City Hall in Ocean City
Michael Garcia of Ford-Scott & Associates reported on Aug. 14 that the City of Ocean City had received a "clean audit" for the 2013 fiscal year with no corrective findings or recommendations.
One net effect, Garcia said, is that "bond investors think highly of Ocean City."
He noted a 2.25 percent interest rate on recent borrowing.
“You should be very happy with that,” Garcia said.
Garcia praised the city's $5.8 million fund balance, up almost $1.2 million from the prior year. He said Ocean City does not over-rely on its reserves to balance its budget. He also noted the city's tax collection rate of over 99 percent.
In a recent letter to citizens, Mayor Jay Gillian said the 2.25 percent interest rate helped create "an overall savings to the city’s debt service appropriations in the next several operating budgets, and an increased capacity to potentially add more projects to our already aggressive capital plan.
Audits of municipal finances and financial practices are required to be performed annually by independent professionals.
