Written by Takeaways from tonight’s Marion City Council meeting:
1) The enhanced cybersecurity ordinance passed unanimously. Among other things, the City’s IT manager is supposed to be implementing a new ticketing system for all work orders. Amazingly this wasn’t being done.
2) Ordinance authorizing the Auditor or the Budget Director to contract with a third party to assist with the reconciliation of the city’s books passed unanimously under emergency provisions. The ordinance appropriates $20,000 for the project. City to hire a former employee of Tyler Technologies, the company that created and administers the infamous and highly deficient New World software that the city installed in 2009. The consultant, Mr. Vedder, will immediately begin working on the project with his team of professionals. His first task will be to perform an assessment of the problem and provide a timeline for resolution. Tyler Technologies/New World will pay for the cost of the system analysis. If Mr. Vedder discovers issues with the system, he will contact Tyler Technologies/New World to assist with resolution. Although $20,000 was appropriated by Council for the reconciliation project, if additional funds are needed, the Collins administration will request them from Council at a later meeting.
3) Ordinance appropriating an additional $6,000 to the city’s ADP payroll software conversion project was unanimously approved under emergency conditions. Although progress has been made, there are still significant issues with the system, largely because of the negligent manner in which it was set up under the former Marion City Auditor, Miranda Meginness. Corrections to the W2s for city employees have not been completed and there are still outstanding issues with payroll. Mayor Collins is confident that the problems with ADP and payroll will be resolved within the next two weeks.
4) It was announced that when the city converted to ADP in November 2025, former Marion City Auditor Miranda Meginness did not input the payroll data into the New World system. As a result, the city’s accounting is incorrect, since it runs on New World. Correct payroll data will need to be input into New World in order to balance the books and close out the accounting for 2025.
Here’s a link to the agenda from tonight’s meeting: