Commissioners approve payment of bills after extended review; raise concerns about purchase orders and duplicate utility charges

Williams County commissioners approved payment of the bills on the agenda but spent substantial time questioning line-item details, purchase orders and recurring utility charges before recording their votes.

A commissioner pointed out that purchase orders and bills were mixed together on the payment list and highlighted a $140,000 purchase-order entry appearing alongside standard invoices. "So we've got purchase orders mixed in with the bills," a commissioner said, noting the list included both PR-coded bills and blank entries that indicated purchase orders.

Members raised a separate issue about what appeared to be a duplicate fiber/utility charge: one entry dated July and another dated January for the county fiber connection to the records center and engineer's office. Commissioners asked staff (Andrea and Jeremy were identified in discussion) to investigate whether a mailed check had been lost, whether an invoice had been resubmitted, and whether the county still receives paper mail to the courthouse because vendor addresses were not updated to the county's current office.

Commissioners suggested two operational fixes: (1) require a short note on invoices that are 'catch-up' payments so reviewers know why an older charge appears, and (2) pursue electronic invoicing to give staff transparent date-and-approval trails. "Changing this address on the top of it that at least mails it to the right building would be very important," one commissioner said.

The board moved and approved the payment resolution by roll call after those clarifications. Staff were directed to research the duplicate charges and report back with documentation showing whether payments had been submitted, approved and recorded.