County banks chosen after one week delay

The routine process of selecting local banks to handle Platte County’s depository and other services became more complex last week when issues arose regarding the requests for proposals issued in May.

After discussion involving several officeholders at last week’s regular administrative session, the issue was tabled until this week and was resolved Tuesday, July 6.

Every four years, the county seeks bids for depository services, in accordance with state statute. Treasurer Rob Willard last week presented the bids for depository services and his recommendations for approval, which was met with protests from collector Sheila Palmer.

Commerce Bank was eventually chosen as the clearing house depository with UMB Bank, Central Bank of the Midwest and Wells Bank also selected for various depository duties. UMB Bank was designated as the bank for the county collector’s office, due to the special needs of that office.

Last week, Willard said requirements for banking services are broad, per state statute, and as such the requests for proposals were also broad and did not include specific requirements for third-party vendors.

“I believe it was important and critical to keep those proposals as broad as possible,” he said. Suggesting certain services could dampen interest in bids, he felt.

Palmer said state statute requires the collector’ office to use a third-party safe vault system, and she specified as such in her request to the treasurer.

“I know with today’s technology, I’m sure all the banks can do almost everything for everybody but I based my recommendation on the bank who told me they could do my processes which was UMB,” Palmer said, adding the collector has used UMB for about 20 years.

Presiding commissioner Ron Schieber questioned Willard’s assessment of the fee structures for the banks and various systems put in place by the different county departments when processing payments.

While Willard recommended Commerce as the clearinghouse, due to the low pricing of services, his analysis was based only on his own office’s expenses. Willard said he had no access to the collector’s data to determine her needs.

Schieber asked Willard and Palmer to work together to come to a resolution, after consultation with county attorney Bob Shaw.

At the final approval Tuesday, district commissioner Joe Vanover said the final financial analysis showed little impact to the total costs to allow the collector to retain UMB Bank. He said he felt the compromise allowed the collector to continue a successful relationship with a local bank and saved the costs and manpower involved in trying to shift banking services.