Fort Valley struggles with state funding due to audit delinquency, aims for compliance by October

City administrator focuses on resolving pending audits to regain state certification and funding

FORT VALLEY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – According to Fort Valley City Administrator James Woods, the City of Fort Valley has not been recognized as a certified city government by Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs for at least the past 15 months due to the city being delinquent on its audits.

“We are a city in the state of Georgia with a charter,” Woods said, before confirming the city is not a certified city government.

That means no state funding, which is one of the consequences Fort Valley has had to face over the last year. Woods has been working in his role for the past 15 months and says his top priority since he started has been to get the city caught up on the delinquent audits that date back to 2018.

“They know we’re working on trying to get our audits done,” Woods said, adding the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and Georgia Secretary of State are familiar with the city’s situation.

Despite not being able to receive any state grants, Woods says Fort Valley still gets federal funding to help keep city operations going. Last year, the city hired an external city auditor to start the catch up process.

“We’re gathering evidence to substantiate the numbers,” auditor Keith Hundley said, adding the process to complete one audit normally takes 60-90 days.

Both Hundley and Woods say the plan is to have the city caught up on those audits by the end of the 2024 fiscal year, which is in October.