Grant County treasurer reports strong interest income, details problems with First Farmers account

Treasurer April Legere presented the Board of Finance with a year-end breakdown of interest earned by Grant County and said she had detailed month-by-month worksheets showing how that interest was distributed.

Legere told the board trust accounts 3 and 4 have produced substantially more interest than trusts 1 and 2 and said she had asked the bank whether trust 2 could be combined with trust 4 to concentrate funds in the higher-yield account. She also said the VIA account yields almost no interest and that she would like to close it and a small First Farmers account.

Legere described operational problems with First Farmers that prompted concern: she said the bank failed to post deposits and tax coupons properly, applied late fees to taxpayers, and accidentally deposited $5,000 into Miami County. "I've yet to get an apology from them," Legere said, adding, "I wholeheartedly believe that if I hadn't went out there on July 20 to withdraw the money, we still wouldn't have gotten those tax statements." She said procedures in the treasurer's office have since changed to reduce the risk of similar errors.

Board members asked whether account openings or closures required board approval; Legere said she does not need board permission to open or close accounts but offered to delay closing First Farmers at the board's request. Unidentified Speaker 1 asked her to hold off "for maybe a couple weeks" so the new president and other members could be briefed; Legere agreed and said she would summarize all issues with First Farmers in an email copied to board members.

The group discussed moving more deposits to Northwest (which Legere said had been competitive) and checking current certificate-of-deposit offers instead of locking funds long term. Unidentified Speaker 2 noted VIA would not budge from "0.025 every quarter," and Legere estimated that, with larger tax-time deposits to Northwest, the county could increase earned interest.

The treasurer also said she left a small balance in First Farmers — roughly $6,300 to $6,700 — to cover any payments that might need to be returned to another county. The board discussed reconciliation problems with area planning monthlies and whether allowing the area planning office its own account (via an ordinance amendment) would ease records; Legere said internal reconciliation would improve but cautioned an account opened separately could not be covered under the county's Northwest banking arrangement.

The meeting closed after brief discussion of the auditor's access to servers and confirmation that the board meets annually unless additional sessions are needed.