Pulaski County officials continue to consider proposals for banking services and a new email system. When the county commissioners and Treasurer Teresa Bryant convened as the board of finance last week, she said the county got four bids from local banks for cash management services.
“We’ve always been about the least amount of cost for us and the most, as far as cash coming back to us,” Bryant explained. “Also, we’ve really got to stress on the security, and I think a couple of them have really addressed that: 1st Source and First National Bank [of Monterey], mainly. Because with all the fraud going on, we’ve got to be really careful, because unfortunately, we do not want anything like that crazy stuff like that going on.”
Bryant said that with those two banks, the county could expect to earn an interest rate of between two and three percent. The commissioners agreed to let her continue reviewing the bids, before making a decision on March 18.
Meanwhile, IT Director Matt Voltz said he’s continued negotiating with Golden Tech, which submitted the lower of the two quotes the county received for a new email system. “I got them to lower it,” he said. “They were charging us some monthly management fees per user. I said I don’t need that. I can do it myself. I’m familiar with the system already. So it went from $20,000 a year down to $15,000, and I’ve still got that in my budget. There’s a $2,400 one-time service fee for them helping us get it switched over, and then it’d just be the $15,000 a year.”
When Voltz initially presented the quotes last month, the county’s two judges said they wanted to make sure the new system would be compatible with their court software. Last week, they said Voltz has since met with all the department heads, and they don’t think there would be any problems. However, the commissioners decided to hold off on approving the contract with Golden Tech, until County Attorney Kevin Tankersley has a chance to review it.
