2016 Accountability Audit Report "pR OFA.'•..
Office of the Washington State Auditor
Pat McCarthy
Accountability Audit Report
City of Spokane Valley
Spokane County
For the period January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016
Published December 14, 201717641.
Report No. 1020340 0, I .
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Office of the Washington State Auditor
Pat McCarthy
December 14, 2017
Mayor and City Council
City of Spokane Valley
Spokane Valley, Washington
Report on Accountability
Thank you for the opportunity to work with you to promote accountability, integrity and
openness in government. The State Auditor's Office takes seriously our role of providing state
and local governments with assurance and accountability as the independent auditor of public
accounts. In this way, we strive to help government work better, cost less, deliver higher value
and earn greater public trust.
Independent audits provide essential accountability and transparency for City operations. This
information is valuable to management, the governing body and public stakeholders when
assessing the government's stewardship of public resources.
The attached comprises our report on the City's compliance and safeguarding of public
resources. Our independent audit report describes the overall results and conclusions for areas
we examined. We appreciate the opportunity to work with your staff and we value your
cooperation during the audit.
Sincerely,
fir ` CA
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Pat McCarthy
State Auditor
Olympia, WA
Insurance Building, P.O. Box 40021 •Olympia,Washington 98504-0021 •(360)902-0370• Pat.McCarthy@sao.wa.gov
Audit Summary 4
Related Reports 5
Information About The City 6
About The State Auditor's Office 7
Washington State Auditor's Office Page 3
AUDIT SUMMARY
Results in brief
In the areas we audited, City operations complied with applicable requirements and provided
adequate safeguarding of public resources. The City also complied with state laws and
regulations and its own policies and procedures in the areas we examined.
About the audit
This report contains the results of our independent accountability audit of the City of Spokane
Valley from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016.
Management is responsible for ensuring compliance and adequate safeguarding of public
resources from fraud, loss or abuse. This includes the design, implementation and maintenance
of internal controls relevant to these objectives.
Our audit involved performing procedures to obtain evidence about the City's uses of public
resources, compliance with state laws and regulations and its own policies and procedures, and
internal controls over such matters.
In keeping with general auditing practices, we do not examine every transaction, activity or area.
Instead, the areas examined were those representing the highest risk of fraud, loss, abuse, or
noncompliance. The following areas were examined during this audit period:
• Compliance with grant requirements • Payroll/personnel
• Contracts/agreements • Payments/expenditures
• Interfund transactions (cost allocation • Procurement(bidding/prevailing
plan) wage)
Washington State Auditor's Office Page 4
RELATED REPORTS
Financial
Our opinion on the City's financial statements and compliance with federal grant program
requirements is provided in a separate report, which includes the City's financial statements.
That report is available on our website, http://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch.
Federal grant programs
We evaluated internal controls and tested compliance with the federal program requirements, as
applicable, for the City's major federal program, which is listed in the Schedule of Findings and
Questioned Costs section of the separate financial statement and single audit report. That report
is available on our website, http://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch.
Washington State Auditor's Office Page 5
INFORMATION ABOUT THE CITY
The City of Spokane Valley was incorporated on March 31, 2003, and currently serves
approximately 94,000 Spokane County residents. It provides an array of services including
building inspection, street improvement and maintenance, parks and recreation, stormwater
management, solid waste disposal, and general administrative services. The City also owns and
operates CenterPlace, an event facility, 11 parks and three pools. For many of its services the
City contracts with Spokane County including law enforcement, prosecution, public defense,
District Court, emergency management and animal control.
An elected, seven-member Council governs the City under a council-manager form of
government. The Council appoints one member to serve as Mayor and another member to serve
as Deputy Mayor. In addition, the Council appoints a City Manager to oversee the City's daily
operations as well as its 88.4 FTEs. For fiscal year 2016, the City operated on an annual budget
of approximately $83 million.
Contact information related to this report
Address: City of Spokane Valley
11707 E. Sprague Avenue
Suite 106
Spokane Valley, WA 99206
Contact: Chelsie Taylor, Finance Director
Telephone: (509) 720-5040
Website: www.spokanevalley.org
Information current as of report publish date.
Audit history
You can find current and past audit reports for the City of Spokane Valley at
http://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch.
Washington State Auditor's Office Page 6
ABOUT THE STATE AUDITOR'S OFFICE
The State Auditor's Office is established in the state's Constitution and is part of the executive
branch of state government. The State Auditor is elected by the citizens of Washington and
serves four-year terms.
We work with our audit clients and citizens to achieve our vision of government that works for
citizens, by helping governments work better, cost less, deliver higher value, and earn greater
public trust.
In fulfilling our mission to hold state and local governments accountable for the use of public
resources, we also hold ourselves accountable by continually improving our audit quality and
operational efficiency and developing highly engaged and committed employees.
As an elected agency, the State Auditor's Office has the independence necessary to objectively
perform audits and investigations. Our audits are designed to comply with professional standards
as well as to satisfy the requirements of federal, state, and local laws.
Our audits look at financial information and compliance with state, federal and local laws on the
part of all local governments, including schools, and all state agencies, including institutions of
higher education. In addition, we conduct performance audits of state agencies and local
governments as well as fraud, state whistleblower and citizen hotline investigations.
The results of our work are widely distributed through a variety of reports, which are available
on our website and through our free, electronic subscription service.
We take our role as partners in accountability seriously, and provide training and technical
assistance to governments, and have an extensive quality assurance program.
Contact information for the State Auditor's Office
Public Records requests PublicRecords@sao.wa.gov
Main telephone (360) 902-0370
Toll-free Citizen Hotline (866) 902-3900
Website www.sao.wa.gov
Washington State Auditor's Office Page 7