Wasilla officials seek $560,000 from capital reserves to speed Tyler ERP rollout

Wasilla interim Finance Director Ted Leonard told the City Council at a special meeting that the city needs additional outside resources to finish implementing a Tyler Technologies enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and asked the council to approve roughly $560,000 from capital project reserves to hire a third‑party implementation partner.

The request was presented to the council during a Committee of the Whole session. "We are asking for approximately 560,000," Leonard said, describing the funds as support for project management, subject‑matter experts and change management to meet the project's go‑live targets.

Why it matters: The ERP covers the city’s core finance, human resources and payroll functions and will replace a legacy system staff said dates back to the early 2000s. Council members and staff said the project affects everyday city operations (payroll, vendor payments, budgeting) and that missing deadlines could produce double work, reporting errors and higher costs.

Project background and scope: Leonard said the ERP work grew from a 2024 assessment and that Wasilla selected Tyler Technologies in late 2024. He described the prior system as an AS/400 platform purchased two decades ago and said the Tyler contract was originally structured as a five‑year agreement covering three years of implementation and two additional years of licensing. "We have a very old legacy system," Leonard said, adding that the new system will offer dashboards, electronic approvals and better integration between HR, payroll and the general ledger.

Consultant and requested services: Mike Monroe, identified as CEO and founder of Cully Hills Consulting, explained his firm’s role in other municipal Tyler migrations and said his team would act as Wasilla’s project manager and provide subject‑matter experts, testing, security interfaces, process optimization and sustained training resources. "Enterprise resource planning is the city's core business system," Monroe said. He said Cully Hills typically places experienced municipal auditors, accountants and payroll specialists on such projects and that his company emphasizes change management and documentation (including short training videos and a staff training portal).

Cost breakdown and funding plan: Leonard and Monroe described the requested funding as roughly $560,000 total, with about $532,000 identified in the consultant scope for project management and subject‑matter expert time. Leonard said the administration would propose using $500,000 of the requested amount from the city’s capital project reserve (which he described as part of roughly $38–40 million assigned for capital projects) and planned to introduce an ordinance to appropriate the funds. Leonard said the administration planned to present the ordinance for introduction on 2025‑09‑22 and seek a council vote at the 2025‑10‑13 meeting.

Timeline and milestones: Staff described staged rollouts. Leonard gave targets of having finance go live on July 1 (finance year end/go‑live tied to the city fiscal calendar) and bringing HR/payroll modules live on Jan. 1, 2027 to avoid midyear payroll reporting transfers. Monroe said meeting the July 1 finance deadline was a hard cut and argued that adding consultant resources reduces the risk of missed deadlines.

Questions from council: Council members pressed staff on data migration, who will do data cleaning, how many hours city staff must commit, and where the CIP funds would come from. Leonard said Cully Hills has an in‑house technical team that works with Tyler and that the city expects to keep staff time for validating data but would use the consultant to augment and speed work. Council members asked about upgrade cadence, security and training; Monroe said Tyler issues routine maintenance upgrades (no mandatory charge for routine upgrades under maintenance), the system is cloud‑hosted with mandatory two‑factor authentication, and Cully Hills provides training and documentation to reduce long‑term vendor dependence.

No formal funding vote: The council did not vote to commit funds at the meeting. Procedural motions to enter and exit the committee of the whole were moved by Council Member Bilak and seconded by Council Member Rubio and were adopted without objection. Leonard said the administration will return with an ordinance and associated amendment(s) for council consideration and formal appropriation.

Context and caveats: Staff and Monroe repeatedly emphasized that successful ERP implementations require business‑process redesign in addition to software configuration and that some legacy processes may need standardization rather than customization. Leonard said the finance department has not added a staff position since February 2016 and argued automation and modern tools are necessary to maintain current service levels. Monroe cautioned that missed deadlines may create higher costs and reporting risks; both presenters framed the consultant request as an investment to protect the city’s Tyler deployment.

Outlook: Council members who spoke publicly praised the presentation and supported bringing outside expertise to the project, but declined to approve funding at the special meeting. Administration plans to introduce an ordinance at the council's next regular meeting and seek a vote at a subsequent meeting in October.