BOROUGH RECIEVES SPOTLESS AUDIT FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR

ANOTHER FISCAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE MILESTONE

 

Borough of Point Pleasant – According to Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci Jr., “Every year, each municipality in the State of New Jersey must undergo an annual audit of managerial practices, internal controls and financials for the previous year ending of December 31st.  Each audit is conducted in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and the standards applicable to financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States and in compliance with audit requirements prescribed by the Division of Local Government Services of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.  Each audit involves a number of different items including procedures to obtain evidence about the amounts and disclosures in financial statements to detect fraud or error, an evaluation of internal controls, managerial practices and evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used by management.”  The Borough’s Auditor Holman, Frenia and Allison, P.C. presented their findings to the Governing Body which accepted the report at the August 26th Council Meeting.

According to Mayor Sabosik, “4 1/2 years ago I became Mayor and along with this Borough Council, we hired a new management team and set out to right our ship and fix our Borough’s financials.  You see, without proper financials, you can’t improve the Borough.  We needed to get it right in order to rebuild our parks, repave our roads, increase public safety and make sure our residents were able to receive the service they expect from their municipality.”  Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci Jr. echoed those statements by saying that “In years past, the Borough’s annual audits contained anywhere from 10 to 20 comments each year.  When an issue rises to the status of a comment in an audit, it is something the auditors feel is necessary to bring up as it can have serious financial and legal impacts on a municipality.  Often times, those comments were prevalent year after year never being rectified.  Since Mayor Sabosik and this incarnation of the Borough Council and Administration have been here, each year we have had less and less comments and for 2017, we had zero.  Now in 2018, for the second year in a row, we have zero once again.  This is because of a true team effort between management including our CFO Himanshu Shah, the Mayor’s Office and the Borough Council with Councilman John Wisniewski as chair of our Finance Committee.”

Councilman Joe Furmato couldn’t be more thrilled.  According to Councilman Furmato, “In the last 4 1/2 years, we went from almost having our bond rating downgraded to having it instead increased for the first time in modern history and then having it increased a second time this year, saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.  What this does is allow the Borough to make capital improvements like fixing our water & sewer infrastructure, drainage systems, build new parks and pave a record number of roads.  We were never able to accomplish these goals before but now that our financials are in proper order, the Borough is able to.”

According to Councilman John Wisniewski who chairs the Council Finance Committee, “It’s taken a lot of work to get to where we are now.  We finally have a complete team in place where things are getting accomplished.  Our financials are solid, our tax rate has stabilized, our bond rating increased twice and this most recent audit is proof of everything good that has been accomplished over the last few years.  There’s a lot of work that goes into running a municipality that the average resident doesn’t see and I’m proud of the employees and fellow Council Members for helping us get to this point.  Two straight years with zero comments or recommendations in an audit is no small feat and I’m proud to be a part of this team.”

According to Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci Jr., “Another reason we’ve come so far is because of Mayor Sabosik, Councilman Furmato and Councilman Wisniewski.  They’ve demanded greater accountability throughout the Borough and in doing so, our budgets have been adopted on time or early when in years past they didn’t happen until well after the statutory deadlines.  They are conscious of spending tax dollars wisely, holding professionals accountable including contractors doing work for the Borough, look to save money wherever possible all while making visible and viable improvements to how our local government operates.  We have a great Mayor, a great Council and a top notch financial team.”