Zionsville government unable to pay all of its bills
ZIONSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — The town of Zionsville is the 14th-fastest-growing community in Indiana, and census numbers show it’s grown to 29,340 people, adding more than 4,800 residents since 2010.
Today, the mayor and the council members don’t know how much money the town on the northwest border of Indianapolis has in the bank, which means that bills are not getting paid. A software program appears to be the culprit.
Jason Plunkett, president of the Zionsville Town Council, said during a June meeting, “I did ask that we keep it on the agenda so we could yet again just publicly state our concerns with OpenGov. The platform will not allow the finance team at this point to even get basic data to run our claims on time.”
Plunkett, a Republican, could only offer apologies instead of cash. The town can pay employees’ salaries and budgeted items, but nothing else. The software OpenGov that the town started using in 2022 to pay bills and track spending is not working properly.
Plunkett send a statement to I-Team 8: “Claims aren’t being paid on time. Claims aren’t even being presented when they should be, because the Finance Department can’t pull the information needed. In addition, the Town Council cannot approve non-budget requests, because we are unaware of balances in our accounts.”
He says that the Zionsville Mayor Emily Styron blames the software system.
I-Team 8 went to Zionsville Town Hall for answers on Wednesday, but the Democrat mayor declined to answer any questions.
Zionsville has been struggling with the new program for months.
Other central Indiana towns use the OpenGov software. Westfield uses the software in limited applications. Westfield Clerk-Treasurer Cindy Gossard, also a Republican, says a call to her could have saved Zionsville a lot of trouble. “I understand that OpenGov is a robust system, and it never worked for us and obviously it never worked for Zionsville. They never called and asked for my opinion on the software itself.”
The software is expensive.
I-Team 8 was told Zionsville spent close to $150,000 to have the OpenGov installed, with annual fees adding up to $69,000.
Adding to the frustration amongst the Zionsville Town Council members: They can’t cancel the contract, according to a statement from Plunkett: “The mayor is the only person who can make that decision, as the mayor is the only person who can enter into a contract on behalf of the Town. Just like the decision to change last time, that process is handled by the mayor, and presented to the Town Council for funding.”
The Zionsville Town Council was scheduled to meet next on Monday, but, as of Wednesday night, that meeting has been canceled.