Caroline County approves $36,125 for Keystone software enhancements after months of debate

The Caroline County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a $36,125 supplemental appropriation from the county's unencumbered fund balance to pay for enhancements to the county's Keystone enterprise software system.

The appropriation passed after a lengthy discussion about the status of the county's multi-year rollout of Keystone and whether Caroline is effectively paying to help the vendor build features that will be sold to other localities. The board voted to approve the supplemental appropriation by voice vote following a motion and second; the motion carried.

County staff and the president of Keystone described the requested work as enhancements to the base product rather than one-off customizations. Judd, president of Keystone, told the board: "We're building a standardized product with a release control that's gonna roll forward. These are not customizations for Caroline County." He said Keystone had discounted and shared development costs because the features would benefit other customers.

County staff said the Keystone contract was originally bid before the COVID pandemic and that some needed functionality was not included in the original RFP. County officials told the board they expect to go live for the treasurer's office July 1 and to bring utilities and other modules online later. Staff said the county has spent about $416,062 to date on the Keystone contract; the supplemental $36,125 would cover the discrete list of enhancements identified by departments.

Several supervisors pressed for more detail on schedule, past spending and how many other Virginia localities use the system. Staff said 17 organizations use Keystone's financial and payroll modules and that seven Virginia localities use the tax module; Powhatan County was identified as the only other prorating county already running the proration functionality. County staff and the vendor explained that proration touches many places in the software and took longer than expected to develop.

Supervisor Reggie Underwood expressed frustration with the project's timeline and asked for a year-to-date spending figure; county staff later confirmed the total spent to date on the Keystone contract was $416,062.22. County staff and supervisors repeatedly said the enhancements will be built into Keystone's standard product going forward.

The board approved the supplemental appropriation and instructed staff to continue implementation work and testing in the treasurer's and commissioner's test areas before turning on tax bill generation.

The appropriation will be paid from the county's unencumbered balance; the motion to approve was seconded and adopted by the board.

The county clerk read the resolution identifying the appropriation and the vote was recorded in the meeting minutes. Staff said they will continue to provide status updates to the board as modules move from test to production.

Ending: The vendor and county officials said they expect further development and phased rollouts; the board asked staff for continued financial tracking and progress reports as the project proceeds.