In an April 9 meeting, Weaver and Tidwell Partner Adam McCane informed the court that his team did not find any issues with the county’s finances for fiscal year 2018. Weaver and Tidwell is the independent auditing consulting firm that conducted the yearly review and has been doing so for nine years.
“This was a clean report,” McCane said. “We didn’t have any issues, and we really appreciate the hard work on the part of the auditor’s office. We feel like we get a very high level of transparency, and a quick response allows us to really audit financial statements and not have to spend time fighting to get information or cleaning out the books.”
In the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and the Popular Annual Financial Report, all county financial records for the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, are reviewed for accuracy and transparency. This review includes a look into all invoices, payment requests, payroll and contracts, among other financial statements.
Over FY 2018, Williamson County brought in $426.5 million, with nearly 64% coming from taxes, according to the PAFR. The largest expenditure was for public safety at 31% followed by transportation at 22%.
“What we do here in Williamson County is really complicated because we have a lot of different accounts to manage; we have a lot of activity happening,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said. “[McCane] comes and spends a few minutes with us and says it’s a clean report. ... It sounds really easy, but the folks that work upstairs are doing an awesome job to keep us on track.”
The auditing process starts in July—when the firm begins looking into how departments report their finances—and is completed the following April when the information is made public.
Williamson County has previously won awards for its internal auditing and accounting. The county was awarded both the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting and the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting in 2017 by the Government Finance Officers Association.
The CAFR report can be found here, and the PAFR report can be found here. Hard copies are held at public libraries throughout the county and in county commissioners offices as well as local elected officials offices for public viewing, said Julie Kiley, first assistant auditor for Williamson County.
In other business:
- The court appointed certified professional engineer J. Terron Evertson, CFM, DR, as an alternate representative for Williamson County on the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization's Technical Advisory Committee.
- The court threw its support behind House Bill 510 in the 86th Texas legislative session. The bill would allow for the enforcement of certain rules in county parks, playgrounds, historical museums and historic or prehistoric sites, and it would make a violation a Class C misdemeanor, said Randy Bell, senior director of the Williamson County Parks and Recreation Department.
