Sumpter Township gets clean audit for year ending March 31, 2021

Auditor Rana Emmons presented the annual financial audit for Sumpter Township and told the board at its Sept. 28 meeting that it was rated the highest, with an unmodified opinion, which is called a “clean audit.”
She said the annual audit was for the year ending March 31, 2021.
Emmons is with PSLZ LLP (Post Smythe, Lutz & Ziel.
She said the property tax income was up 2% and it was up 3% the previous year. The state shared revenue was flat for the year, she said. The interest income was not great, with $20,000 less to the township in earned interest.
The building permits were at $140,000, which she called a good amount.
She said $420,000 was added to the fund balance. The major capital assets purchases were a fire truck for about $300,000 and two police vehicles.
The water and sewer fund had a $278,000 loss until the transfer from the general fund. It had net income of $101,000, she said, with $153,000 positive cashflow to the water fund.
Emmons said water sales were up 5% and the revenue increased 6%. She said everyone was home for COVID and they were using water.
She said the township paid a half million dollars in water and sewer bonds, with no new bonding. She said $3.9 million remains on outstanding debt.
She said the township has net pension liability of $1.9 million. She said the state is changing the actuarial assumption so the township’s liabilities actually went up.
Emmons said with the $440,000 extra paid into the pension plan this year, it moved the township into being 84% funded.
She said she saw on that night’s agenda a proposal to pay a lump sum pension contribution, instead of spreading it out. She said that will keep the township in the 80% range.
Trustee Tim Rush asked Emmons to talk about the township’s pension liabilities and how far ahead it is over other communities. He said the township always had a stellar bond rating and maybe it’s up now.
Emmons said its hard for communities to get to 70%. She said in the 2008-12 downturn in the economy, communities dropped to 50% funded. Not every community had the money to throw at it, she said.
“You’ve been doing it in a monthly basis,” she said. “A couple of years ago, you were in the 70s, now 84… It’s a marathon, not a sprint here… You really move the needle quicker with large donations.”
Rush pushed her to talk about the bond rating.
Emmons said the township has an A- bond rating now and it won’t be re-rated unless the township goes for another bond.
“A lot of communities in the area would kill to have our bond rating,” Rush said.
Trustee Matt Oddy asked if she saw no inappropriate blending of federal funds with township funds?
Emmons said no she didn’t and she has a whole list of questions she has to answer on this issue. She said she is not aware of any discrepancies.
Trustee Oddy referred to a letter to the editor of the Belleville Independent that accused this. He said this is the third year there have been such letters, with one saying the township is broke.
He said it is full of lies and misinformation and people don’t know what to believe. He said the letter said the federal funds have been misused and the township has yet to receive the $1 million.
Oddy said this a regular happening in the township and local businesses get hurt. New businesses ask themselves why locate in Sumpter? He said the writers of those letters have a common thread, yet they continue to be published.
He asked if there is something the township can do through its attorney. He said there is no truth to what is being said.
Attorney Rob Young said that “hypocrisy and clap-trap garbage is printed in the paper …lies … maybe, let Republic have its presentation and then come back to this … It’s reached a point of absolute, abject sickness.”
After the audit information was complete, Republic Services gave its long presentation on deep wells.