ALBEMARLE — At the City Council meeting on April 15, Albemarle council members received a financial report detailing year-to-date budget, revenue and expenditure figures.
The report showed that as of March 31, the city had $1,243,621 year-to-date earnings from a $719,548 budget, adding up to an investment collected of 172.8%.
With the City of Albemarle’s investment returns coming back quite a bit higher than expected, Mayor Pro Tem Martha Sue Hall said she was excited about the extra money in the budget.
“One thing that was very interesting dealing with finance, it looks like our investment earnings — our percent collected — was 172.8%,” Hall said. “That caught my eye, so tell me how in the world that is. I love it… I guess I have not seen that here. When we’re looking at the budget moving forward for 2024-25, we’re $500,000 in the good there that we had not budgeted for thus far.”
Responding to Hall’s observation, Jacob Weavil, the City of Albemarle’s finance director, reiterated that 2024 has been a good year so far for the city’s investment earnings.
“As the federal government keeps ratcheting up interest rates to keep inflation down, we’re seeing the benefit of that on our investment earnings,” Weavil explained. “Our primary depository account with Uwharrie Bank, we get the federal prime rate minus 75 basis points. So at any given month now, we’re getting about 4.5 to 5% of interest.”
Three years ago, the City of Albemarle hired Weavil and brought him on the staff as he became the youngest department head in the city at the then-age of 31.
Under his leadership, the city has continued to be recognized for its financial reporting.
This past December, it was announced that Albemarle had once again been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).
The GFOA gives that honor as the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting.
“Receiving this award for the sixth year in a row is proof of the City of Albemarle’s dedication to sound management, transparency, and good stewardship of resources as outlined in the city’s mission statement,” Weavil said in a press release. “We thank the GFOA for recognizing the work of our Finance Department and the entire City of Albemarle as an organization to achieve this honor.”
The Albemarle City Council is set to meet again on May 6 at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers.