By David Meade
During a special called meeting, of Pelzer Town Council discussed details and associated costs of the town’s QS1 accounting and billing program.
The Town is about one year into using the software program, which includes water and sewer billing, receivables, general ledger and payroll modules.
Pelzer has a 36 month contract with the company at a cost of $10,500 per year.
The company also handles printing the postcards for bills and related mailing.
Pelzer Town Clerk Heather Holcombe, now the town’s only employee, is handling all of the office and related town business.
Former Clerk/Administrator Skip Watkins was also present at the meeting and provided input on how the accounting and billing were handled prior to QS1 and how the office duties were handled before Holcombe became the billing person.
Watkins said he used Quickbooks and that the town’s other water/sewer department employee at the time also helped in the office at times.
“The (Quickbooks) accounting system was satisfactory for me,” he said.
There was also some discussion about payroll, due to the town having only one employee and monthly checks for mayor and council.
After discussing details of the contract and related costs, the consensus among council was that the details of the contract and related costs were not clear.
Town Attorney Jimmy King suggested contacting the company to have someone come talk with council about the contract.
During the discussion, Holcombe also told Council that a posting mistake on the April financials and draft budget had been corrected.
During the change over which took place when the Pelzer and West Pelzer Street Departments were combined, incorrect meter readings for the first month were incorrectly posted several times, resulting in a large increase in the water and sewer revenues in the financials.
Average monthly billing amounts to around $50,000, Holcombe said.
A budget with the corrected numbers is now available.
Council then went into an executive session to discuss personnel.
Since the public and press were not allowed to stay, The Journal left at that time.
Under SC Freedom of Information laws, no actions can be taken during a special called meeting except on the topic of the meeting. The agenda stated the meeting was for a contractural matter on QS1.
