By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – McLean County’s administrator revealed Monday night that hundreds of county government employees almost didn’t get paid on time last month, while late fees continue to add up because the county is tardy paying bills.
The problems result from an ongoing dispute between the county government’s two elected fiscal officers, who appeared for a special meeting before the County Board’s Finance Committee.
Treasurer Rebecca McNeil is claiming Auditor Michelle Anderson unilaterally changed bookkeeping methods, although Anderson claims state law authorizes her to devise financial record-keeping systems.
“I’m going to call it a professional disagreement, though I think we’ve seen a lot of evidence that it hasn’t been as professional as it should be,” remarked Finance Committee member Carlo Robustelli.
Harsh rhetoric did not help matters, as committee member Chuck Erickson told Anderson.
“Calling Becky (McNeil) a liar was not useful, and was not helpful,” said Erickson.
“All it did was throw fire on this whole thing,” Erickson added.
Last month, Anderson was not in the office to approve payroll, so Administrator Camille Rodriguez said she stepped in to sign off on payroll or else approximately 800 county workers would not have been paid the next day.
Anderson says her office is not responsible for any delays. She faced questioning from members including Josh Barnett.
“Late fees are happening on bills right now. There are department heads who are confused when they look at their budgets, where things are being charged, and how they’re being properly coded. So whatever change you made is causing confusion within the day-to-day operations of the county,” said Barnett.
“I’m curious why you did not take the initiative to properly communicate that out to all of the interested parties within county government?”
Anderson responded, “I don’t know that I have a great answer for that.”
Anderson approves payroll, but check-cutting duties were transferred to McNeil last year.
Committee member Laurie Wollrab made similar appeals to Anderson and McNeil to set aside their hard feelings.
“I know there’s been a lot of bad blood between the two of you, but try to overcome those barriers and work as professional people, that I know you both are, and be able to come up with some processes and procedures that makes sense for the county, so we’re not in this problem, and our employees, and our vendors, and so on, are not in these problems.
“Yes ma’am,” said McNeil.
Anderson gave a similar response.
The two agreed to help the county develop written policies. The Finance Committee is recommending the county board also hire an independent Certified Public Accountant and an outside firm to perform a special audit.
The McLean County State’s Attorney’s office is preparing a legal opinion on the matter.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
