By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Dunn County and the county’s auditors, Clifton Larson Allen LLP, are auditing the financial activity at the county’s highway department.
Paul Miller, county manager, informed the Committee on Administration at the October 28 meeting that the audit would be taking place.
“This follows from recent allegations that were investigated, some of which were corroborated,” he said.
“The corroboration put an onus on us to exercise our due diligence to assure that our finances at the highway department are in good order as a way of assuring the taxpayers and the state, from which we get a lot of money, and by extension, the federal government, that we are following good practices,” Miller said.
Miller told the Committee on Administration that he had no details to share about the investigation or the audit.
“When we get farther along, we will have more to say to the committee,” he said.
Miller announced at the October 13 Dunn County Board meeting that John Sworski, highway commissioner, was resigning because he had an opportunity to return to the private sector.
A new highway commissioner will be appointed by the Dunn County Board.
Audit report
According to the audit report the Dunn County Board received at the July 28 meeting, the highway department had a deficit of $4.1 million in the unrestricted fund balance in 2020.
The county loaned the highway department $4 million from the general fund in 2020 to pay for highway operations, said April Anderson of Clifton Larson Allen LLP, at the July 28 meeting.
In 2019, the highway department had a negative unrestricted fund balance of $1.6 million, according to the audit report.
In 2018, the highway department had a positive balance in the unrestricted fund of $1.98 million.
In 2017, the highway department had a positive balance in the unrestricted fund of $3.96 million.
The highway department’s expenditures exceeded the revenue in both 2020 and in 2019, Anderson said at the July 28 meeting.
The current ratio of assets to current liabilities for the highway department is .17. The desired ratio is 1, she said.
In 2019, the highway department had ratio of .27 of assets to liabilities. In 2018, the ratio was 4.43, and in 2017, it was 4.45, according to the audit report.
Anderson said she would like to see the ratio increase to 1 for the highway department.
2022 budget
The adopted budget in 2021 for the highway department was $11.3 million.
The proposed budget for 2022 is $14.9 million.
When the county board reviewed the budget requests for 2022 at the July 28 meeting, there was a deficit of $4.9 million in the nearly $91 million dollar proposed budget.
Using $3.2 million in American Recovery Plan Act funds for county road work helped reduce the deficit, along with a variety of other reductions, including delaying two scheduled facilities projects for $235,000, delaying the highway department roofing project for $700,000, and removing the funding for a vacant mechanic/welder position at the highway department for $88,000 and increasing the amount of general fund applied to the budget by nearly $200,000.
