A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

APRIL 25, 1978

The Lake County Board of County Commissioners convened in Special Session on Tuesday, April 25, 1978, at 1:35 p.m. in the Board of County Commissioners’ Room, Courthouse, Tavares, Florida. Present were: James R. Carson, Jr., Chairman; Thomas J. Windram; Glenn C. Burhans; C.A. “Lex” Deems; and J.M. Hoskinson. Others present were: James C. Watkins, Clerk; Christopher C. Ford, County Attorney; and Jennifer Kennedy, Deputy Clerk.

Commr. Carson announced that the Special Meeting had been called to receive Mr. Bond Anderson III’s report and proposals regarding the operations of the Lake County Finance Department.

At this time, Mr. Watkins introduced Mr. Bond Anderson, a Certified Public Accountant, who had been previously retained by the Board and authorized by the Clerk to research the above-mentioned report.

Mr. Anderson stated he hoped this meeting could be an informal workshop session. He further stressed since his goal was to update the financial system and reporting capabilities of Lake County into an automated accounting and budgetary system which will comply with the State requirements of the new uniform coding classification and accounting structure, his report mainly focused on “negative aspects of current operations” without focusing on the day-to-day positive accomplishments.

Mr. Anderson’s report, dated April 6, 1978, contained the following:

Review of Finance Department Operations

General Accounting & Budgeting

Cash Management

Expenditures & Encumbrances

Revenues

Payroll

Fixed Assets

Grant Accounting

Personnel Requirements

Accounting & Budgeting System Implementation

Review of Data Processing Needs

Recommendations made to the Board are as follows:

Develop and implement a new automated accounting and budgeting system to operate to operate in accordance with generally accepted governmental accounting principles.

Employ an accountant specializing in governmental accounting to be responsible for day-to-day operations, reporting to the Chief Deputy in charge of finance.

Establish bank clearing accounts to consolidate check writing.

Consolidate accounting for all grants in the finance department.

Assign the accounting for grants to a trained accountant with each grant sharing pro-rata the cost.

Install encumbrance accounting.

Automate the inventory and accounting for fixed assets.

Establish intragovernmental service funds to properly reflect cost of central stores, Road and Bridge fuel distribution, and the like.

Enter into an agreement for the procurement of hardware and software to support the accounting and budgeting system and certain functions of the Clerk of Court.

After presenting the above report to the Board, lengthy discussion followed. Commr. Hoskinson expressed concern that the county’s needs in the near future might not be able to be met with the proposed system. Mr. Anderson pointed out that the system he is suggesting is modular and can be upgraded in future years without any massive reprogramming and for a minimal cost. He further pointed out that the proposals he presented were based on accommodating both the near-term and the long-term needs of the county (up to seven years minimum).

Mr. David Ohnstead from Lake Data Center (the county’s present data processing vendor) was present and clarified exactly what his costs included.

On a motion by Commr. Deems, seconded by Commr. Windram and carried unanimously, the Board accepted Mr. Anderson’s report and recommendations, subject to the Clerk bringing back to the Board detailed costs. Mr. Anderson’s recommendation is that the Clerk proceed to obtain bid quotations from Digital Systems, Inc. (Vendor B) for the installation of the equipment as proposed in Alternative #2, which includes Hardware, Maintenance, System Software One-time Costs, Programming Costs, On-Site Training, as well as the required programming and training to satisfy the accounting and budgetary needs and the processing of recording and indexing, and child support.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:35 p.m.

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James R. Carson, Jr., Chairman

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James C. Watkins, Clerk