Commission, Assessor At Odds Over Software

The Crawford County Commission and Assessor Kelli Vestal remain at odds over the software she uses in her office, and the commission’s attempt to override her was thwarted by Prosecuting Attorney David Smith on November 5.

The commission announced that it was signing a contract that morning to have DEVNET installed in Vestal’s office, a program that also is used in the collector’s office.

Vestal uses Governmentor and maintains that it is a capable system. She has repeatedly told commissioners she has no issues with it and has resisted efforts to have a new system installed.

The two offices have had difficulties meshing their software together and Collector Pat Schwent said taxpayers are bearing the cost through unnecessary penalties.

Commission Announcement

Presiding Commissioner Leo Sanders announced before 9:30 a.m. that the commission was prepared to sign the contract with DEVNET.

“Governmentor is not working,” he said, referencing citizen complaints over tax bills. “We told residents we would do more accurate accounting.”

Sanders said the commission spoke with a resident who was upset about his bill. 

“It’s the fault between the two systems,” Sanders said. 

The commission has tried to move Vestal away from Governmentor and was under the belief that it could decide her software for her, citing RSMo. 137.395.

Sanders said the decision to move to DEVNET had been in the works and that County Clerk John Martin was involved in the process.

“We were left with no choice,” Sanders said. “We had to decide that this is what we’re going to do. We’re not the enemy. We’re trying to work the best we can for the people of Crawford County and we’re behind the assessor 100 percent to make it work.”

Sanders placed a call to Vestal’s office and requested that she attend the commission meeting so they could inform her in person of the contract.

When Vestal arrived, Sanders told her what they had decided.

“I’m not going to use it,” Vestal said, then announced that she had signed another contract with Governmentor.

Sanders said it’s the responsibility of the commission to sign contracts. He then read the state statute, but Vestal pointed out that it only applied to first-class counties. Crawford County is a third-class county.

This was later affirmed by Smith.

Vestal said the commission attempted to cancel a maintenance contract with Governmentor while she was out of town.

“Governmentor told me you had done as such,” Vestal said. “Are you trying to sabotage my office?”

Sanders said they needed to consult with Smith before signing the contract.

Vestal continued: “I don’t like DEVNET. My employees don’t like DEVNET. I don’t want them in my office. I don’t have a problem with my software.”

Vestal called into question Sanders’ decision-making on software, saying he signed off on putting the county on QuickBooks.

“The county clerk suggested that,” Sanders said.

Smith entered the meeting and pointed out that Vestal was correct that 137.395 wasn’t applicable to Crawford County.

“The commission can’t dictate the software, but it has to be party to a contract,” he said.

Smith told officials he needed to see the Governmentor contract and Vestal said the commission had signed it the previous week. This led to some confusion as the commission couldn’t recall signing a new contract.

Sanders contacted the Independent News later that afternoon and said the commission had signed a maintenance contract for October and stapled to it was another contract that Vestal signed on her own.

“There was a place for another signature and there is no other signature on that page,” Sanders said. “We’re looking to find out more.”

Collector Speaks

Collector Pat Schwent cut through all the discussion about contracts and asked everyone to focus on the taxpayers.

“You’re all missing the point: what will work for the taxpayer?” she asked. “This has always been an issue.”

Schwent said the problem with Governmentor is that it cannot provide “splits” real estate. Vestal, she said, is supposed to give her office changes on real estate from January 1 to September 1. By not doing this, Schwent accused Vestal of not following state statutes. 

Schwent said that when her office went from a three-year to a one-year and two-year tax sale, there were properties that she didn’t know changed hands. “Governmentor can’t give me real-time changes,” she said. “It’s always been a problem and it’s getting worse because of the one-year tax sale.”

Schwent said that either DEVNET or Vanguard would be better for the taxpayers.

“We were elected for the taxpayers,” she said. “They are suffering the worst. They are getting hit with extra interest and penalties that shouldn’t be assessed. It’s nothing personal against Governmentor, but it doesn’t have a database.”

Vestal defended Governmentor and said the system is as quick as its ever been and when Schwent was allowed to defect from the program in 2012, her office has jumped through hoops to accommodate. 

“You won’t get real estate unless you set it up,” Vestal said. “I offered a data dump and she never took me up on it.”

Vestal said she couldn’t do anything about splits, but if she wants real-time transactions, she can go back to Governmentor. 

“Why don’t you guys force her to go back to Governmentor like you’re trying to force me off of it?” she asked the commission.

Schwent said she didn’t want to get into a discussion about it, but wanted to focus on the taxpayers “getting mad at interest and penalties” that are occurring. 

“I don’t care what you decide,” she told the commission. “We just need to be able to send out the correct statements.”