By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
Plante Moran, Orion Township’s financial consultants, granted the township an unmodified opinion – or clean audit – for all financial transactions in 2015.
The one material weakness consultant Stacey Reeves and her team identified was the township’s check handling policy.
She noted that at least one of the checks was able to be taken from the treasurer’s office and returned, and recommended the township should enhance those securities.
Supervisor Chris Barnett said from now on the availability of those checks must be restricted to Treasurer Mark Thurber and his staff, and that Thurber must enact new security measures to prevent fraud.
Other than that, the township more or less got an “A” on their annual audit.
Reeves noted that the township’s revenues and expenditures have remained consistent over the past three years apart from a $2.2 million jump between 2013 and 2014 due to the two voter approved fire millages.
In 2014 those funds were transferred to the capital fund to fund the new Fire Station 2 on Giddings Rd., costing $1.9 million, and pay for the 12 firefighters that were promoted to full time status.
The township ended the 2015 fiscal year with approximately $6.4 million in the general fund. Revenues totaled about $15.2 million in 2015, and expenditures about $14.7 million.
Reeves indicated that the primary source of revenue for the township’s general fund was state shared revenue, which could decrease in the future she said. About 40 percent of the general fund is state funding, or $2.6 million, 23 percent is from licenses and permits, for $1.5 million, 20 percent is property taxes for $1.3 million, and 16 percent is ‘other,’ or $1 million.
Reeves also made other modest recommendations, including “being strategic in the planning decisions going forward” considering the slight increases to the general fund.
“Keep an eye on the police fund balance” which grew slightly in 2015; and “focus on holding legacy and healthcare costs and other employee benefits down to keep going forward,” she said.