Special BOCC Meeting, September 29, 2026

This was a special Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. Present were Chair Bill Canda, Paul Vogelsong, Lucas Epp, Clerk Kelley Camper, and BOCC admin. Auditor Sam Dinardo of PBLO presented the 2025 audit. Garrett Ross was named with the firm. Cindy Howard sat in the room and did not speak. No unfinished business. No agenda amendments. This was not a 2027 budget hearing. It was the 2025 books, a year late to the public and one day ahead of the state filing deadline. The opinion is unmodified — a clean opinion. That is the first story, and it is not the whole story. The county filed by September 30. There is no bonded debt. Government-wide net position at year-end 2025 was $14,319,843. Of that, $7,753,000 is invested in capital assets, $2,733,000 is restricted, and $3,833,000 is unrestricted. Restricted money is not spare cash. It is the road and bridge mill, grants, and conservation trust. Revenues beat expenses on the government-wide statement by $92,205. Canda asked whether $14.3 million was a real number. Dinardo said yes. The second story is the single audit that did not happen. The federal threshold rose from $750,000 to $1 million in 2025. Federal dollars plus PIL looked like they might clear $1 million. PIL is payment in lieu of taxes. It is not subject to single-audit rules. Once it is pulled out, Custer County sits under the line. Money that started federal and was funneled through the state still counts as federal. HTTF is mostly state and does not. No single audit this year. That is a rule result, not a finding that federal programs were tested. The general fund is the third story. It took in $7,613,000 and spent $7,359,000. Net change +$57,553. Ending fund balance $4,935,560. That is the operating pile most residents mean when they say “the county.” It is not the $14.3 million net position. Those two numbers live on different pages. Road and Bridge and capital improvement are the fourth story, and they move in opposite directions. Road and Bridge beat expenses by $250,608 and grew fund equity from $972,000 to $1,222,000. Contingent fund washed at $40,000 in and $40,000 out. Capital improvement took in $880,000, spent $1,504,000, booked $415,000 in lease proceeds for a scraper and three vehicles, and finished down $208,331. That lease number is the same iron that showed up in the landfill and Road & Bridge budget hearings. It is not new cash. It is a note. The smaller funds are the fifth story. Human services finished +$6,453. Conservation trust took in $58,246 and spent $55,500. Emergency services finished down $83,413 on $415,000 of revenue and $547,000 of spending. Airport finished up about $19,000 after a $69,000 transfer in on $70,000 of revenue and $120,000 of spending. Lodging and tourism spent $121,000 against $89,000 of revenue and ended near $99,000. No fund finished negative. E911 is not in that list. It is a discretely presented component unit, and it was the only budget overrun. The auditor called it slight and did not read the dollar amount. The sixth story is what the clean opinion does not hide. Compensated absences — earned leave not yet taken — sit at $443,274 and are not separately budgeted. Long-term obligations also include financing leases, subscription IT agreements, and landfill closure costs. Committed equity includes the judicial center and landfill expansion. Fund-level balances of $7,934,000 reconcile up to the $14.3 million net position once capital assets of $9,176,000 are added back and long-term liabilities come off. Grant accounting is still a management-letter problem because departments code grants differently. Record-retention work is better than it was. Lucas Epp moved to accept the 2025 audit as presented. Paul Vogelsong seconded. Canda, Vogelsong, and Epp all voted yes. That vote accepts the opinion. It does not set the 2027 budget, name the E911 overrun, or fix grant coding.