E-Help 07/27/2007
INCLUDES:
Unemployment Taxes & Third Party Administrators
Miscellaneous Resources at Ancel Glink's website
Credit Card Fees
Budget for Depreciation?
Identity Theft of Employee’s info Responses
Outsourcing Ambulance Billing (Highland)
Disaster Preparedness Guide
“Thanks again to everyone that has contributed information in the past. If you
have questions, please feel free to send me your request. If you are responding
to a request, please send your response to the requester and include me as a
“cc”. Thanks again!”
Michael Peterson
mpeterson@villageofgrayslake.com
www.imtausa.org
www.aptusc.org
www.publictreasuryinstitute.com/bookshop/catalog.do
UNEMPLOYMENT TAXES AND THIRD PARTY ADMINISTRATORS
We received some information on a company who acts as a 3rd party administrator for state unemployment taxes on a reimbursement method. Is anyone on the reimbursement method with the State of Illinois or do they have any experience with an outside vendor processing claims, etc.?
Barb Beshears
Finance Director
Lisle-Woodridge Fire District
Barb,
If you have a low turnover rate, you might be able to elect to “Reimburse
benefits in Lieu of Paying Contributions”.
The form can be found at
http://www.ides.state.il.us/forms/enabled/ui5np.pdf
I did this in East Alton and we saved some money. Grayslake chooses to pay the
rate. If you think about it, how often would a fire fighter quit his/her job
and go on unemployment? It doesn’t seem like you would have very many claims
against your “experience” history.
Michael
If you have had experience with third party administrators, please email Barb
and cc me. Thanks Michael
MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES & REFERENCE MATERIALS
The law firm of Ancel Glink took out a full page ad in the Illinois Municipal
Review announcing the free downloadable pamphlets that they have included on
their website. I think it is worth looking at. The pamphlets include: Newly
Elected Officials Guide, Labor Law Handbook for Small Govts, Illinois Tort
Immunity Handbook, Zoning Administration Handbook, Economic Development Toolbox,
and Liens.
CREDIT CARD FEES
Mike, can you see if any municipality has passed an ordinance to accept credit
card payments for fees, fines etc. Corporate Council has stated that we need to
pass this ordinance to accept payment for these. He also stated we have to have
a public hearing prior to passage?
Thank you,
Joy Nardi
City of Chicago Heights
JNardi@chicagoheights.net
Response:
Springfield IL has passed an ordinance and a copy is posted at
http://www.imtausa.org/misc.htm
State Treasurer's position regarding the need for an Ordinance: "If the
govt. office has not accepted credit cards in any previous manner or the council
has not taken action on the acceptance of credit cards for any office within the
govt/municipality ~ then Yes you must have a public hearing in accordance with
the Local Govt. of Credit Cards Acceptance Act. (50/ILCS 345)"
Tinley Park
See Local Government Acceptance of Credit Cards Act 50 ILCS 345/
Under subsection 345/20(a) – the Board can restrict what types of obligations that can be paid by Credit Card and must hold a Public Hearing to authorize acceptance of credit cards for any obligations they wish to allow. Specific reference reproduced below.
Election by Local Governmental Entities to Accept Credit Cards (50 ILCS
345/20)
Sec. 20. Election by local governmental entities to accept credit cards.
(a) The decision whether to accept credit card payments for any particular type
of obligation shall be made by the governing body of the local governmental
entity that has general discretionary authority over the manner of acceptance of
payments. The governing body may adopt reasonable rules governing the manner of
acceptance of payments by credit card. No decision to accept credit card
payments under this Act shall be made until the governing body has determined,
following a public hearing held not sooner than 10 nor later than 30 days
following public notice of the hearing, that the acceptance of credit card
payments for the types of authorized obligations specified in the public notice
is in the best interests of the citizens and governmental administration of the
local governmental entity or community college and of the students and taxpayers
thereof.
My read of the Statute is that the Board must post notice and hold a Public
Hearing to determine that
a) identifying what obligations are acceptable for payment by credit card
and
b) acceptance of credit cards for these obligations is in the best
interests of the community
The notice of Public Hearing must be posted and published at least 10 days but not more than 30 days prior to the Hearing date.
