BonnerSprings.com

The city of Edwardsville’s audit had some bad news but it could have been worse. That’s because the city’s negative cash balance for last year was reduced from the 2006 amount, City Administrator Michael Webb told the Edwardsville City Council at its Monday meeting.

After tabling discussion during a previous meeting, the council again took up the city’s audit report for the year ending Dec. 31, 2007, and eventually accepted and approved the results, 4-0, with council member Patrick Isenhour absent.

Webb presented a summary of the audit report’s main points, and said that for 2007 Edwardsville had a $99,515 negative cash balance in the general fund. While he said that any negative amount was unacceptable, he pointed out that the ending cash balance in 2006 was $233,907.

“We still ended up in the negative, but we did make significant improvements,” he said, adding that the number should continue to fall in 2008.

Another issue Webb pointed out was the fact that in 2007, the property taxes were overestimated by $233,524 as were the overall cash receipts, which were overestimated by $213,938.

For some of the concerns pointed out in the audit, Webb said the city has already taken action to correct.

On the issue of adding more segregation of duties to city staff, Webb said it was difficult because the staff was so small, but steps had been made. A staff member other than the treasurer now prepares the daily bank deposits and a cash-receipt system has been installed this year.

Overall, Webb said the audit accurately depicted the city’s financial status in 2007 and that he and his staff would continue to work to improve on the issues that were brought to their attention.

In other business, the Council:

• Approved, 4-0, minutes from the Oct. 27 meeting.

• Approved, 4-0, minutes from the Oct. 30 special meeting with Bonner Springs and Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., officials.

• Approved, 4-0, the payment of bills totaling $89,439.04.

• Listened to a proclamation by Rodgers, declaring Nov. 23-Nov. 30, 2008 Bible Week.

• Confirmed, 4-0, the mayoral appointment of Richard S. Wetzler as municipal judge.

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