The May Minden City Council meeting took place on Monday evening, where the council saw the presentation of the annual audit, approved commission positions and police department hires, and recognized the accomplishments of the local cheer team, Team Power, for their performance at the National Cheerleaders Association Championship.
One of the first items on the agenda was an audit presentation for the 2022/2023 fiscal year by Allen, Green & Williamson, LLP. This is a regularly scheduled annual audit that serves to ensure the City of Minden is following proper procedure when it comes to their finances. Tim Green, CPA Partner, was quick to let the council know that the city received the best opinion possible in regards to the audit.
“You have an unmodified opinion which is the best opinion you can have. It basically says there’s no adjustments that we’re aware of that need to be made to the financial statements for you to rely on,” said Green. “That’s the best opinion you get, so you did receive that opinion from us in that regard.”
While the city received a favorable audit, there is always room for improvement, and Jennie Henry, CPA Audit Manager, highlighted a few key areas where the city could improve its financial reporting.
Last year there were five findings, and the city successfully addressed two of them, leaving three issues that rolled over. Two of those were combined into one, leaving two areas for the city to improve in.
The first had to do with controls over financial reporting. Some bank reconciliations for smaller accounts in the city were performed annually instead of monthly, a change the firm would like to see be made.
“This has to do with financial reporting in a lot of different fields. It has improved greatly, but it did not improve enough to be considered solved or completed,” said Henry. “There were some bank reconciliations that were not performed monthly. They were performed at the end of the year. This had to do with some of the small accounts, it had to do with the police department.”
In regards to the police department, the STEP program they had launched in recent years has seen great success as a vehicle to generate revenue for the city. So successful in fact that the program generates so much money, it requires its own proper budget.
“According to state budget law, if you have revenue over $500,000, then you have to have a budget for that fund. In the past, the revenue wasn’t over that point, but this year it was substantially over. This year as we saw it was over $750,000. So this year and proceeding will need to have a budget for the STEP program,” said Henry.
Another note Henry gave was that of city employees and what computer system access is available to them, noting that some had access to systems outside of their respective fields.
“We look at the computer system access. Who has access to what different systems in the computer. Three employees had access to things that we didn’t think fit into their job duties,” said Henry.
Later in the meeting some positions within the city were filled, specifically those of a seat on the Minden Main Street Program/Downtown Development Commission and Minden Police Department new hire. It was recommended that the city council appoint Claudine Thomas to fill an unexpired term on the Downtown Development Commission, with the new term set to expire in September of 2025.
Zane Crittenden was recommended by Police Chief Jared McIver to be hired as a full-time police officer. “The good thing with Zane is he’s already trained. He’s a POST certified officer. He’s been working in Dixie Inn and is moving over here to represent the city now for the police department. He’s passed all tests that have been required of him and I think he’ll be a good asset to the department,” said Chief McIver.
The council also unanimously passed a motion to adopt an ordinance establishing “no thru truck traffic” signs and penalties for violations thereof. “It’s been requested by several citizens that live on Country Club that children are often jumping out of the road because of eighteen wheelers. Also the condition of that road, the city spent a lot of funds redoing it, and the citizens through that area would like to see it be maintained, and we know the best way to do that is to keep heavy truck traffic off of there,” said Mayor Cox.
At the end of the meeting the mayor also read a proclamation recognizing the achievements of Team Power from Gym 4:13 for defending the championship title at the recent National Cheerleaders Association Championship.
“Whereas Gym 4:13 was honored during their 7th cheer season as members of Team Power defended their title of divisional, national all star champions during the 2024 National Cheerleaders Association Competition held on March 1 2024… we’d like to formally recognize Team Power of Gym 4:13 on this extraordinary performance as this team demonstrates the incredible skills, discipline, and sportsmanship at the National Cheerleaders Association Championship,” said Mayor Cox.
The Minden City Council meeting takes place on the first Monday of each month, starting at 6 PM at the Minden Civic Center. The meetings are open for the public to attend, and for those who wish to view the meeting live or after the fact, it is live streamed on the City of Minden’s Facebook page and YouTube channel titled City of Minden – Feels Like Home.