Citizen Portal
Sign In

Riley County ends four-year OpenGov contract after staff report of failures

3377870 · May 19, 2025

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

County budget staff told commissioners OpenGov failed to deliver promised budgeting, payroll and transparency tools. Commissioners voted to end the contract during the May 19 meeting.

Riley County commissioners voted May 19 to terminate the county's contract with OpenGov after county budget staff described persistent problems getting accurate, usable finance data from the vendor.

Budget and finance officer Britney Phillips told the commission OpenGov was purchased in 2021 to improve budget workflow and public transparency but “is still not ready to launch” after four years. Phillips said the system repeatedly produced inaccurate salary and encumbrance calculations, required significant manual correction and lacked reliable dispute-resolution from OpenGov staff.

“The information she (the previous finance officer) put in was incorrect,” Phillips said. “When we tried to take into account our encumbrances, it was throwing our budget and expenditures completely off.” David (surname not specified) and other staff present described trying uploads and monthly integrations that did not update correctly and cited ongoing “duplication of effort.”

Phillips said the county finished the final payment to OpenGov and recommended ending the contract. Commissioners moved and seconded a motion to end the OpenGov contract; the chair called for the vote and recorded “Aye.” No detailed roll-call or tally was recorded in the public minutes.

County staff described attempts to use the platform for internal budget tests, payroll integration and public-facing budget stories that were not realized because the product did not perform as promised.

The county did not discuss any contractual settlement terms or whether any portion of the payments would be recovered. Commissioners directed staff to investigate and to proceed with ending the contract consistent with the motion approved during the meeting.

The termination will redirect future work on budget and accounting tools to county staff and prompts county officials to consider alternate platforms or internal solutions for budgeting and public transparency.

Notes: The motion to end the contract was made on the record during the May 19 meeting and approved by voice vote; the transcript records the motion and a second but does not record a numeric roll-call tally.