Legislative Audit Committee elects Linstead chair, Frizzell vice chair; moves 2025 hearings to Wednesdays and releases six reports

The Legislative Audit Committee elected Representative Linstead as chair and Senator Lisa Frizzell as vice chair, voted to move its 2025 hearing days from Tuesdays to Wednesdays, approved release of six audit reports without a hearing and recessed into an executive session under section 24-6-402 during its meeting on 2025-01-15.

Representative Wilford moved to nominate Representative Linstead for chair and the motion was seconded; with no opposition, Linstead was elected chair. Representative Brooks nominated Senator Lisa Frizzell for vice chair; that nomination carried with no further opposition.

Committee members then considered Attachment C, a work paper related to the required communication to those charged with governance. Legal counsel advised that, under section 24 6 4 0 2, specialized details in the work paper may be discussed in executive session. A member moved and the committee approved going into executive session pursuant to section 24 6 4 0 2; after the executive session the committee returned to open meeting.

The committee also amended the previously approved 2025 session calendar (Attachment D) to hold hearings on Wednesdays rather than Tuesdays to reduce scheduling conflicts during legislative session. Staff told the committee that Wednesdays would generally work and that a different room across the street (LSBB) is available on some dates when the committee's usual room is occupied. Members noted one potential conflict on a Thursday morning and discussed the possibility of canceling a currently scheduled Jan. 28 meeting if no agenda items arise.

Members approved a motion to release six reports without a hearing. Auditor staff reported that the first three are the fiscal year 2024 financial and compliance audits of various state departments and higher-education institutions; those three reports contained unmodified (clean) opinions and no findings. The final three reports are the annual procedures required by the NCAA for Division I athletics departments at three state universities; auditors' procedures and testing results are included in those reports. The reports were released and are publicly available electronically on the legislative audit office's website, staff said.

Auditor Hunter presented the 2025 Legislative Audit Committee session calendar; Miss Edwards reviewed the reports list. The committee set its next hearing for Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, at 7 a.m., likely in the LSBB room used before the pandemic, and adjourned.

The meeting record shows routine procedural votes and scheduling decisions; no ordinance, statute adoption, contract award or budget appropriation was taken at this meeting.