- All right, go ahead. I think we're ready. Well, I'll call to order this executive committee meeting
- of the waste reduction district of Monroe County. And we have with us, uh, it's. Board secretary, pencil,
- 13 books and myself for chair is about people on Smith from the city council. And of course, Tom Glass is here.
- Just to confirm. A quick question from TSD. Should William Goins be a presenter? There's an account
- that I've let in as an attendee named William Goins, and I wasn't sure if he was. He's on the advisory
- committee. It wouldn't hurt. I don't know that there's anything that he's going to present on, but if
- he has questions or something, it would be fine for him
- participate. OK. I'll go ahead and allow Mike and camera. Theresa, you can hear us, right? Well,
- you're muted, but as long as you can hear us. OK. OK. So I've basically done a roll call, right? Yes.
- So we have the executive committee meeting minutes from December 2nd. And I did submit some
- minor corrections. Move approval with corrections. Second. We discussed, we were discussing those before
- you got here. So there are
- Ms. Pinoza did say she did add some lines to just acknowledging that there was consensus of the committee
- to forward things onto the board agenda that are not in there. So I do not have a copy with those for
- signature, but we'll make those corrections and include an unsigned copy in the board packet and I'll
- have a copy for signature at the board meeting. Sounds good. All in favor say aye. Aye.
- Any post. All right, then any comments on the board of director meeting minutes, which will go to the
- board for approval. I have not seen if you made any changes to the. But I think it was just typos. Okay.
- No, move approval with your.
- Just need consensus to forward them to the board. Oh, right. Forward. Be gone with you minutes. Forward.
- Away with you. Okay. Elective officers, is this just a reminder that we will need to do this? It will
- be after roll call, first order of business with the January meeting. Okay. Accounting.
- accounting software adjusting entry. Tom or Teresa, you want to tell us about this one? I think Teresa
- is probably better prepared to discuss this tonight. Okay, so when law associates completed the conversion
- of the accounting system from Harris to or to lap from Harris, there was a discrepancy of approximately 48,000.
- Kathy, the controller at the time, and myself, the current one, then vastly worked with representatives
- of law and state board accounting and government accounting consultants Hartman and Williams to identify
- these discrepancies. Law and state board of accounts both initially advised that the district should
- not make any immediate entries and see if it clears off, if not,
- We had to wait for like a year or more, which we did. The consensus among those who have looked closely
- at the issues of this description state is result of clerical and or entry errors made in Harris and
- no funds are missing. Monthly bank reconciliation have always balanced and there are no unaccounted
- for exponential or missing receipts.
- identified at least 30,000 and made that adjustment. And that was with payroll and claims. And the remaining
- balance is approximately 17,000. So with that, the state board of directors had advised us that we should
- make a correcting adjustment entry to remove that discrepancy.
- then they had informed us that that would just need to be approved by the board of directors. Okay,
- thank you. So looking at the actual adjustment sheets. Yeah, so that first one is a receipt adjustment.
- We were told by Hartman and Williams that that amount is from the flex spending account, that the bank
- account. We never actually had a flex spending fund in LAO. So we were informed that this amount was
- always included in the general operating fund account. So that is why that's a negative entry. And then
- if you go to the next page, the claims adjustments,
- The 27,645 was the different, the unknown difference from the State Board of Count audit and from 12-31-23.
- So that held out for like a year and a half. Nothing's changed. And then there was an additional variance
- from that 4,300. The additional variance was from 12-31-23.
- 23 to 1,124. So there was an adjustment made in Harris right after the actual audit figures were configured.
- Again, that was an unknown variance that we could not find. So if you take the negative 14 and the most
- positive 27 and the positive 4,000, that brings it down to the 17,000 of offage that we need to clear off.
- $17,199.50 is what those entries add up to that were the net adjustment being made. OK. $17,199.50.
- Yep. So ask questions. Of course. Do we have to answer them?
- That's up to you. So I get the math on the entries here. It sounds like there was an audit at the end
- of 2023. And that was as part of what? Is that like a regular audit? Yeah, that was just the routine
- periodic audit that SBOA does of all solid waste.
