NEWBURG — Government leaders here this week said the village still hasn’t been able to pay some of its bills after a pair of administrative employees abruptly resigned nearly a month ago.
The village has been able to fill out payroll checks for Newburg employees, Trustee Dave De Luka told fellow Village Board members Thursday evening. But nobody at Village Hall can run the accounting software needed to process and code the checks Newburg writes to pay other costs, including bills from vendors that provide phone and utilities services.
“We’re just like everybody else. We have WisconsinElectric, we have the phone company, we have just our normal vendors that we do business with every month,” De Luka told a reporter Thursday.
Those bills are coming due, De Luka told board members Thursday night. “We, at this point,” he said, “are unable to pay them.”
The problem hasn’t affected all of Newburg’s payments. Besides completing payroll, De Luka told other trustees Thursday that village loan payments were being automatically deducted. Still, he said, “We have not paid a bill since the middle of May.”
Sounds like a couple of former employees may habe taken a bonus when they quit.
No one is smart enough to take the bill pile, write some handwritten checks on bills that have to be paid to function, tracked on a spreadsheet, distributed to the board, until someone gets control of accounting software?
To any Newburg Board members reading. There is also an outfit out of Fox Valley area that supplies temporary administrative functions that probably specialize in your accounting software. I believe it is called “Govtemps” or something similar.
You can hire administrative staff on a temporary or permanent basis through them. Kewaskum used them a year ago to find a temporary treasurer with requisite skill, fast, to operate our accounting software. We ended up hiring the temporary staff member permanently because she did a great job.
It is an excellent way to test administrative staff. If they are not doing a good job, no need to keep them on permanently. Call Village Administrator, Matt Heiser, to get contact details if needed.
Good catch there, Kevin. Makes me wonder if Newburg has internet service. The Board president totally clueless that the lady they just hired for $72,000 a year was fired from a state job and sued the state.
https://www.govhrusa.com/services/interim-staffing-govtempsusa-local-government-staffing-solutions/
I was a little shocked at that hire as well…especially knowing Chris Jenkins is in the field. He has no such baggage.
Since Newburg’s current state of affairs has to do with alleged ethics & conflict of interest violations, I could see them being a bit skittish about Chris Jenkins, considering he is on the Washington County Board (also City of West Bend council). Not sure if there are any contractual relationships between the Village & County, or if the County has to decide funding allocations to the various local units of government.
Sorry I’m late to the discussion – Chris Jenkins here.
For the record, Newburg approached me about helping in the interim, which I said I’d be happy to in their hour of need. But I was honest that I would not be a full-time help, as I am currently the Village Administrator of Elmwood Park, WI. They were looking for someone who had more time to dedicate, thus why they chose Deanna. Though, they did ask that I apply when the interim position is over late-Summer, and they know what they are looking for as far as an Admin/Treasurer/Clerk position.
Just wanted to clear up any misinformation. I wish them the best of luck as they sort out a difficult situation.