“If there’s anything that citizens should be overseeing, it’s government transparency,” Fiscal Officer Bruce Jones said. “If there’s anything the government should not be overseeing, it’s their own transparency.”
In Butler County, the county, Liberty Twp., Oxford, Fairfield and Ross townships and the Talawanda schools are among jurisdictions using the state checkbook.
West Chester Twp. had committed to join, but Jones said there are any number of other platforms to choose from — at a price.
There is no charge for local jurisdictions to be on the tool, but Jones said that could change.
He likened the situation to buying a new printer at a really low price and then finding out the ink cartridges cost almost as much as the printer.
“That’s what we might wind up with,” Jones said. “The price is right right now, it’s free, you can’t beat that. All the more incentive to sign on with this. All the more reason I’m apprehensive. I think we need to take a look at other options.”
The cost to build the online tool was almost $814,000, according to Treasurer Josh Mandel, and the state paid a one-time $975,000 licensing fee for the system and pays an annual maintenance fee of $400,000 to $975,000, depending on the number of jurisdictions that participate.
Trustee Board President Mark Welch supports more research into other options available to the township, but in the interim, said he supports going with the state treasurer’s online checkbook.
“We’re at the point right now where West Chester Twp. just has to flip the switch and we’re on the open checkbook with Ohio. But I felt like when I was on the website perusing it, it was very limited, it didn’t have revenues, it only showed expenses. And when you clicked on something you didn’t really get a sense of well okay, what is this really for,” Welch said.
The city of Middletown introduced its transparency program before Mandel made his public, according to spokeswoman Carley Berman, who added its annual contract price is $11,000. The program shows city revenues, expenses and other features.
“The city of Middletown signed on to use OpenGov before the state did,” she said. “We bought our own package and we use it for the checkbook and we do budgeting, we use the forecasting feature.”
Hamilton recently entered into a two-year deal with OpenGov for 2015 and 2016. The contract includes three one-year renewal options for $19,000 annually.
The city of Hamilton also has many extras on their checkbook, and Finance Director Tom Vanderhorst said their contract for those extras is based on their annual budget, so costs are different for every community.
Trustee George Lang said he believes the last time they were looking into OpenGov in 2014 the price tag was about $50,000, but he knows the price has to come down and he has a meeting with representatives from OpenGov this week.
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