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MARTIN ++p STARNES & AssociATES, CPAs, P.A. .4 Profe sional3ssociation of Certified Public Accountants and Hanagement Consndtana" January 11, 2010 Lisa Minter Lee County, North Carolina PO Box 1968 Sanford, NC 27331 Dear Ms. Minter: Thank you for allowing our firm to provide audit services to Lee County for the year ended June 30, 2009. We are looking forward to a long relationship with the County that will allow us to become more efficient in our procedures and offer even better management suggestions as a result of our knowledge of the County's operations. ® The audit relationship is much more than a commodity product, therefore, the Local Government Commission does not require the services to be re-bid at the end of a service agreement. We are proud of the level of service we offer and believe that to be the reason we have a near 100% renewal rate with our government clients. The following is our proposed fees for 2010 - 2014. We request the.County accept our fee commitment to allow us to plan for the future and to allow the County to budget and plan as well. We understand the economic environment we are all in and have taken that into consideration with our fee proposal. We are able to conservatively propose fees in a long-term agreement so that we can count on the continuity of the relationship in the design of our audit templates and procedures, ]mowing we will recoup the set-up costs over several years. In the past few years, much talk has been made about mandatory auditor rotations. This concept in fact is related to the audit team, not the audit firm. We are required by our auditing standards to maintain our independence and we can assure the County that Martin Starnes & Associates takes compliance with the independence standard seriously. We rotate our audit teams as a normal course of business due to staff growth. We re-invent the audit process on each year during the planning stage to make sure we are addressing the pertinent risk areas of the County's audit. Quite frankly, we study trends, and therefore, a long audit relationship, if managed properly, is a great benefit to the County. 611 73013th Avenue Drive SE ♦ Hickory, North Carolina 28602 ♦ Phone 828-327-2727 ♦ Fax 828-328-2324 13 South Center Street + Taylorsville, North Carolina 28681 + Phone 828-632-9025 + Fax 828-632-9085 Toll Free Both Locations 1-800-948-0585 + Website: www.martinstarnes.com