05-15-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

Commission Minutes-May 15, 2006 3069 f. Authorize the chairman to sign a purchase order for the Road Department in the amount of $40,500 from RDO Equipment, Kindred, North Dakota, for the purchase of three rotary mowers. g. Approve a request from Social Services to solicit food items from the Fargo Fire Department for a foster care picnic to be held June 8, 2006. h. Contract approval: North Dakota Department of Transportation-traffic safety grant in the amount of $6,100 for occupant protection and other traffic safety enforcement around the Memorial Day weekend by the Sheriff's Department; Drug Task Force grant funds-accept the 2006 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance grant award in the amount of $70,259 and authorize the chairman to sign the award documents. i. Approve raffle permit for the Cass County Historical Society to be held December 4, 2006, at Bonanzaville, U.S.A. in West Fargo, North Dakota. 6. TAX SYSTEM ASSESSMENT STUDY, Receive recommendations from Eide Baillv Terry Schmaltz, Information Technology, introduced Brett Anderson from Eide Bailly Technology Consulting. Mr. Anderson provided a presentation on a study conducted to analyze the county's property tax system. He said about twenty people were interviewed, including county staff, private organizations and other governmental entities. The assessment found several shortcomings with the current system and some are listed as follows: the tax timeline; lack of historical references on new parcel identification numbers; interaction with the auditor, treasurer and recorder offices when recording a document; integration of information from Cass County, Fargo, West Fargo and other vendors; and tax payment reconciliation. Mr. Anderson said the recommendations from the study are to be used as a starting point for discussions when considering a new tax system. Their firm recommends better handling of parcel changes; maintaining more detailed tax information; improving the special assessment process; electronic entry of the tax roll; improving the information available on the internet; overlapping functions among the auditor, treasurer and recorder offices to simplify the document recording process; and requesting more detailed bank statements from financial institutions to reduce time spent reconciling them each month. Mr. Anderson said the county has done well with the current technology; however, customer expectations are changing and the need for additional information is increasing. He said Fargo and West Fargo are moving forward with more features and functionality and the county may want to consider their input. Mr. Montplaisir said finding a system that meets all the county's needs may be difficult and he feels that using the same software as Fargo and West Fargo may be a possibility. The program will need to be compatible with the GIS system, and he prefers the system have the capability to access documents kept at the recorder's office. He anticipates the review process to begin immediately with discussion on available options to continue into 2007.