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, Certified Puhlk Acc",mlants & ConsultmUs April 10, 2002 7241 Ohms Lane Suite 200 Edina, MN 55439 Members of the City Council City of Arden Hills, Minnesota We have audited the general purpose financial statemems of the City of Arden Hills for the year ended December 31, 2001 and have issued our report thereon dated April 10, 2002. Professional standards require that we provide you with the following information related to our audit. Our Responsibility Under Auditing Standards Generally Accepted in tbe United States of America and Government Auditing Standards As stated in our engagement letter, our responsibility, as described by professional standards, is to plan and perform our audit to obtain reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that the financial statements arc free of material misstatement and are fairly presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Because an audit is designed to provide reasonable, but not absolute, assurance and because we did not perform a detailed examination of all transactions, there is a risk that material errors, fraud or illegal acts may exist and not be detected by us. . In planning and performing our audit of the general purpose financial statements of tbe City for the year ended December 31, 2001 we considered its internal control in order to determine our auditing procedures for the purpose of expressing our opinion on the general purpose financial statements and not to provide assurance on the internal control. However, we noted certain matters involving the internal control and its operation that we consider to be reportable conditions under standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Reportable conditions involve matters coming to our attention relating to significant deficiencies in tbe design or operation of internal control that, in our judgment, could adversely affect the City's ability to record, process, summarize, and report financial data consistent with the assertions of management in the general purpose financial statements. We noted the following reportable condition. Segregation of Duties Our study and evaluation disclosed that because of the limited size of your office staff, your City has limited segregation of duties. Good internal control contemplates an adequate segregation of duties so that no one individual handles a transaction from inception to completion. While we recognize that your City is not large enough to permit an adequate segregation of duties in all respects, it is important, however, that you be aware of this condition. A material weakness is a reportable condition in which the design or operation of one or more of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low level the risk tbat errors or fraud in amounts that would be material in relation to the general purpose financial statements being audited may occur and not be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of performing their assigned functions. Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all matters in internal control that might be reportable conditions and, accordingly ~ would not necessarily disclose all reportable conditions that are also considered to be material weaknesses as defined above. However, the reportable condition described above is not believed to be a material weakness. As part of obtaining reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, we performed tests of compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts and grants. However, the objective of our tests was not to provide an opinion on compliance with such provisions. We noted no noncompliance with provisions of laws, regulations, contract and grants. . 952.835.9090 Fax 952.835.3261 www.aemcpas.com