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Mono County moves forward on multi-year ERP replacement as board presses for staffing and budget clarity
Summary
County finance staff and consultants outlined a multi-year plan to replace the county's aging Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, with an RFP expected in August 2025 and implementation targeted for 2026; supervisors pressed for clearer budgeting for vendor costs and temporary backfill to avoid burning out understaffed departments.
Kim Bunn, assistant director of finance and ERP project manager, told the Mono County Board of Supervisors the county has completed an "as-is" analysis and formed cross-departmental process improvement teams to build functional requirements for a replacement ERP system. The county hired the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) to guide the project and expects to issue a request for proposals in August 2025 with vendor selection and contract negotiations later in the year and implementation to begin in 2026.
GFOA consultant Eva Olsaker said the teams are documenting requirements that will attach to the RFP and emphasized the importance of engaging a cross-section of stakeholders and avoiding the mistakes of prior implementations. "We developed the project charter," Olsaker said during the presentation, describing workshops on accounting structure and process redesign intended to ensure the new system meets county-wide needs.
Board members acknowledged the potential long-term benefits — greater automation, grant tracking, payroll and budgeting tools, and improved transparency — but repeatedly pressed staff for greater clarity on near-term costs and the operational impacts of the multi-year effort. Several supervisors voiced concern about asking already-understaffed employees to spend significant time on the project while keeping day-to-day services operating.
County staff and GFOA representatives said the schedule has been adjusted to reduce burdens on departments. Kim Bunn said the county is planning for backfill strategies and has asked finance to absorb a larger share of the preparatory workload so other departments are less disrupted. Staff reported a GFOA contract of roughly $400,000 over the engagement and said just under $200,000 was budgeted for the first 12 months; staff time devoted to the project is now being tracked.
The board asked for a clearer budget proposal that identifies: (1) costs to release and evaluate the RFP; (2) estimates of vendor implementation and multi-year maintenance costs; and (3) the plan and cost for temporary backfill or contractor resources to prevent service interruptions. Staff committed to return with additional budget detail during the upcoming budget cycle and to include projected implementation-phase costs in future reporting.
Next steps include further PIT workshops, completion of functional requirements, RFP release in August 2025, vendor selection in fall 2025, and staged implementation in 2026. Staff emphasized the importance of data-cleaning and integration planning (for example, with the county's third-party permitting system) to avoid repeating past partial-implementation problems.
The board did not take a formal action on the ERP item beyond receiving the update and requesting follow-up on budget and staffing implications.
