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Kootenai County treasurer seeks XTR testing funds after assessor’s Simpatico changes
Summary
Treasurer Matheson asked commissioners to redirect part of a previously budgeted $180,000 to pay XTR Consulting for testing work tied to Project Simpatico changes to the county—property system; board directed staff to send the draft contract to legal for review and schedule it for the next business meeting.
Kootenai County Treasurer Matheson told the Board of County Commissioners Feb. 4 that the county needs targeted testing from XTR Consulting to confirm recent assessor-initiated changes under Project Simpatico will not disrupt the county s ability to generate tax notices.
Matheson said the county budgeted $180,000 last year for business process analysis and proposed redirecting part of that amount to pay XTR for testing and related work, estimating the testing will cost "somewhere between, I think, 50 some odd thousand and on the high of 84,000." Matheson said staff will submit a scope of work to legal and to the board for signature if the board is amenable.
The request stems from changes the assessor made to align local processes with state procedures. Assessor Kovacs said the assessor nd XTR have already run tests on their side, "We relied quite heavily on XTR that did a lot of testing themselves. They had access to our test database and they performed extensive testing. We also had our staff perform tests on our processes." Kovacs added the assessor is still waiting on one script from the state needed to complete testing of the operating property role.
Sam, identified as an XTR representative, said both the assessor nd treasurer re expected to test their respective pieces. "The only thing I want to add a little clarity to, both offices need to test each one of these. You recognize that we do too. The assessor's office will not be on the critical path for the treasurer. So two weeks, ample time. Three weeks is ample time," Sam said.
Commissioners asked about sequencing and timing. Commissioner Eberlein asked whether testing might reveal additional changes needed on the treasurer—nd; Matheson and others said it was possible. County staff discussed that the Idaho State Tax Commission supplies scripts and a dashboard process (referred to in the meeting as the TSP dashboard) that the county must incorporate; staff said one script for operating property is still outstanding from the state and that the assessor nd treasurer would test the integration once it is provided.
Officials noted calendar constraints: staff said the assessor has a busy season beginning in May, and that the county should avoid fragmenting work that might create rework in that period. Matheson said the testing request is intended to accommodate the assessor nd to ensure county systems are aligned with state processing before the busy season.
On next steps, commissioners directed staff to send the drafted XTR contract to legal for review and to place the item on the earliest practicable business meeting agenda; one commissioner suggested legal aim to have review completed by 9 a.m. for the upcoming Tuesday business meeting, with an alternative of Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. The board did not take a formal vote during the special meeting.
The discussion focused on sequencing, state-provided scripting for the operating property role, an estimated testing cost of about $50,000—6,000 (up to $84,000), and using some portion of a previously budgeted $180,000 to fund the work. No formal contract was signed at the Feb. 4 meeting; staff were directed to route the draft to legal and to the next appropriate business meeting for possible approval.
