January 12, 2000

Electrical billing questioned by Pierz council member

By Liz Verley, Assistant News Editor

A possible glitch in the new billing software used by the City of Pierz caused questions to be asked of its developer, Tom Girtz, at the council meeting on January 10.

Council member Mary Korf presented several electrical bills to the council from persons who questioned the billing.

Some of the bills did not have the previous balance brought forward, some were not credited with payments made and some failed to have the tax added on.

Girtz, CEO of United CAD/ CAM Systems, Pierz, told the council, What it boils down to is two areas. The first problem is in the process and how the information was entered.

The second problem is we dont know what happened but we have fixed the problem, said Girtz. I may have changed something in the data base when I was working on the program. I will take full responsibility.

While Deputy City Clerk Bernadette Stangl had hand corrected some of the bills, Girtz pointed out, This will not help the data that is input into the program. Corrections will need to be done on the program. They can not be penciled in.

He requested that if any problem arises during the next billing period that he be contacted so the problem can be addressed at that time.

The taxes that did not appear on the January bills will be included on the next regular statements.

Girtz told the council, We will pay for any interest on the taxes you would have collected for this billing. He was assured this would not be an issue.

Girtz will keep in touch with the clerk to make sure the program is running properly.

Source: Morrison County Record Online, Little Falls, Minnesota

http://www.mcrecord.com/mcrecord/myarticles.asp?p=51513&S=90&PubID=1299&mscssid=&EC=0

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), January 21, 2000