PORT ALLEN — The City of Port Allen received a clean financial audit for fiscal year 2025, a sharp reversal from the prior year when auditors flagged four material weaknesses and three compliance violations.

"Last year we got together and said we can't have this happen again," a representative from Ericksen Krentel told the City Council at its December 10 meeting, thanking Mayor Terecita Pattan and staff for their collaboration.

What went wrong

The fiscal year 2024 audit, released in March 2025, painted a troubled picture of the city's financial controls.

Auditors found that significant accounts went unreconciled throughout the year, with staff waiting until audit preparation to reconcile subsidiary ledgers to the general ledger. The result: numerous adjustments discovered after year-end, meaning the financial information city leaders used to manage operations was incomplete.

The utility billing system posed particular problems. The city could not produce a complete listing of utility accounts receivable as of year-end. There was no evidence of timely reconciliation, no monitoring of delinquent accounts, and no adherence to the city's own cutoff policy. The auditor noted "a lack of adequate understanding of the utility billing system and transactions."

In payroll, at least one employee was paid without receiving approved time and leave records — increasing the risk of unauthorized payments.

The city also absorbed rising garbage collection costs without adjusting customer rates, depleting resources that could have funded other services.

Beyond internal controls, the city violated state law three times: exceeding its Low-Income Housing Fund budget by more than 5% without amendment, missing the state's six-month audit filing deadline, and failing to post meeting minutes from May through October 2024 on the city website within the timeframe required by the Open Meetings Law.

The account reconciliation and budget amendment issues were repeat findings from fiscal year 2023.

The turnaround

Finance Director Adrian Daigle led the correction effort, providing monthly reports to the council on progress toward resolving each finding.

The city's corrective action plan, submitted with the FY2024 audit, committed to monthly reconciliations with backup personnel, aggressive collection of delinquent utility accounts, biweekly timesheets signed by supervisors, and quarterly monitoring by the CFO with mayoral sign-off.

The fiscal year 2025 audit shows those efforts paid off. The city's net position increased by more than $1.5 million, with the General Fund balance growing by nearly $1.4 million. Port Allen now holds an unassigned General Fund balance of $9.1 million — equivalent to 156% of total General Fund expenditures, or roughly 18 months of operating reserves.

One issue remains

The audit identified one recurring finding: utility cutoff policies.

City ordinance requires disconnecting past-due customers after a specified number of days. But in practice, the city has allowed informal payment plans during hardships — a compassionate approach that technically violates its own rules.

The auditor recommended formalizing a written payment plan policy that would be consistently available to all customers. That would bring the city into compliance while preserving flexibility for residents facing financial difficulties.

The question is whether the informal system has been applied evenly. Without a formal policy, some residents may receive payment plans while others face disconnection for similar circumstances.

Federal oversight begins

The city also underwent its first single audit this year after expending more than $750,000 in federal awards through the low-income housing choice voucher program administered by Roberto Macedo and Associates. That portion came back clean, with the auditor noting the administrator "did a really good job."

The single audit requirement kicks in when an entity spends $750,000 or more in federal funds, subjecting Port Allen to additional federal compliance scrutiny going forward.

The audit is approximately 99% complete. The Legislative Auditor's office granted an extension for the single audit portion due to delayed federal guidelines caused by the government shutdown, though the auditor said the firm is working to meet the original December 31 deadline. The final audit will be presented for formal adoption at a future council meeting.