OSA Weekly Update - 9/5/2025
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
2. Pension: Training Opportunity
3. Avoiding Pitfall: Collateralization
1. Message from Auditor Blaha
Announcement: After thoughtful consideration, I won’t seek reelection for a third term in 2026.
Serving as Minnesota’s 19th State Auditor has been the greatest honor of my life. Minnesotans deserve transparency with their tax dollars, and I’m proud that my administration has actively fought against waste, fraud and abuse.
I’m equally honored that we were able to support local government leaders and protect their freedom to make decisions within their own communities. By rebuilding relationships across the state, modernizing audit technology, public tools and communication, we’ve empowered leaders with the information they need to make fact-based decisions.
But we’re not done yet. Over the next year, I’ll continue my commitment to protect local government decision making and provide resources to the workforce shortages we all face.
2. Pension: Training Opportunity
Members of our Pension Division will be teaching a training course for fire relief association trustees at the annual Minnesota State Fire Department Association (MSFDA) conference in Breezy Point. Our session will be held from on Friday, September 19 from 1 – 5 p.m.. If you’re attending the MSFDA conference, stop by to meet members of our Pension team!
3. Avoiding Pitfall: Collateralization
State law requires public entities to maintain proper collateralization of their accounts. Collateral provides protection for public funds in the event of a bank failure.
All public funds on deposit in a bank or credit union must be protected by deposit insurance, corporate surety bond or pledged collateral. Most financial institutions choose to pledge collateral for amounts not covered by federal deposit insurance. If the institution should fail, the governmental entity can then take the pledged securities to make up for any loss to its deposited funds.
For more information about the required collateral for public funds, see our Statement of Position entitled Deposits of Public Funds.
The risk addressed by pledged collateral is identified by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) as “custodial credit risk”. Information on how custodial credit risk can be addressed in your investment policy is provided in our Statement of Position, Custodial Credit Risk: Investment Policy Considerations.
The full Avoiding Pitfall is available on the OSA website.