software and hardware to ensure better productivity.