Committee approves ordinances on coin/currency acceptance, underpayments/overpayments and returned checks; sends measures to county board

Richland County's executive and finance committee on July 8 approved forwarding three new ordinances to the full county board that establish: (1) authority to refuse certain coin or contaminated currency; (2) procedures for small underpayments and overpayments, and (3) a fee for dishonored (returned) checks.

Treasury staff told the committee the coin/currency ordinance is intended to allow departments to refuse unsanitary or impractical coin and currency (for example, water-soaked rolls of pennies) and to avoid manual counting burdens. The ordinance would permit departments to require conversion of coin at a bank or refuse payment by such means for sums over $1, and would standardize county practice observed in other Wisconsin counties.

The underpayments/overpayments ordinance would change the county's internal threshold for tax underpayments/overpayments. Treasury staff said small past overpayments required the county to issue low-value checks that cost more to process than the refund amounts; the ordinance would allow those overpayments to be posted to a general ledger line and offset against small underpayments to reduce administrative costs.

The dishonored-checks ordinance would authorize departments to assess a fee (the proposed ordinance referenced a modest fee similar to peer counties) when checks are returned for insufficient funds and to apply an internal administrative charge if the payer resolves the payment.

Committee members asked that departments notify payers and update website information so customers are aware of new fees and collection policies. Each ordinance passed on voice votes and will be forwarded to the full county board for adoption.