More than 900 Lake County employees received the wrong W-2s due to an undetected problem within the transfer of data to Lake County’s new accounting software and council members want to know just who is going to make those workers whole.
Councilman Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, is one of the 919 individuals who received an incorrect W-2. He had already filed his taxes, signed his name and sent a check through his accountant, and now he has to go back to the account to file an amended return with the new W-2.
While Bilski said he could financially handle the added expense, some other employees may not be and it is not right they should incur extra expense for a mistake out of their control, he said.
He also questioned the notification process, saying he was not made aware of the problem with his W-2 until Thursday before the council’s study session. He said data processing and the auditor’s office knew of the problem sooner and did not effectively convey that information to employees.
Since the auditor and data processing knew of the potential problem, W-2s should not have been sent until the problem was rectified, he said.
“I understand mistakes happen. That’s not my problem. That’s not my issue,” Bilski said, adding no one seemed to know until it was too late.
Mark Pearman, director of data processing, said the problem stems from the first two pay dates of 2023. HTC, who was the vendor, misconfigured the system. When the problem with the first two check runs was corrected, another problem was created that went undetected.
When county officials started getting calls from workers about their W-2s, Pearman said HTC was called back in to fix the problem but could not, so Baker Tilly was brought in.
“They figured it out in one day,” Pearman said.
Baker Tilly has been working with the county to fix the transition from the Lawson accounting software platform to Oracle after the State Board of Accounts said it could not audit the county’s 2022 books due to missing and inaccurate reports. The problems were blamed on the transition to the new software and a lack of adequate training from HTC, the firm tapped to make the transition.
The corrected W-2s were sent to employees through the county’s online payroll application through the auditor’s office and data processing. Then, bookkeepers in each department were notified of the problem and told to contact the affected employees, Pearman said.
“I don’t think that happened,” Bilski said.
He did not get notification, and he has heard from other employees who also were not notified, he said.
“Where did the communication breakdown come (from)?” Bilski asked.
Councilman Randy Niemeyer, R-Cedar Lake, said HTC has cost the county millions due to its mishandling of the conversion from the Lawson accounting platform to Oracle.
“I will never vote for another appropriated penny for that company,” he said. He called on the council’s attorneys to look at the contracts and see if there is any recourse for compensatory damages for impacted workers. He said either HTC is incompetent or the company is being used as a shield for incompetent county workers.
Council attorneys Thomas O’Donnell and Ray Szarmach advised officials to tread lightly. While employees may be coming to the county as the fiscal body about the problem, it is not a problem of their creation.
“It isn’t your problem. You don’t have to own it,” Szarmach said, adding the council is limited in what it can do to rectify the situation.
The council can conduct an investigation and has subpoena power if necessary, Szarmach said. Actual fixes will have to come from the commissioners, data processing and the auditor’s office.