Dear Board of Aldermen, Mayor, and Finance Director Wilson,

 

Dear Board of Aldermen, Mayor, and Finance Director Wilson,

I am Buddy Huggins, a longtime resident of Ozark at 1201 W Farmer St. As a YouTuber who creates videos to educate our community on local government finances, I focus on transparency to help everyone understand how our city works. I have dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia, which make complex financial reports challenging to read and analyze. That's why I appreciate the help from past discussions, like the follow-up promise from my August 18, 2025, Board meeting with you all and Mary Edna. I'm writing to share my research on the City's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs/ACFRs) and kindly request more complete information to continue this work.
Over the past two years, I've reviewed Ozark's CAFRs starting from 2017, compiling net position data (the city's total assets minus liabilities) from available reports. The trends show steady growth with no signs of "missing money"—just positive changes from our booming economy. Here's a simple summary of the key figures:

Year	Total Net Position	Change from Prior	Notes
2017	$65,701,570	N/A	Baseline; ~$13–20M liquid (cash/investments).
2018	Not available	N/A	Partial PDF; request full.
2019	Not available	N/A	Partial; request full.
2020	Not available	N/A	Partial; request full.
2021	$93,935,044	+$28.2M	ARPA boost; $18.8M liquid.
2022	$104,148,562	+$10.2M	Sales tax; $21.5M liquid.
2023	$112,580,626	+$8.4M	Grants; $22.9M liquid (partial).
2024	$121,986,500	+$9.4M	Continued growth; $24.4M liquid.

This +86% growth ($56.3M total from 2017–2024) is driven by strong revenue sources like property and sales taxes, federal grants (e.g., ARPA over $5M), and our local economy (new businesses like Starbucks and Whataburger). It's offset by smart spending on infrastructure (e.g., $2M downtown improvements, Chadwick Flyer Trail, Highway 65 overpass) and services (police, parks, water systems). No anomalies appear in the data I have—it's all positive for Ozark.
However, incomplete reports make it hard to verify the full picture. For example, the 2023 ACFR is missing pages 14–22 (including the Statement of Net Position on page 14), and PDFs for 2013–2020 are truncated or partial, hiding key details like fund balances and reconciliations. This seems to go against Missouri law, which requires a full ACFR by June 30 each year (RSMo 105.145) and semi-annual financial statements in a local newspaper (RSMo 79.160). To complete my research and videos, I kindly request:

• Full PDFs for 2013–2020, especially pages 14–22 (Statement of Net Position) for each year.
• Confirmation that all reports meet GASB standards and GFOA Certificate of Excellence criteria for completeness.

One more transparency question, based on expert analyses like Walter Burien's CAFR reviews: Do we earn interest on city investments, funds, pensions, or bonds (e.g., reserves or revenue pools)? Typical rates are 4–8%, but some experts claim municipalities can get 16–19% on tens or hundreds of millions. To disprove ideas of "hidden" high-interest pools, could you share simple details on our investment portfolios, annual earnings reports, and how that interest benefits residents (e.g., reinvested in services)? This would help me explain it clearly in videos—no accusations, just facts for the community.

Thank you for your support so far, Mary Edna—your links to past reports have been a huge help. I value Ozark's growth and want to highlight the good work in my videos. Could we schedule a short follow-up meeting (in-person or virtual) to discuss this?


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