Kennesaw receives clean audit report

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L-r City clerk Lea Addington, Mayor Derek Easterling and City Attorney Randall Bentley conduct the meeting from City Hall, as council members join them via Zoom.L-r City clerk Lea Addington, Mayor Derek Easterling and City Attorney Randall Bentley conduct the meeting from City Hall, as council members join them via Zoom.

Posted By: Rebecca Gaunt May 19, 2020

Everything is as it should be in Kennesaw, according to the annual audit report delivered Monday night.

Adam Fraley, a partner at Mauldin & Jenkins, gave a clean opinion after reviewing documentation for the 2019 fiscal year provided by the city’s financial department. According to Fraley, Kennesaw goes above and beyond Georgia’s legal requirements by providing a comprehensive annual financial report.

Screenshot of Adam Fraley from the Kennesaw City Council zoom meeting

“The revenues have exceeded expenditures over the last five years,” Fraley said of the general fund, which is the primary operating fund for the city.

The report did include one recommendation for improvement in IT cybersecurity, noting that the city is utilizing an IT framework in evaluating its cybersecurity risk management but recommending adding a monitoring component as “new IT risks can emerge, controls and other mitigations can lose effectiveness, and new procedures can be deployed to address changing risk.”

In other business:

  • Council approved the postponement of Kennesaw’s annual Fourth of July celebration from July 3 to Sep. 12 due to COVID-19 concerns. The Salute to America event committee considered a fireworks only event to take place in July, but the loss of vendor fees, table reservation fees, and sponsorships for the full event could cost the city as much as $25,000, according to a letter it provided to the council.
  • The city will start the right-of-way abandonment process for Burrell Court and part of Keene Street. This is in accordance with a development agreement with Core Property Capital, which is ready to begin the earthwork and grading phase of the project.
  • Council approved a list of projects for the 2022 SPLOST, which will go before voters in November of 2020. It includes completion of the Depot Park project and a new public safety facility. The total estimated SPLOST budget is $34.5 million with an additional $3 million from Cobb County.
  • Though City Hall has reopened, meetings are still being conducted via Zoom and being streamed on the city’s Facebook page Mondays at 6:30 p.m. Citizens can offer public comment on agenda items and any other topics by emailing kennesawcouncil@kennesaw-ga.gov no later than 6:00 p.m. the night of the regular meeting.