Carroll County, MD Carroll 101, 9 Jul 2021

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: Carroll 101 Episode 8 with Rob Burk and the Department of the Comptroller

Description

Carroll County Government
https://carrollcountymd.gov

Sign-up for our email notification system and stay informed at:
https://service.govdelivery.com/accounts/MDCARROLL/subscriber/new

Follow us at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarrollCountyGovernmentMD/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarrollCoMD
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carrollcountygovernment/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/CarrollCountyGov

A

Welcome to carol 101 department of the comptroller, my name is rob burke, I'm the.

A

Comptroller for carroll county government, I want to go over the roles and functions.

A

Of the department of the comptroller and give you an overview of what we do.

A

Our mission is to be a support agency for the many agencies and services that the county provides.

A

We provide centralized financial, operational support to the employees and the many agencies and.

A

As well as the taxpayers and the residents of carroll county, we strive to give excellent.

A

Customer service to everyone we serve and to be a partner with the many agencies that carry.

A

Out the functions of county government and we help carry out the financial role.

A

To assist them, we're staff of about 35, financial, professional and support staff. We oversee a budget.

A

Of about 3.3 million dollars annually to carry out our function, that's the staffing, as well as the.

A

Operational cost to operate the department and we primarily operate in three operational functions.

A

My office serves as administration and oversight for the department and oversee the offices of.

A

Accounting procurement and collections, so on a day-to-day basis, what we do is basically.

A

Perform the financial, operational and transaction that the county needs to carry out so generally.

A

When people say what does the comptroller do, these are the functions often associated with.

A

An office of the treasurer so we're the keeper of the county funds, the checkbook and investments and.

A

The county's financial resources I serve as the custodian for public funds for the.

A

County, so that's a a role. I take very seriously the taxpayers money that we look out for on a.

A

Day-To-Day basis and make sure it's available to carry out the functions that elected officials.

A

Set set forth for the county to do we sort of start the process with the revenue and collection.

A

The billing and collection revenues for the county do about 500 million dollars worth of revenue and.

A

Financial activity for the county on an annual basis and perform about 500, 000 financial.

A

Transactions a year, so it's a busy office, we're billing and collecting the property taxes and.

A

Some of the utility bills for the county, so we do about 250 million dollars in property taxes on an.

A

Annual basis we collect for the county, as well as the state and the eight incorporated towns in.

A

Carroll county to about 68 000 property counts in the county, as well as bill and collect for.

A

Utilities, the water and sewer services that the county oversees a little over 10 000 customers.

A

We provide for investment of public funds so when there is cash on hand as we collect it prior.

A

To it being needed for its intended use, we will invest it. These are very short-term and very safe.

A

Investments, our primary objective is the safety of the taxpayer funds, so they're invested in.

A

Collateralized and and guaranteed u.s obligations, general treasuries.

A

The liquidity of the funds is very important. It needs to be available when, when the agency's ready.

A

To spend it and then if we can get some return, certainly that can provide a little bit of relief.

A

On the taxpayer and on the budget we're glad to do that if, if that's available as well, so we oversee.

A

Cash management for the county as each agency received its budget allocation when they're.

A

Ready to spend the money needs to be there on a on a daily basis to carry that out, as well as funding.

A

The pass-through grants to the many agencies that we fund primarily carroll county public.

A

Schools, carroll, county public library, the carroll community college and about a dozen other entities.

A

That the county funds to carry out the full umbrella of county services of local government.

A

We oversee the procurement process, that's the acquisition of goods and services for the many.

A

Agencies to carry out their functions, we provide for a fair and competitive process there and.

A

Make sure that we are looking out to receive the best value that we can for the taxpayers dollar.

A

Once we've received those goods and services, we provide a centralized accounts payable function.

A

For vendor payments, so work with our agencies make sure that the goods and services were provided.

A

Get the invoices to a centralized location and pay those vendors on a weekly basis. We do an internal.

A

Employee payroll, we oversee so that's a little over a thousand employees on a bi-weekly basis.

A

Do about 50 million dollars in payroll on an annual basis for all of the employees.

A

That work under the elected county commissioners, the sheriff the state's attorney and the courts.

A

The schools, library, community college and some of the other entities do their own payroll separately.

A

We provide for debt issuance for the county so to the extent we need to.

A

Do capital investments in long-term infrastructure.

A

A portion of that's accomplished with a borrowing program, we issue tax-exempt.

A

Bonds generally, on an annual basis, we've got about 240 million or so outstanding bonds.

A

In this past year- and we generally issue somewhere around 25 million or so a year, so we oversee.

A

The monitoring of those funds, the repayment, when they're, due the compliance and so forth,.

A

We do the financial, accounting and financial reporting for the county, so we are daily and.

A

Monthly keeping financial records on an annual basis issuing the county's financial statements. We.

A

Issue the state uniform financial report- that's a state required report that it consistently reports.

A

Financial information across all jurisdictions in the state and we provide annually to receive an.

A

Independent cpa, financial audit, that's required by state law um audit. The financial statements make.

A

Sure that the again the taxpayers money is being accounted for and spent in the way that's intended.

A

Some of the different functions we have- I mentioned the financial accounting and.

A

Financial reporting, this involves state reporting, federal reporting, the federal single audit.

A

Is uh is the audit of awards of federal dollars, so the grants get their own audit basically, each year.

A

We're always looking to be as efficient and accurate as we can in our financial transactions.

A

The use of automation and technology has certainly grown over the years, and so we strive to.

