Zionsville Mayor John Stehr is confident that the town is well on its way to restoring its credit rating.
Stehr told the Zionsville Town Council July 15 that he attended a meeting at the Indiana Statehouse recently with members of the State Board of Accounts to discuss Zionsville’s status and efforts to reclaim the AA+ credit rating that the town lost in 2022.
An audit by the state in 2022 of the 2021 calendar year found several areas of noncompliance with state law, including:
- A lack of proper internal controls that led to bank reconcilements not being completed on time or accurately.
- $205,585 in disbursements were made from the Town Hall Improvement fund for a town hall renovation project without council approval.
- Overdrawn cash balances in three funds; several claims lacked supporting documentation and proper approval.
- $75,000 from the Motor Vehicle Highway fund, which are to be used primarily for road construction and maintenance, were used to pay for expenses related to a town hall renovation project.
- Monthly bank statements and other data were not uploaded to the Indiana Gateway for Government Units as required for 14 of 17 bank accounts between April and December 2021.
“It was a very positive meeting. We all recognize we still have some work to do to clean up our books,” Stehr said. “Part of that will be mandatory audits for 2022 and 2023. Our performance in 2022 will show some irregularities. Early 2023 will be the same, but the SBOA will work with us to get that process completed in a timely manner.”
Stehr said the irregularities are due to poorly performing software, which the town implemented in 2021 and blamed for those audit issues. He said the town switched to a new financial software vendor in 2023.
“With our new internal controls in place and strong fundamentals and the (new software), we expect everything to be in order for 2024 when that audit takes place next spring,” Stehr said. “That should get us on our way to hopefully reclaiming that credit rating, which I think we all know that we deserve in Zionsville.”
View Zionsville’s financial policies at zionsville-in.gov/760/Financial-Policies-Overview.
