Oxford gets 'clean' audit for FY 2021

Brian Graves, The Anniston Star, Ala.
·2 min read

Jul. 27—OXFORD — The City of Oxford received its audit for fiscal 2021 and the news was good.

Paul Bain, with Kemp and Associates CPA, gave the report to the City Council during its regular session Tuesday night.

"Basically, it's a clean audit," Bain said before presenting a summary of the 115-page document.

Bain said the city's assets at the end FY 2021 was valued at $278 million, down from $282 million the previous year.

He said the city had $84.4 million "cash in the bank" with $5.7 million of "restricted" funds set aside for specific uses. That was in comparison to $85 million in 2020 with $8.9 million of "restricted funds."

"The non-restricted cash [at the end of the fiscal year] was $80 million, up from $76 million [in 2020]," Bain said.

He said the city's debt position had decreased from $110 million to $105 million.

"The city's total revenue went up from $50 million to $59 million and the sales tax revenue went up from $33 million to $38 million," Bain said.

He said the city's appropriation to Oxford City Schools increased from $6.5 million to $7.6 million.

Bain said the city was "doing a good job of staying under budget."

The council as part of its agenda unanimously voted to revoke the business license of ALCO Remodeling, LLC, after a recommendation to do so came from Chief Building Officer John Roberts.

Angela Beecham told the council during a public hearing on the matter she had contracted the firm to remodel a house at 3121 Lori Lane for $62,000.

"They never finished anything and every week they kept asking for more money saying if they didn't have the extra money they couldn't finish," Beecham said. "By June, I had given them about $70,000 and they told me if I didn't give them another $17,000, they would stop working and hold everything up. I gave it to them and they still held everything up."

Beecham said she called the police to remove them from the property.

"As I was getting them out of the house they made the comment, 'You'll never find anybody that can fix everything we screwed up,'" she said.

Roberts said the contractors were found not to have a certified homebuilders license by the state of Alabama and did not have either a plumbing or an electrical license.

"And, their work was pretty bad," Roberts said.

No one representing ALCO Remodeling spoke on the company's behalf.