Once the Hearing has been held, the Board then can take action (i.e. Ordinance) to accept credit cards for the specified obligations.
My read of the Statute would allow the “reasonable rules governing the manner of acceptance” to be adopted separately and is probably not required to be part of the Public Hearing, unless those rules are critical to determining what obligations are acceptable (e.g. a maximum dollar limit) or a restricted method by which credit card payments will be accepted.
Since you noted that the City is already accepting credit cards, you need to review what obligations have previously been approved for acceptance, and if fines and fees (etc) are not among the “approved” list, a new Hearing and Ordinance would need to be held to either add these specific payment items to the list previously authorized or to rescind the prior authorization and replace it. For example, you could provide a “blanket” authorization for any and all obligations owed to the Village. However, due to fee considerations, a blanket authorization is probably not recommended.
Brad L. Bettenhausen
Treasurer/Finance Director
Village of Tinley Park
BUDGET SURVEY
Does your entity include Depreciation in your budget document?
Send responses to:
mpeterson@villageofgrayslake.com
Waukegan
We record depreciation for Water, Sewer, and Parking Enterprise Funds in the
budget document.
Don S. Bruessel
Algonquin
Our budget is prepared on a cash basis and the answer is no.
Jack Walde,
Finance Director
Cortland
We do not include depreciation in our budget. It is included in the financial
reports only as an audit entry.
Susan Dockus, Treasurer
Gurnee
We have not budgeted for deprecation, as the off-set of budgeting for the full
cost of capital projects on a cash basis - to date - has worked out. We only
record the depreciation directly to the water/sewer fund, and since we budget
the full cost of capital projects, but then capitalize the expense when
adjusting for audit in the actual, it has been a wash to date. That's not to
say that at some point deprecation won't exceed the amount we budgeted for
capital projects... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For general
government, we record depreciation to a special GASB 34 fund at the
recommendation of the auditors, so it is separate from our budget process.
Tina Smigielski
We don't...but I'd like to see us do that. Looking forward to your responses.
Scott Borror
Highland Park
The City of Highland Park does not budget depreciation. We budget on a cash
basis.
Elizabeth Holleb
Tinley Park
No, we do not budget depreciation. While we enter the adjustment at year end
for audit/external financial reporting, we do not budget the amounts.
Wood River
We do not include depreciation in our budget document but adjust the budget at
the end of the year to cover the actual amount.
Nancy D. Schneider, Finance Director
IDENTITY THEFT SURVEY
Does your municipality
reimburse the employee for the costs involved in resolving an identity theft
matter? Specifically in situations where the employee’s information was stolen
as the result of their job with the Village. Example, Treasurer’s personal
information is on Village Bank account. Notary person’s personal information is
kept at the IL Dept of Financial and Professional Regulation..
Send responses to: mpeterson@villageofgrayslake.com
RESPONSES:
We have no policy for this area. Could be a big expense if you do.
Jack Walde,
Finance Director
Village of Algonquin
That’s an interesting question. I’m going to bring it up at our next staff meeting. To my knowledge, we have not had such an occurrence. Personally, I think the city should take care of the expense involved, if the theft was due to job duties. But I’m going to ask our city attorney and see what he thinks…..I’ll let you know.
Cindy Roth, Treasurer
City of Alton
We have not encountered the identify theft situation, so I am not sure how we
would handle that.
Elizabeth Holleb
City of Highland Park
OUTSOURCE AMBULANCE BILLING
We are looking to outsource our ambulance billing.
Can anyone share their experience with any of these third party vendors for
Ambulance Billing?
Medi-Claims
Efficient Billing Systems
ARS (Ambulance Reimbursement Systems)
Andres
Thanks.
Sharon Rusteberg,
Director of Finance
City of Highland Illinois
www.highlandil.gov
RESPONSES:
The
City of South Beloit
currently uses Andres Medical Billing. We are currently looking for other third
party billing vendors, as nearly 70% of our billings our in collections.
However, when the City had run it years ago the collection rate was not much
better (Have not reached a determination as to why yet). I hope this helps. Let
me know which third party billing Highland chooses and why, thanks.
Michael J. Salmons
Director of Finance
City of South Beloit