MADERA – Madera County Auditor-Controller Todd Miller announced to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that Certified Audited financial statements for all Madera County Special Districts have been completed.
“After a year of hard work by the staff of the Auditor-Controllers office, I am pleased to deliver the completed audits of 125 Special Districts,” Miller told the Board.
“Upon assuming this office I was surprised to learn that we had not – don’t know if we had ever done – these audits. It is impossible for the Board to make informed and rational decisions without them. That era is over.”
Miller acknowledged the hard work of his staff in completing this huge project, in addition to getting the County’s financial statements done on time, and thanked the Board and the Chief Administrative Officer for seeing the need and providing the resources to get the job done.
Some members of the Auditor-Controller’s Office staff who worked on the audits
Special Districts include Road Maintenance Districts, Water Systems and Lighting Districts owned by the residents and managed by the County, each of which has a unique set of financial protocol.
The County of Madera has one of the largest number of Special Districts in the state.
“Although state mandated, the audits of our Special Districts have not been performed for many years, if ever,” Miller told the Board.
“Without reliable financial information, the residents within these Districts, the County employees who work for those Districts and you, the Board of Supervisors, who have a duty to manage Special Districts, have been handicapped in their ability to provide the best services to our Special Districts.”
District 1 Supervisor Brett Frazier told Miller this was the “best Christmas present ever.”
“We go through the year and look at the budgets and don’t know how much money we have coming in,” he said. “We have to kind of guess, and without proper information, we can’t make informed decisions.”
District 2 Supervisor David Rogers credited Miller with the major progress the County has made in getting their financial house in order.
“The people of Madera County need to know that this team has achieved amazing things,” said Rogers. “When I came to the Board in 2011 we were $12 million in debt; we no longer have that debt. We achieved an A-plus rating a couple years ago from Standard and Poor’s. We’d never had a rating, we were so bad off. Now we have a Double A rating, and our financial house is in order.”
The Auditor-Controller is elected by the voters in Madera County and serves a four year term. Miller was elected in 2014.
Miller says the Special Districts financial statements are available on the County’s website. Click here.
