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The Fiscal Year 2025 Hamblen County Audit was discussed during committee meetings Monday afternoon.

“Our audit resulted in one finding and recommendation, which we have reviewed with Hamblen County management,” the comptroller’s office concluded.

The relatively minor finding was to the way the school system requested a brand-specific vehicle in a bid request, which is against procedure.

“It must be a generic truck,” Budget Director Amanda Hale said.

In response, the system added a line on its bid-checking reflecting this. A corrected copy of the systems’ action plan was included in the audit.

“By adding this, the system will avoid this finding again,” Hale said.

In going over the audit’s findings, Hale said that net revenues were up around $1.5 million.

The General Fund balance grew from around $16 million to $17.5 million. The county collected roughly $1 million in additional funds from local taxes compared from FY 2024, plus a $500,000 increase from other fines, fees and local revenue.

Expenses increased by $2.8 million compared to FY 24, Hale said.

“During that budget year, we hired three additional School Resource Officers that are completely funded by the county,” Hale said. “We (also) hired additional jail staff with the anticipation of the (new Justice Center) opening. With the additional staffing and SROs, that attributed quite a bit to the expense.”

Inmate medical costs were up a quarter of a million dollars, Hale said.

The budget that was presented in FY24-25 estimated that Hamblen County would use $4 million in fund balance to balance the budget.

However, due to increases in revenue and the delay in opening of the Justice Center and the new Hamblen County Health Department, the fund balance grew by $1.5 million.

“This goes back to our very conservative approach of estimating revenues low and expenses high in anticipation of unforeseen things,” Hale said.

Unassigned fund balances, which is money not committed or restricted for other uses, grew to $15.5 million.

Expenses for FY24-25 were around $29.5 million, a ratio of 53%.

Hale said that the county likes to keep that ratio around 20% to 25%.

She said that Hamblen County has a strong “liquidity position.” Hale also said that the county wants to keep two months of operating expenses on hand to keep a conservative financial strategy.

The Solid Waste Fund had been around $400,000 in FY 24-25. Total expenses were $4 million, including $1 million in disposal fees.

A new brush truck was purchased in FY 24-25, plus there were $200K in repair costs.

Fund balance is a percentage of expenses with the Sanitation Fund being 57%, well exceeding the debt ratio of 20 to 25%.

The Highway Fund grew fund balance by $850,000, to roughly $1.5 million, according to Hale.

“The majority of the highway funds revenue comes from gasoline and motor fuel taxes,” she said. “That was about $2.4 million in FY 24-25. The ratio of expenses is about 62%.”

General Debt Service Fund increased by about $1 million from the previous year, according to Hale.

“We paid about $10 million in principal and interest payments and brought in $11 million in revenue, whether it be from property taxes or investment income,” Hale said. “The General Debt Service Fund is the debt for the county and the school system.

“We have separated the landfills debt into a special debt service fund.”

There was no finding on any federally-awarded grants. Finally, there is a recommendation for Hamblen County to adopt a centralized accounting and budgeting purchasing system.

“The schools’ budget is part of ours, but it is still separate,” Hale said. “They are just recommending we put it all under one.”

When asked if the county has a centralized budgeting/purchasing system, Hale said that the county does not currently has it.

“Even though we report all of the county’s funds and the schools’ funds in one budget, it is not centralized,” Hale said. “The school system has their own finance department, they have their own financial software, they prepare their own budget.

“That’s different than some counties.”

Hale explained that some counties have their school finance department and county finance department in one office.

Hale expressed appreciation to the audit team, East Tennessee Audit Managers, for their work on the audit.

Hamblen County Commission Chairman Bobby Haun commended the budget office and the auditors on their work, calling the audit a “clearing audit.”

“Everything seemed to look good,” Haun said.