- okay all taxing entities that occurs anywhere from every two to four years okay so but that was the
- last time there wasn't yeah that was our last audit and then the discrepancy was found at that point
- there there was a discrepancy in that audit uh and i apologize i did not look at um the report from
- that audit it was referenced in the
- audit report from SBOA. And that about half of that was the 14,000 that was related to the flex spending
- account. When we began offering the flex spending account, we opened up a separate bank account
- because the rules of flex spending, if I say I'm going to contribute $5,000 this year, January 1,
- I had $5,000 available to me. At that time, we managed it internally, so we had to open an account and
- fund that account at the beginning of each year so that those funds were available and then the payroll
- deductions over the course of the year would wash that out. What do you mean?
- Right. Flex spending is you contribute X dollars a year. The employee does. The employee. The employee.
- So it's employee money. Oh, okay. We also contributed to it. Not for flex spending, but we have to make
- that total amount available at the beginning of the year. That's the way the flex spending account works. Um,
- And of course, if somebody leaves in the middle of the year, you eat that money if they've spent it
- already. And then subsequently to that, we then hired a third party administrator to manage the flex
- spending account and our COBRA, if we had anybody that went on COBRA. And so then,
- That third party then took over the funding and we just contributed the required payroll deductions
- every pay period. So we didn't have to do the outlet of cash once we had it. Right. But that bank account
- never got closed and brought back into the operating fund account. And I don't know
- the specifics off the top of my head, but the way that all was managed in Harris, that created half
- of that discrepancy that the State Board of Accounts identified. Because we had $14,000 on the books
- that wasn't in the bank account because it was in a separate bank account.
- So that's where about half of that was. I would have to go back through and look at things to find out
- where the rest of that was. And then we subsequently turned around in April following that and did the
- conversion to LOW, and they came up with other offages. And that was not SBOA necessarily? That was
- in the transition with the other company? Yeah.
- And I do recall that a big chunk of that somehow, someway in Harris, because at that time we offered
- two different health insurance policies, the standard PPO plan and then a health savings account plan.
- And with the health savings account plan, the district offered to those employees a set amount of money
- at the beginning of each policy year when they renewed into that 1,000 for a single coverage, 2,000
- for a family plan. And in 2024, that somehow got set up in Harris that it occurred every payroll, but
- the money never left. But on the books, Harris, every payroll contributed that 1,000 or $2,000. So it
- came off the books,
- but we never sent the money anywhere. Cause it was a one time. Cause it's a one. Yeah. So we. Yeah.
- Well, that's crazy counts. So, yeah. And so, and so those are the, but, and those are, I mean, those
- are the big ticket items, but those are the types of things that the bookkeeping or clerical entry errors
- that everybody believes amassed that total of the 48,000, whatever that, that Lyle came up with when
- they did the conversion.
- and I think that SBOA during the audit and subsequently Hartman and Williams as well as Ms.
- Gollins and Ms. Martin looked at all this and everybody's confident that we're not missing any money.
- It didn't get accounted for correctly.
- Typically, what I would ask in situations like this, which come up occasionally, as they do, is has
- anything been put into place to ensure that these types of discrepancies are less likely to happen in
- the future? Well, I mean, I guess
- A straight quick answer to that is we have internal controls. Now, we maybe need to sit down and go
- through the internal controls to see was something not followed or was something not covered in the
- internal controls that would potentially prohibit something like this from happening. I think having
- used LAL for almost two years now,
- I'm a lot more comfortable with how LAL works, with how the employees work with LAL, that these things
- are less likely to happen. But that doesn't necessarily mean that we should review the internal controls
- and just do we need to change a policy, beef up a policy and a policy. Yeah. I mean, that seems wise.
- So you and Teresa will look at our internal control. Yes. And then next go around when it's time for
- an audit from SBOA. They know about this, but they will probably say, oh, OK, so here this happened
- and you followed the remedy. Will there be, do you think, more
- unpacking of this that we need to, I mean, I'm just trying to get ahead of anything that might be coming
- that might open this back up. Yeah, I guess I'm not, I don't believe so, but that's gonna qualify that
- by saying that is going to depend on the auditor because so the most recent audit was actually was completed
- in late summer, early fall of 2024, covering through year end of 23. So the auditor that was here at
- that time knew about all of this because we were going through it all while she was there. We were going
- through it all with Lyle trying to figure this out while she was there auditing. She didn't really get
- involved in it because it wasn't covering the timeframe that she was specifically looking at.
