Jefferson County Receives Fourth Consecutive Clean Audit from Washington State Auditor’s Office

Liz Anderson 
Communications Specialist, Jefferson County
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2026

Jefferson County is pleased to announce that it has received clean audits from the Washington State Auditor’s Office (SAO) for its financial statements, federal and state awards, and accountability practices. For the fourth consecutive year, the county has earned a clean audit from the SAO.

“Our finance team and county department finance leaders have worked tirelessly to implement new processes, and this audit is a reflection of all of their hard work,” said Judy Shepherd, Jefferson County Finance Director. “The accuracy of this team is critical to managing public funds responsibly. I am incredibly proud of this team.” 

The audits examined a wide range of areas, including:

• Financial Statement
• Federal Single Audit
• Accounts Payable
• Payroll
• Elections Services Billing
• Cash Count Accountability
• Juvenile Courts Contracts
• LTAC – Lodging Tax Advisory Committee compliance
• Open Public Meetings Act compliance
• County’s Financial Condition
• Internal processes and controls

Josh Peters, County Administrator, adds, “Our Finance team and department leaders have made significant investments in improving the county’s processes and strengthening financial oversight over all of our county departments. We have been faced with difficult budget decisions, and the commitment of this team gives us a strong foundation for 2027 and beyond.”

Note: This year, the SAO reopened the county’s 2022 audit and Jefferson County received a finding for an item that had already been addressed. Specifically, the County did not report Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) grant program expenditures totaling $1,546,633, which included $1,168,633 for 2022 expenditures and $378,000 for 2021 expenditures on the respective years’ Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA). These expenditures were erroneously reported as State & Local Fiscal Recovery Funds expenditures in 2022 and 2021. Once the LATCF program was added to the 2022 SEFA, this program was required to be audited. The County subsequently corrected these errors, and the Treasurer’s Office performed the required single audit of the program.

Audit reports are publicly available on the SAO website and can be viewed here: Financial Statements and Federal Single Audit Report

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Jefferson County

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