Commission presses staff on $128 million ERP program; approves funding for two positions and consultants as part of omnibus vote

Wayne County commissioners on the floor pressed staff for details about the county's enterprise resource planning (ERP) project, including total lifetime costs, reliance on outside consultants and plans to bring contractor expertise onto the county payroll.

The commission heard staff describe the ERP program as a long-running effort with “about a hundred and 28,000,000” spent from inception, and that the current fiscal-year portion is smaller (staff said it may be around $68,000,000 for the current year). Commissioners were told a budget adjustment item listed at $883,754 in the meeting packet would provide funds for two new full-time positions and project-consultant costs and that the item was included in a later omnibus approval of budget adjustments.

The discussion centered on three issues: total program cost, how the county will transition institutional knowledge from contractors to county employees, and whether end users across departments have been engaged in training and testing.

“I think the total amount is around a hundred and 28,000,000,” a staff member told the commission, adding that the figure covered multiple vendor contracts over several years, including the county’s Oracle contract and later contracts such as Pierce Monroe. Commissioners asked whether the county is training internal staff to replace consultants. A staff member replied that the goal is to “wean ourselves off of, for example, Pierce Monroe, to bring those people on board, and bring them on the county’s payroll with their expertise.”

Mary Carr, deputy director, said the budget adjustment reported in the packet would cover salary for two positions and portions of the project-consultant budget. “It’s covering salary for 2 positions … but it’s also funding the project consultant portions, which is probably gonna be Pierce Monroe and Associates, which that contract would be on GovOps tomorrow,” Carr said. When commissioners pressed on the salary breakout, staff said salary and benefits for the two positions would total about $320,000 and that roughly $400,000 of the request would be allocated to consultant-related costs; the packet, Carr said, contains the detailed line-item breakdown.

Commissioners also asked whether end users from county departments had been included in training and testing. A staff member said training includes “people from the field, not only just MAB budget analyst, but for example, people from the sheriff’s department,” so that differing operational needs are represented in testing and onboarding.

The ERP-related budget adjustment was taken up and approved as part of a larger omnibus motion that moved items 1–26; the omnibus motion passed on a roll call. Commissioners said they will continue oversight through the government operations committee (GovOps) and scheduled additional meetings to review progress and costs.

The commission did not adopt new policy language in this discussion; the action taken was a budget certification and reallocation included in the omnibus vote reported later in the meeting.

Commission staff said further, more detailed reports on vendor contracts and the Pierce Monroe-related breakout will be presented to the GovOps committee for deeper review.

Next steps include additional GovOps briefings and follow-up reports from staff on contract terms, timelines for internal staffing, and detailed packet breakout of the $883,754 item.