- But she was there, so we kind of bounced some things off her because she was the SPOA, what do we do
- here? And so if the same auditor comes in, I don't anticipate that there'll be a whole lot of digging
- into it because she has some familiarity with what the issue is. Yeah. And we were informed to make
- sure we have all the backup, the paperwork and everything so we're ready for the audit, if that is question for sure.
- Oh, yeah, we have a nice size folder. Good times. Okay. Yeah, I think continuing to document, especially
- internal controls review would be a good idea. But if the totals match, I mean, if you're not missing
- money. We don't appear to be.
- can seem to find anything that just says, well, this. That's terrifying, but OK. It is. But I mean,
- I think it's, again, it had to do with the health savings account somehow got entered wrong to where
- it occurred every pay period, not a one-time thing. Because that wasn't an employee deduction. That
- was the district's contribution. And that was moments to that, Harris. Yes.
- And another area that everybody kind of zeroed in on in Harris was the way that the payroll liabilities
- were done and managed by Harris. And we were using Harris to things like the payroll deductions for
- benefits as well as taxes.
- I don't know, Theresa probably knows a little bit about that, but Kathy Martin was, that was where she
- zeroed in on first because she was our control when we did the transition. And that's part of why I
- say that with having worked with LOW for almost two years now, I'm a lot more comfortable with the way
- that the areas that we focused on that we think led to this discrepancy are managed in LOW.
- I'm a lot more comfortable with that than the way it was there. Okay. Well, it sounds like you've done
- everything you could do to try to figure this out. We've tried. Since I started in October of 24, after
- all this, I've been really digging in and wanting to get this cleaned up and resolved. Like I said,
- we've been working with
- The Hartman and Williams, we've been working with Lau and the state board accounts and they feel that
- this is the best thing and nothing, and especially with Hartman and Williams, they said nothing changes.
- They balanced everything with our bank accounts and then the month closing financials information and
- they feel the same way.
- And then, as you can see, we have the reports that allow here. So we have made the adjusting entries
- into the accounting software, because Theresa and I really wanted to get it done this year so that when
- we reconcile at the end of this year, everything is where it needs to be for 2026. But SBOA did say
- that when you get to that point that you're ready to make the adjustment,
- that the board needs to approve and be aware that this is happening. So we're bringing this to the board
- in January, basically for a retroactive approval of actions that we've already taken, just so that we
- had everything reconciled and balanced going into 2026. And we're allowed to do that retroactive approval?
- Yeah. Well, if we could at the next executive committee meeting, and I may
- We may not be on the executive committee, but could we have a report back from your review of the internal
- controls? Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. We'll review them and certainly report back and potentially propose
- revisions. Great. Awesome. So we are going to talk about this at the board meeting. Yes.
- And I have a question and we'll hopefully can in a hold of legal or I may just do it. The question is
- to whether or not this, the board action on this needs to be done under resolution or not. Okay.
- And if I, I may just do put up a resolution if I can't get an answer from legal with the holiday schedules
- and stuff. That's more official. Yes. Should cover us. Yeah.
- And again, it's just documenting that the board has been apprised of the situation and approved the
- adjustment that was made in the system. All right, thank you. Thank you, Theresa. Yeah, thank you. And
- I'm sure that was a lot of headache. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I just want to say at the end and ask my question.
- Well, like I said, just coming in, I was like freaking out. I'm like, oh my gosh, what is wrong with
- all this? Oh, yeah. Welcome to controller. Here's the big issue. OK, so the next item on our agenda
- is a resolution to amend the district approved vendor list. Yeah, I mean, there's some of this is some
- cleanup stuff. The two changes that really
- Precipitated this, we are, let's switch from IU Health to Anthem for the health insurance. And then
- our cleaning service has had to move on from us due to other commitments. So the new cleaning service
- is actually her sister who has helped her off and on for years and is familiar with us so that we don't
- anticipate. That's another reason to be about the same.
- Yeah, pricing will be the same, and we expect about the same level of service and stuff from her. And
- then we just, new contractor for roll-off box repair, that's Anchor Contracting, that's because the
- boxes are stored at Rumpke now, so we're using the same contractor they use, just it's simpler that way.
