06-10-1985 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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April 25, 1985 To the City Council City of Orono PANNELL KERR FORSTER Cerltlea Public Accounanls 410 Park National Bona Bldg 5353 Weyrata Boulevard Minnea col i MN 55116 Telednone 16121545-0121 The purpose of this letter is to communicate to you our general observations and comments of the City's financial position, accounting system, and interne. controls. Therefore, by its nature, it may be critical but meant nevertheless to be constructive. There are asi•ects of the City's procedures not included or rommented upon here that constitute strong features of the accounting and inter- nal control system. Publication Requirements The 1984 Minnesota Legislative Session enacted a Public Notice Reform Bill, which substantially altered all City publishing requirements, Included are new financial statement publication requirements under Minnesota Statutes 471.697 and 471.698. The City lover 2,501) pop.) must now publish a five -page prescribed format summary financial report by July 30, 19d5, in the City's oflical newspaper. Three of the required pages are in the City's audit report. We would be pleased to assist the City in compiling the remaining pages of the diiii sure statement. Liquor Store Inventory and operations - Graphic Information In our management letter to you last year, we made a few comments about your liquor store inventory. The first suggestion was to perform the phys- ical count of inventory at year-end rather than in March and September. This year the City counted inventory on January 1st. It may be incon- venient to the City's staff, however, we found the inventory much m:re accurate, and efficient to account for than in the previous year, In future years, the City might want to consider taking the inventory on the morning of the first working day of the new year. The amount of business on that morning 1s usually minimal, and therefore, could be worked arwnd quite easily, Several of our municipal liquor store clients remain closed until noon on the first Working day of the year r, allow enough time to count at lust the stock on the sale. fluor. Deliveries are then segre- gated and restocking shelves is halted until the reml .-ring cvunts car Le taken. The second comment made regarding inventory last year leritain,d to I vee- tory levels. Inventory has been reduced slightly over the previous year. We believe it IS still higher than it needs to be, espec.ally with declining sale. Chat the tore 10 experiencing. We have IncloA 1 tw, graphs which allow inventory and operation trends am relationshils. "a industry averages are from Rcbert Morns Associates amoral %tataent stu- dios for retell liquor store.,