Albany City Council held its final meeting of 2018–a special call meeting–last Wednesday afternoon, December 12 with all council members present.

The only item of business on the agenda was a complete review of the 2017-18 audit report given by CPA Sammy Lee.

Overall, there was a “clean” opinion over all financial statements. Lee noted there were some good numbers for the city and it continued to have a strong cash flow.

However, in some areas, he warned the city, primarily in the water department, “was just breaking even” at this point.

The city has total assets of $27,606,251, according to the audit, with current liabilities at $931,391, with a net equity of $20,764,025.

The primary problem areas in the report were in the water department, where collections of bills were lacking.

Lee noted that collections were taking up to 65 days when it should be taking only around 30 days to keep the water revenues stable.

Although he said the water department’s revenue was stable, it “could be better” is collections were made on time. “Overall we are okay if we can improve on (water) collections.”

Another “recurring” problem for not only Albany, but all municipalities in the state, is the retirement system and health insurance crisis which the state adds as “owed” by each city.

Lee has noted previously this situation is troublesome to all cities who are in the state retirement system and offer employee health insurance benefits due to the state’s shortage in funding for those programs.

There were no major concerns or shortfalls in revenues listed in the city audit for the past audit year.