2021-64-Resolution No. 2021-010 Recorded 2/26/2021REVIEWED
LEGAL COUNSEL
Recorded in Deschutes County CJ2021-64
Nancy Blankenship, County Clerk
Commissioners' Journal 02/26/2021 8:12:57 AM
FS
2021-64
For
BEFORE THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF DESCHUTES COUNTY,
OREGON
A Resolution Increasing FTE
within the 2020-21
Deschutes County Budget
* RESOLUTION NO. 2021-010
WHEREAS, On February 17th 2021, the Board of County Commissioners verbally
approved the creation of 1.0 regular FTE dedicated to providing county -wide business systems
support, and
WHEREAS, Deschutes County Policy HR-1 requires that a creation of or increase in FTE
outside the adopted budget be approved by the Board of County Commissioners; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF
DESCHUTES COUNTY, ORFG(IKT fnfln c:
Section 1. That the following FTE be added:
Business Systems Support Regular Duration 1.00
Total HE 1.00
Page 1 OF 2-Resolution no. 2021-010
Section 2. That the Human Resources Director make the appropriate entries in the
Deschutes County FTE Authorized Positions Roster to reflect the above FTE changes.
DATED this d q day of February, 2021.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF
DESCHUTES COUNTY, OREGON
ANTHONY DEBONE, Chair
ATTEST: PH Z, Vice -Chi
Qux�- — _
Recording SecretaPAAI ADAIR, Commissioner
Page 2 OF 2-Resolution no. 2021-010
Business Systems Support Proposal
February 2021
Introduction
In 2015 the County made a strategic decision to purchase and implement a new Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) system, replacing and augmenting a legacy general ledger accounting system with a new
business process management software platform that integrated, aligned and automated the County's
accounting, payroll, budgeting and human resources function within one system.
The Tyler Munis ERP system was implemented in 2016/17 and was a significant departure from how we
operated under the legacy accounting system, HTE. HTE was non -transparent and completely
centralized in Finance. Munis decentralized access to information so that anyone could gain access to
details within a few clicks of the mouse and allowed us to move from a centralized limited access paper
driven system to a shared access/responsibility system that added workflow, an HR management
component and Employee Self Service. We transitioned from a system that was accessible by very few
staff to one that is used currently by over 400 staff as part of their daily work.
Ongoing post -implementation system support was originally planned to be provided by functional
experts located across county departments and in the Finance Department. After several years of
experience we have found that this approach is not feasible considering available staff resources and
level of system expertise required to meet both current County department needs and future growth
expectations.
This staff report requests consideration of a proposal that would provide adequate support to all county
departments for the Tyler Munis ERP and other business systems.
Background
During the original Tyler Munis ERP implementation a decision was made to move away from
centralized system (in Finance) and distribute the expertise across departments. This decentralized
approach hasn't worked well for our system of 400 users. Beyond departmental leads anything technical
is referred to Finance and/or IT. This has created a significant increase in workload, primarily on the
Accounting Manager, in addition to the position's regular duties.
In November 2020 a group of Munis super users representing various county departments met to
discuss system support concerns. The super users' group identified the following concerns:
1. Since the original implementation, system users have learned only the basics to get their
particular work completed. There is a belief that we don't know/aren't applying Munis'
capabilities fully to our day to day work.
2. Lack of training. Easy step guidelines exist but don't take the place of regular and department or
job specific training. Not something either IT or Finance is staffed to provide. Need day to day
training and training for new managers.
3. Need for system training and department specific business process consulting and coaching.
How do we use the Munis tool (and other technology tools) to improve business processes?
4. We lack a coordinated approach to system -wide updates. A recent service pack release is a good
example. There were dozens of changes that impacted everyone across the platform. Each
change needs attention and notification to staff of potential impact. Ideal would be to test
before pushing to production but we don't have time/resources for that. Fixes come through
weekly which need to be tested and communicated. Need adequate infrastructure to manage
change control.
Proposal and Request
This proposal requests to create a new 1.0 FTE in the county budget dedicated to providing county -wide
business systems support. The position's work plan would be guided by a steering committee
representing a wide variety of county -wide department interests.
This request is supported by consensus of the county -wide users group and their department heads.
There is a need for additional and dedicated FTE support with business process expertise — a foundation
in Munis with a broad umbrella to address business processes utilizing best practices and available tools.
There is further support from the county's technology director who confirmed that major new systems
like Munis generally come with the addition of at least one new FTE support position. The City of Bend,
who also utilizes Munis, has 1.5 support FTE and is considering adding further support.
Additionally, last month the county's internal auditor released an internal audit of the Munis accounting
system which stated that "...additional resources might be necessary to help Finance and IT maintain
support and document systems controls such as roles and workflows and reinforce segregation of
duties."
Fiscal Implications
The Munis implementation was originally funded by a loan from the General Fund to the Finance
Reserve Fund. The original agreement with departments was that the loan would be repaid through an
ISF charge over a five year period at $260,000 per year. The fund has approximately $250,000 in
remaining fund balance and there are approximately two years left of loan repayments and ISF charges.
Once repaid, the annual ISF charges to departments would be reduced by $260,000.
This fund could be used to fund a new position or the surplus balance could be returned to
departments.
If used to fund the position, the remaining fund balance of $250,000 would fund up to two years of the
new position with no impact on ISF charges. Once the fund balance is exhausted, annual costs would be
funded using an ISF charge of approximately $125,000. At that time, when the General Fund loan has
been repaid, the net impact on ISF rates would be a reduction of approximately $135,000 ($260,000
loan repayment decrease plus $125,000 position support increase).
There was consensus among the majority of participating departments to utilize the latter option and
fund the position with existing fund balance and future ISF charges.
Staff Recommendation
Approve the addition of a 1.0 Business Systems Support FTE to the FY 2021 County budget and fund the
position using existing available fund balance in the Finance Systems reserve fund 631.
If approved, a formal resolution will be presented to the BOCC for approval at an upcoming meeting.
�0T ES CO
o Deschutes County Board of Commissioners
1300 NW Wall St, Bend, OR 97703
(541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 385-3202 - https://www.deschutes.org/
AGENDA REQUEST & STAFF REPORT
For Board of Commissioners BOCC Wednesday Meeting of February 24, 2021
DATE: February 18, 2021
FROM: Dan Emerson, Finance,
TITLE OF AGENDA ITEM:
Consideration of Board Signature of Resolution No. 2021-010 Increasing FTE Within the
2020-2021 Deschutes County Budget
RECOMMENDATION & ACTION REQUESTED:
Staff recommends approval of resolution 2021-010 adding 1.0 regular duration FTE to
provide county -wide business systems support.
BACKGROUND AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS:
On February 1 th 2021, the Board of County Commissioners verbally approved the creation of
1.0 regular FTE dedicated to providing county -wide business systems support.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: No additional appropriations are necessary. The Finance Reserve
fund has approximately $250,000 in remaining fund balance which will fund up to two years of
the position. Once the fund balance is exhausted, annual costs would be funded using an ISF
charge of approximately $125,000.
ATTENDANCE: Dan Emerson, Budget Manager.