Medicine Lodge Receives Clean 2024 Audit

Pat Friess, a CPA with Kennedy McKee & Company LLP, presented the 2024 city audit to the Medicine Lodge City Council during the Nov. 17 meeting at city hall.

The audit firm provided a clean audit for the city. Friess said there were no new accounting policies implemented by the city in 2024.

“We noted no transactions entered into by the city that they didn’t have proper authoritative guidance and consensus and they were all in the correct period,” he said.

Friess said the information provided to the audit firm was “fairly” presented.

“No difficulties encountered while performing our audit dealing with management,” Friess said. “We did make a few adjustments.

“There were no disagreements with management as far as financial, accounting, reporting or auditing matters.”

Friess said the only finding the firm had was the small size of the office staff. He said the council needs to make sure it is approving all bills payable and reviewing the bank statements regularly.

“Other than that, everything looked pretty good,” he said. “Management’s responsible for the preparation and the presentation of the financial statement. Our job is to – our responsibility is to obtain reasonable assurance that all of the numbers are fairly stated. We do believe that we did obtain sufficient evidence to be able to express the opinion that we did.”

The city council voted unanimously, 4-0, to accept the 2024 audit, as well as to hire Kennedy McKee & Company LLP for another three years to provide their auditing services. 

Councilman Jason Taylor was not present, while Councilman John Hagood attended the meeting virtually.

The city will pay not more than $18,125 plus out-of-pocket costs, such as report reproduction, word processing, postage, travel, copies, telephone, etc, for 2025. That will increase to not more than $18,670 in 2026 and $19,230 in 2027.

Mayor Tom Lee originally asked if the matter could be tabled until more information could be gathered.

“The only thing I’m saying here is that sometimes we – city entities – can get locked into working with the same firm all the time,” he said. “We got burned big time with our insurance doing that kind of mindset. You remember that.”

City Clerk Kandi Williams said it has been difficult to find an auditing firm that will conduct a single audit, which is why the council originally went with Kennedy McKee & Company LLP.

Lee said the fees charged in the agreement letter do not reflect the cost of a single audit. Williams said that was correct. A single audit will be an additional expense for the city.

The clerk said the city looked at multiple firms, but went with KMC because of the ability to conduct a single audit.

Councilman Matt Forsyth said he had “been very happy with them.”

In other city news, the council unanimously approved an amended bonus pay structure for city employees ranging from 1.5 percent to 3 percent based on the individual employee. The council voted 4-0 to retain the services of City Attorney Hannah Molz. Molz will receive $2,000 per month starting in January 2026.

The council voted 4-0 to table a decision on a street sweeper for the second straight meeting. A representative from Agri Center gave the board a presentation, however, council members still wanted to see an actual unit in action. The representative said he would try to locate a unit in close proximity that the council could see and he would get back with them.

The council voted 3-1 in favor of reimbursing several city employees for their use of the local wellness center. Councilman Jon McDonald cast the lone no vote, but he did not offer his reason for voting against the measure.