- down there and do other things. And Aretha had noticed that our banking institution is not on the filter.
- So we thought we better put them on there. And then we're taking off Deluxe. It was the previous company
- that we purchased checks from. We already had the, we had to switch to Loud. The Deluxe vendor did not
- have the template
- that Lau needed. So do we get our checks printed through a vendor who's already on our vendor list?
- Yeah, we added them, made the switch to Lau. Yeah, Rainbow Printing is who we get them from in Bedford.
- Oh, yeah. They've been around a long time. I've worked with them. And then we'd held on to Harris and
- renewed that license
- After the initial switch to allow, but we're comfortable now that we can continue to get what we need
- out of out of Paris and. It's been long enough since the switch that will. We can not renew that license.
- We should be good to go. So have we never had to make a payment to join American before? We make credit
- card payment to him on a monthly basis.
- Yeah. So it's not on our vendor list. That's always been on the board where the board has approved the
- credit card payment. Yeah, it just comes with the board meeting approvals. And there's some fees associated
- with taking the debit and credit cards at HHW.
- I should know this, but can you remind me, so vendors that are not on the approved vendor list? Come
- to the board meeting for approval. Okay. And so when we get those payments for approval, it doesn't
- include payments to vendors that are on the vendor list? No, they will. I mean, the claims to get emailed
- the day before the board meeting,
- I mean, depending on when invoices, when things come in to be paid, it doesn't really matter at that
- point if they're on the vendor list or not. But if we get claims between board meetings for vendors
- that aren't on the vendor list, we hold those and then they get sent that Wednesday before the board
- meeting so they're approved at the board meeting. And that's why occasionally the controller will note
- these vendors are in this batch and they're not on the vendor list.
- Okay, I don't remember hearing that, but. Alright, so they can see that if they're not on the vendor
- list, they still get paid, but it's delayed. Yeah, the vendor list just allows us to. To pay claims
- between board meetings with board chair approval, or then a few years ago, we passed that resolution
- that. Provided for utility payments, contractual obligations, things related to payroll that we can
- pay those.
- without anybody on the board reviewing them. They just had to be reviewed and approved at the board
- meeting. Thank you. Hard to keep track of how these things work. Shouldn't be so hard. Theresa has all
- sorts of lists of what has to happen when we try to write a check to somebody. Sure. Any questions on
- that resolution?
- I do not have any, no. All right. Then the last item on the agenda is can't you all anything else deemed
- appropriate? I don't think so. Do you have anything, Tom? Do you have anything, Kate? I do not. Well,
- that's not true. I saw the website for the grant and stuff.
- I'm just wondering, have you gotten anything on that? We've certainly not received any applications
- at this point. I have not gotten any inquiries about it. The links to the grant document and the application
- actually go to our document or public section of our Dropbox.
- I don't know how on our website to upload a PDF and somebody could download it. That was the quickest.
- It can be done. I just don't know how to do that and we were trying to get it out there. I should be
- able to go into Dropbox though and see if somebody has accessed any of that stuff. I haven't looked
- to do that. But we also put a notice on our Facebook page about it and Blue Sky.
- I think I have to check with Elisa. She got it on blue sky, but yeah, we're putting it out there. I
- think I emailed when we got the web page set up, I emailed that to the board. That could be passed on
- to anybody that any board members feel might be interested or appropriate for that. Elisa is out for
- the holidays right now, but when she gets back,
- We'll probably do some PSA's on radio and maybe in the paper. Um, put that out there and promote it
- and see what we can get. Cool. I passed it along to our environmental commission liaison. So they should
- see it at some point. I just don't know. Yeah, I assume he'll email the members so that they can sort
- of spread the word.
- And I mean, we'll do an update at the board meeting on that and see what information I can get as far
- as inquiries that have come in or who's downloaded copies of the application. And, you know, as we talked
- about last month, you know, I worry about, you know, the timing of getting everything done in 2026.
- You know, the board could always extend the application deadline if there's a desire or people feel
- there's a need to do so based on what we have or haven't gotten in the next week or two. The deadline's
- the end of this month or end of January. Yeah, cool. I think 30th, but I think that was on Friday. Thank you.
- Well, if there's nothing else, I think we can adjourn. Adjourn. OK. Thank you. Happy New Year. Yes,
- happy New Year.