A

To keep up with that and to learn and to improve those processes, I mentioned the procurement.

A

Process or the acquisition of those goods and services, an important component of providing.

A

Government services, the vendor selection, we want to make sure that's a fair and competitive and.

A

Transparent process by which we select, who we do business with, and then we also get involved.

A

Through surplus dispositions, so when the county is no longer in need of some assets, we'll try to.

A

Dispose them generally through an online auction or any method that will maximize the value for.

A

Those assets as we dispose of them turn them back into some cash and put it back into use for some.

A

New purpose in our collections office we oversee the verification of real estate deeds. So all.

A

Deed transactions in the county come through our office. We're making sure that the.

A

Taxes are paid before it's transferred. We collect a recreation tax as it comes through, but also.

A

And, very importantly, we make sure that the information on the deed, including ownership,.

A

And parcel information is accurate. Help maintain accurate land records in the courthouse work.

A

Very closely with the clerk of the court to make sure those records are good for everyone.

A

Work with our human resource human resources office on the retiree benefit plan service.

A

Trustee there make sure that the funds for the various retiree benefit programs are adequately.

A

Funded that they're invested in in a way that and monitor and make sure they're invested well.

A

In a way that will provide for those assets to be in place when retirees are ready to draw on them,.

A

And then, as I mentioned, the debt issuance process as part of that, we generally do a credit rating.

A

You know, I see the three listed credit agencies there, we work with each of them and we've been.

A

Fortunate to achieve a triple a rating with each of those agencies, so we've got three aaa's. That's.

A

Pretty rare uh occurrence across local government across the country we're very proud of that strive.

A

To maintain that the goal of that is to ensure that we, um you know our low risk investment.

A

That helps us secure, good borrowing, costs good interest rates, keep the cost of our borrowing down.

A

And uh basically just ensure that we're you know good low risk for people to invest in our bonds.

A

And then the continuing disclosure that goes along with that making sure that the bondholders.

A

Are aware of the county's financial status at any time.

A

So why do we do it? Why do we think it's important the safeguard of county's.

A

Financial resources is a primary concern. You know. Obviously, people pay their taxes, they want to make.

A

Sure those dollars are well spent that they're going to be used for their intended purposes.

A

We use internal controls and policies to make sure that across the organization we're spending.

A

The dollars where they belong, we again assist our agencies to carry out their mission. Their budgeted.

A

Priorities, the elected officials have set forth those priorities. We want to assist the agencies in.

A

Carrying out their function and take the financial operation end, you know sort of centralize that and.

A

Make sure that's very consistent across all entities. We maintain the public trust. That's.

A

Critical importance to our elected officials and to us through the audit and the financial.

A

Statements, the transparency we hope to provide, we receive an award for our financial.

A

Reporting each year, that's sort of a quality control make sure that we're.

A

Consistent in the information that we're providing with other jurisdictions around the country.

A

We help maintain compliance with federal and state laws. The many grant requirements and laws.

A

That oversee how local government operates some of the financial reporting. We do make sure that.

A

We're in compliance with those laws and how we demonstrate and show the evidence that we are.

A

In good compliance and as I mentioned, the the fair competitive procurement process, uh we participate.

A

In a national institute of governmental purchasing program, an accreditation and outstanding.

A

Achievement award we've been able to receive again just showing that we adhere to best practice in.

A

How we go about vendor selection and making sure we're transparent and competitive in our process.

A

Like any operation face challenges the current and future challenges, we have right now.

A

My primary asset in my department is people and staff who serve this agency, so keeping them well.

A

Trained and well informed on the newest best practices on recruitment and retention of good.

A

Qualified staff, as we face retirement and turnover as any organization does that's key to us, is.

A

Staying on top of our staffing, our the technology, advances that have come along uh in the financial.

A

Industry, keeping up with those can be a challenge. Learning new systems implementing new systems can.

A

Be costly time consuming so remain a challenge, but something we're committed to to keeping up with.

A

And to trying to continue to improve the e-service side, the customer interaction with the county.

A

As we see that industry growing and changing and how people want to do business, we continue to try.

A

To learn and keep up and and will be looking to implement more e-services over the coming years.

A

Some of the recent projects we've been working on or coming up, big technology upgrades in our.

A

Human resource and payroll system: that's a multi-year significant project that will.

A

Improve the the access to information, the customer service and the hopefully, the.

A

Efficiency of that whole operation of payroll and human resources and then future projects and our.

A

Tax billing and collection, our utility billing and collection processes, hopefully again improve.

A

The customer interface improve the efficiency for our staff and the access to information.

A

uh Over time, those will be some critical projects. The a couple projects we've completed now recently.

A

The simplified online deed recordings, so the paperless recording of of deeds from the.

A

The abstract and attorney community and settlement companies to be able to.

A

Paperlessly submit and have their deeds approved and reviewed and submitted to the courts. That's.

A

Been a big project with the state taking the lead there that we've been able to accomplish over the.

A

Last couple years, and then just within this past week conducted our first online tax sale, auction.

A

Used a company called realauction.com, they have about 10 or 11 jurisdictions in the state. So it's.

A

Becoming a fairly common practice to do our our year-end tax lien sale uh via online, so that was.

A

A recent project that we just completed as well successfully, so those are some.

A

Of the things going on in the department of the comptroller, if you have any questions.

A

You can feel free to reach out to me and my staff we've provided the contact information for me.

A

And my senior team we're available to assist anybody who has any questions please reach out.

A

And thanks for your interest in the department of the comptroller.