The results returned from the state auditor’s office for Oak Harbor’s 2023 finances show sweeping improvements compared to 2022.

The audit began in October 2024 and ended in December, said David Goldman, deputy city administrator, at a council meeting this week. It took a bit longer for the office to reach Oak Harbor, as the state prioritizes organizations that receive significant federal funds as the federal audit is due sooner.

Overall, the city’s assets—such as the water treatment plant, power grid, public facilities and programs—exceeded its costs by $197.95 million. According to a press release, the city’s financial condition as measured by “net position” increased by about $12 million.

“I’m really big into transparency to the point where it can bore folks with the details,” Goldman said, “but I do like to explain things in a way to help everybody understand complex financial concepts.”

Looking at investment trends among cities across the state, from 2022-2023, investments increased by over $2 billion, he said.

Oak Harbor followed suit. The city’s investments increased by about $40 million, yielding about $2.7 million in earnings for 2023.

Right now, the city is set to earn $3.5 million on investments made in 2024, about a 40% increase.

While Goldman said that’s about all he can say at this time about 2024, Councilmember Bryan Stucky was pleased with these numbers.

“People are very critical of government overspending, not being wise with resources, which is a fair criticism from time to time,” he said, “but the fact that I don’t think a lot of people think of municipalities investing their money, making money on the investments, I think that’s just wonderful.”

City investments can be used to lower taxes, Goldman said.

“Whatever we can do to ensure that we don’t have to increase taxes or increase other revenue streams to continue to have the city operate the way it is always a good thing,” he said.

The city is currently replacing the manual financial management system with Enterprise Resource Planning software, said Mayor Ronnie Wright, which centralizes data, streamlines processes and improves productivity.

The changes will take about a year to implement, Goldman said, so the 2024 numbers will still be managed manually. Staff are updating standard operating procedures for the new software to be up and running this year.