Agenda - Council - 05/28/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I City learns of undone work Continued from page l But becau.ne Wright County is still sending the city bills, he believes the engineering work is still not completely paid. "This whole thing is just one big mystery to me because there is no documentation," John_son said. Council member Estella Gunkel asked Johnson if former City Ad- ministrator Bob Middaugh had in- tended to apply for discretionary MSA funds to reimburse the city. Again, Johnson said he didn't know because it wasn't documented. He said he and Groan attempted to call Middaugh at his new job as town manager in Watertown, Corm· If the state approves Elk River's request for reimbursement with MSA funds, Johnson said it may or may not decrease the amount the ci- ty gets this year for other planned MSA projects. "That's where we are handicap- ped,'' he said. Until the city knows the answer to how much it will receive in MSA funds, it may not be able to plan other projects. Ro~d improvements on Tyler Street and Industrial Boulevard were among projects to be con- sidereal for MSA financing. Under-computation? But the area Groan identified as the "most serious problem" la the city'~ underutiliz~tion of Its com. puter eysLem. "in the two, plus week.~ we were here. the computer was used twice for the purpose of writing checks," he said. "That's rather an expensive and good sysLem and it's used no where near what it could be." Since the computer, which cost the city approximately $15,000, is used only for payroll, Groen believes it hasn't offered much improvement. "That is probably the largest set of manual records I have men in a long. long time" Groan said of the city's financial records. He suggested the city look into forming a task force to determine how to make better use of the com- puter and recommended the city hire a part-time finance director to oversee the improved utilization of the computer. He also suggested the city con- sider having the liquor store manager use it for the monthly financial statement and the public utilities commission use it for their billing. He added that unless the city makes better use of the computer by June, at the end of its fiscal year, it will be another year before it can be used again. The council took no action on Groen's report.