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County discusses centralizing fuel billing under commissioners to ease staff workload
Summary
County staff and department heads discussed consolidating invoicing and billing for fuel purchases into the commissioners' office to reduce manual workload in multiple departments; no formal action was taken and staff were asked to produce usage data and a plan.
County departments and commissioners discussed a proposal to centralize fuel invoicing and billing under the commissioners' office to reduce repetitive billing work now handled by multiple departments. The idea is to put the county's fuel expense and billing into a single fund or line item so that one office (the commissioners' office or auditor’s office) manages invoices, collects reimbursements from user departments and reduces duplicative month‑end transfers.
Ryan (department representative) described the current process as onerous for his secretary, who gathers invoices from multiple departments, bills individual departments and reconciles payments. He said the current workflow has become "a nightmare" for the staff member responsible and asked for relief that would free staff time. Several commissioners expressed support for the concept but also raised concerns about interfund transfers and shifting levy‑backed expenses into the general fund.
Staff and commissioners agreed to collect usage data and historical averages for department fuel use (EMS, health, prosecutor, building department, assessor, maintenance and others) and to draft a plan showing where money is currently budgeted and how transfers could be handled so that no department loses levy protections. Anton suggested moving line items the same way the county previously consolidated Toshiba line items in a past budget exercise, possibly doing transfers in six‑month increments to smooth transitions. No appropriation or transfer was approved; commissioners directed staff to return with a plan and numeric estimates so the fiscal implications can be vetted in a future meeting.
The proposal would leave diesel ordering and recordkeeping where it currently makes sense operationally, but gasoline invoicing will require special attention because different agencies use different vendors or delivery schedules. The group also identified concerns about vendors (Keystone was mentioned) failing to deliver or providing unreadable invoices, which negated timely billing.
