Starting in January, residents paying cash for city services will have to do so through the Tax Office only.
The move is in response to repeated audit findings that cash handling rules were not being followed. In remarks on a corrective action plan for the 2013 audit, Chief Financial Officer Al Steinberg told the City Council Monday that cash was kept in unlocked drawers in City Hall Annex, among other lapses. All cash is supposed to be deposited within 48 hours of receipt, auditors said.
Here is the new process:
Starting January 1, 2015 the City of Plainfield will accept cash payment exclusively through the
Tax Office. Each office that accepts cash payments will receive a receipt book which will be
color coded to their department. The forms will be four parts, (one copy stays in the book while
the customer brings the three remaining parts to the Tax Department along with the cash payment
to be endorsed as the deposit is made by Tax. The Tax Department then takes one copy of the
endorsed cash receipt and the customer takes the remaining two parts back to the originating
department where one copy is given as payment for the good or service received and the other is
given to the customer as his/her receipt. The Departmental copy is then submitted to Finance at
month end along with the Departmental Monthly Report.
Councilman Cory Storch questioned "making residents do all this work" and said he hoped the process will be made more user-friendly. While Steinberg mentioned the need for staff education on fiscal rules, Finance Director Ron West put it more bluntly.
"We've asked the team to unlearn everything they ever learned about doing their jobs. They have to learn a whole new way to do their jobs," West said.
Steinberg is the first permanent CFO since Peter Sepelya retired in 2007 and West follows a span of six finance directors in the previous administration's eight-year tenure, including some gaps with no one in charge.
Each year, city auditors make a report on the city's fiscal practices and the council must sign a corrective action plan. For 2013, nine of 16 recommendations were unresolved from prior years. Still, the city was able to dodge a state penalty for not adhering to best practices, which in 2012 caused loss of a portion of state aid.
--Bernice
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I get the need for tighter cash handling processes but seriously we are doing the multi part booklets with city "customers" running a relay to get them signed, stamped, checked, sorted, counted etc? Doesn't the tax department have access to a computer system where they could just post the payment to the appropriate department/cost center, print (or email a receipt) and call it a day? Or if that isn't possible (for some crazy reason), can't it be a two part form, the person takes it to the tax office, they note payment, give receipt to "customer" and the city copy gets sent to the appropriate dept via internal mail where they can then post it (of write it in the ledger with the quill?). The need for the changes is understandable and I am glad they are being made but this archaic process that "customers" have to go through and the creation of more paper seems silly. A little process re-engineering is in order here. As long as everyone is learning new things lets learn things from 2014 instead of 1984.
ReplyDeleteOkay lets admit what this means .... you can not trust the people in City Hall and the management over them are incompetent to do so. Tax Collector arrested years ago, Police Officers as well over the years with a number of clerks fired for problems. So what should we do ?? How about new welcome to the City signs that say, Welcome to Plainfield, Lock Your Doors and watch your pocketbooks at City Hall.
ReplyDeleteCory, do you really think this has to do with the citizens paying cash? It has less to do with the people and more with how cash is handled, or mishandled in City Hall.
ReplyDeleteI have one question, will these receipts be numbered, and will there be a check to see if there are any missing numbers?
We are trying to correct many years of neglect by the last administration. No, the computer system isn't the best and should have been replaced years ago. At least something is being done so our tax money is getting where its supposed to go. It is a work in process.
ReplyDeleteBob,
DeleteWho is the "WE"? Nice job you have.
Let's see - you want to require a city employee to have a checking account for payroll deduction - why not make citizens have a checking account for payment of services provided by the city - or at lease have them get a money order. And I see is going to develop online payments in the future. Great - Let's lose about 2% of revenue to PayPal or other online payment processing. And instead of having the funds made available immediately for investment, the City will have to wait 5-7 days for payments to be made available.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that the city is addressing the stealing going on in city hall.
ReplyDeleteBut, where is the city technology director in all this? I can't believe there isn't software out there where each department can log in monies due and the tax department can log that the money was accepted, and balanced by some kind of cash register account that gets deposits to the bank and are reconciled.
These softwares can't be that expensive. Many work in clouds, accessed by the internet. It's not like you need to have a server farm to take care of the city's computer needs.
What's the point of having a technology director if everything is going to be done on paper? Stupid, really stupid.
Making your "customers" (us, the taxpayers), do all this running around for a manual, paper process is bad. Come on, city hall -- there is a better process out there. If you have to retrain people, why not do it with a software using a cloud database via a secure internet connection? The key people could have keys that produce codes so only they can get in. Heck, that stuff has been around for many years.
Look at how AJ has computerized and modernized his department. I'm sure he didn't have a huge budget to do it. Hell, any of us can get a cheap printer/scan and post things to the web.
This is the problem of not having the properly talent/skills in jobs at city hall. It's all "old boy" network -- people who know people, who really don't have the skills in modern technology or thinking.
Nothing like a 19th Century fix for the 21st Century. Really, four copy receipts? How about an abacus or knotted rope to do the daily tallies. C'mon now! Print a receipt from a printer and have the computer log each entry to a centralized cash ledger.
DeleteWho will do the walking for the developers?
ReplyDeleteMr. Mayor, Your current employees can't follow the procedures required to do their jobs? Maybe you should consider removing them and hiring people who will. Should it be up to the taxpayer (who pays their salaries) to do a portion of their job also? I had hoped a new mayor would clean out the mess at City Hall and services would improve. Doesn't appear that's gonna happen...
ReplyDeleteCivil service makes it hard to fire someone outright or so I hear. It's sort of like trying to turn around a giant ship.
DeleteOne way to enact real change is a city wide tax revolt. If we keep taking steps backward then why not take steps back into the sixties when Americans had real courage to stand up for change?
DeleteWHAT THE WHAT!? Are you kidding me? You mean to say that there is so little trust, that if a city employee receives cash, they are so sure it won't be accounted for that they have devised this asinine and ridiculous system? This sounds like it would only lead to more missing money. How on earth could something like this seriously be tracked properly? I mean, I guess at least the mayor is taking a swing at fixing the problem which is more than the old mayor did. She was never even in the ballpark.
ReplyDeleteI guess this answers the question about whether we have a computer network in the city that is real, modern and works..
ReplyDeleteMost people can use a check or get a money order for their services. Inspections office hasn't used cash in years. Money orders can be purchased a block away from City Hall. I just hope the administration is hot on the trail of the thief. Nothing says a civil service employee can't be fired and arrested due to theft.
ReplyDeleteThe City doesn't fire people - Look at the recent incident with the Police Officers falsifying records for extra duty jobs and collecting money for work they did not do. What does the City do? Instead of firing them, they offer them a slap on the wrist if they return the money.
Delete