Seward County commissioners review first-quarter finances, flag software and reconciliation problems

Seward County commissioners spent most of their meeting reviewing first-quarter revenue and expenditure reports, pressing staff for line-item clarifications and scheduling follow-up work sessions to resolve accounting and software problems.

Chair (speaker 1) opened the discussion with a quarter-to-date overview, noting that timing — not necessarily overspending — explained many apparent variances. The chair pointed to an annual insurance payment and benefit changes that took effect May 1 as examples that distort percent-of-year comparisons.

County finance staff (speaker 8) told commissioners that some line items currently show misleading percentages because contracts and annual purchases post at different times and because several funds were budgeted with zero amounts, which causes division-by-zero errors in percentage calculations. Staff reported year-to-date collections for several lines (for example, delinquent personal-property collections of $6,115.15) and said she would pull and distribute clearer, line-item spreadsheets.

Commissioners pressed for follow-up on several anomalies. Staff flagged ‘interest on investments’ lines showing negative monthly amounts (a negative $144,516 in February and a negative $23,081.37 in March) and said she would check with the treasurer and 'Mary' to reconcile why monthly amounts appear negative while year-to-date totals are positive.

The board also reviewed changes to employee health coverage. Staff presented an updated annual cost estimate of $4,021,792.80 for the county health plan, down from an earlier projection of $4,664,640, and noted that employee contributions had increased to $388,720 from an earlier estimate of about $335,049.40. Staff also said about 21 employees opted out of county coverage, which affects the net savings calculations. Commissioners asked staff to reconcile those figures with earlier projections provided by IMA and to provide a concise summary for the next meeting.

A significant operational issue dominated much of the meeting: the county's migration to a new financial/billing system and unresolved ACH posting and reconciliation problems. Staff said roughly $1,700,000 in ACH receipts was sitting in a Bank of Beaver City account awaiting internal distribution and reconciliation. “It's setting in the Bank of Beaver City account — 1,700,000 plus — that's gonna be transferred and reconciled,” a commissioner (speaker 2) said, describing the cash as received by the bank but not yet posted to internal accounts.

Commissioners and staff discussed the software vendor's difficulty reconciling multiple county entities (for example, Seward County Landfill vs. Seward County Waste Management) and the operational burden of running two lines of business on one platform. Staff recommended converting handwritten event calendars into spreadsheets, using reimbursement line items for millings sales, and considering work sessions with the vendor to 'get the ball rolling.' Commissioners debated escalation (including legal pressure) but agreed to continue vendor engagement and to schedule technical work sessions before taking stronger measures.

On grants and departmental impacts, staff reported that civil-defense emergency-management had missed a grant application during a staffing transition; staff said last year’s emergency-management grant covered roughly $95,000 in salaries. Commissioners flagged EMS staffing and a $26,000 reduction to its budget as areas requiring care so that cuts do not produce unintended overtime or staffing shortfalls.

Before adjourning, staff confirmed she would circulate memos and CIC-generated spreadsheets to department heads and outside agencies and would supply the line-item clarifications commissioners requested. The meeting closed on a procedural motion: "Motion by Commissioner Stanton, a second by Commissioner Vasquez to adjourn," which the chair called in favor; the motion passed 5–1.

Next steps: staff will provide corrected line-item spreadsheets, reconcile negative interest and unposted ACH items with the treasurer, and schedule follow-up meetings (including a possible vendor work session) to resolve software posting and reconciliation problems.