The City of Linden and the Linden Utilities Board received very good news Monday night when William L. Cox from Aldridge, Borden&Company told each group that their 2003 audits were very well done and both had assets left to spend. Cox said both reports looked good and the members of the groups should be proud of themselves.

Cox said the utilities board audit was an unqualified report with no reportable conditions. He also said that they were not made aware of anything that was wrong or raised eyebrows with the report.

“The audit for this year was very strong compared to lost year when they were negative $44,000,” Cox said.

The audit for the board showed their current liquid assets at $383, 731. Cox said the board will meet no penalties and that was what the board had expected.

“The overall budget is in good shape, but there are still some things that can be done to tie up lose ends,” Cox said.

He said the board needed to take an inventory of all its capital items, so they won’t be surprised next year. He also said the board has been raising the prices each year to match the current increases, so there won’t be any loss in terms of finances.

After the utilities board meeting was over, the city council meeting was called to order. Cox presented the City of Linden’s audit to the council members.

Cox said the city’s audit is a qualified report that is presented fairly except one item. He also said the problem is that the city has properties that it knows of or doesn’t know of and its causing the numbers to come out wrong.

“The City of Linden has from now till September 30 to fix this problem and find out if they own this land or not,” Cox said.

He said as far as the city’s liquid assets go this is the best position Linden has been in since 1990. He said the city has $600,000 in cash and $1.5 million in bond money that can be used by the city for the betterment of its people.

“This was a very positive year for the city,” Cox said.

He said the court system was another one of the company’s concerns. He also said they walked through the court systems and found that the same person was in charge of both the records and the audits.

They had a very positive feeling for the person because the records were in perfect shape and well taking. Cox said he felt like having an extra person would be better, so the person would work on receipts instead of money.

“If the council doesn’t like the splitting up the money and the records, then don’t but set up a check of all receipts at least once a month,” Cox said.

Mayor Pat Vice asked Cox to compare their current state in terms of others cities their size. Cox said for the utilities board to be sitting on $400,000 and the city to have $2.1 million, those are some strong accomplishments.

“Your in much better shape then many other cities,” Cox said.

Vice said he wanted to thank the boards for their good record keeping.