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Santa Fe County treasurer seeks ERP and merchant-service upgrades, flags $700M in short-term investments
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Summary
The county treasurer presented a modest budget increase to fund staff reclassifications and asked for coordinated ERP and merchant-service procurements to improve online payments; he said county liquid assets recently exceeded $700 million.
The Santa Fe County treasurer’s office told commissioners on Oct. 11 that FY26 budget changes center on reorganizing staff for customer-service roles and on technology procurement to modernize payments and the enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform.
Chief Deputy Treasurer Brian Olachea said the office eliminated one vacant operations manager position and proposed reclassifying three roles to create a customer-service program manager and two lead positions (cashier lead and delinquent-tax specialist lead). Olachea said the net FY26 increase is about $58,212, mainly reflecting salary and benefits changes.
Olachea described three parallel vendor solicitations: an ERP procurement, a merchant-services RFP to handle online and card payments and a bill-print vendor for annual bills and delinquent notices. He said the county’s current portal (Paymentus) supports online payments but imposes limitations on tax-history retrieval and that the ERP and merchant services should integrate so customers can view payment histories, set automated payment plans and use additional payment methods.
Commissioners asked about transaction fees and ACH payments. Olachea said current third-party fees are passed to the payer (a percentage plus a flat fee), and that ACH or wire payments present security and operational trade-offs; the selected merchant will propose options and pricing. “They’re the ones that determine what that cost to the consumer will be,” he said.
On investments, Olachea reported the county’s cash and investments were “closer to $700,000,000 and change,” including bank deposits, CDs and other short-term investments. Manager Schafer said the short-term strategy is to keep maturities short to limit interest-rate risk and to use an independent financial adviser for forward-looking investment advice.
Why this matters: Modern payment and ERP systems affect user access to tax histories and convenience, can reduce in-person transactions and affect how transaction fees are borne. Commissioners pressed for transparency on fees and integration plans before vendor selection.
