[Busmgrs] Technical changes to PERS Intercept payments

[ELLIOTT Michael S]

Dear Business Managers,

We have been working with Wells Fargo to find a more efficient and secure way to provide PERS intercept payments to Wells Fargo on behalf of the districts. Thus, for those who do not have PERS intercept payments, you can ignore this email. The rest, please review the changes.

The current practice is for Wells Fargo to send invoice payments every month for payment. ODE enters the data into the system and provides the intercept payments on behalf of the districts. The good news is the payments rarely change, if ever, between the months. The payments are set at the beginning of the year and stay the same. However, currently ODE has to enter the data each month into the system, creating more chance for error. While I strive to be perfect, I know there is still the chance I might enter the data wrong in any given month. By removing that data entry step, we increase the integrity of the payment system and will be more efficient.

The proposed change is to alter that data entry step as follows: Instead of entering the same data each month, ODE would use the data as provided by Wells Fargo at the beginning of the year for each payment from July through March. The July payment would still be double and the rest of the months would be identical to each other. The chance for any changes would come in April when Wells Fargo would send an invoice to ODE that would have any updates that need to be made. Thus a data entry step will be removed for most of the payment, reducing chance for error and ensuring uniform payments throughout the year. We don't expect any updates to be significant in terms of dollars; usually the changes are to catch rounding errors, so a few pennies for any given district.

The revised intercept agreement with Exhibit B that controls the payment mechanics is attached for your review. Please note none of these changes impact the consequences if a district fails to submit its audit on time. If a district does not submit an audit, Wells Fargo will be notified and the district will continue to have to make the payment directly to Wells Fargo.

Included in the attachment is a sheet for each district affected to sign authorizing acceptance of the agreement. If each district agrees with the proposed changes, please sign the signature page for each year that the district has a bond, scan and return to me. If there are any questions, please let me know.

After reviewing the documents and this email, please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Michael


Michael Elliott
State School Fund Coordinator | Office of Finance & Administration|School Finance & Pupil Transportation Unit| Oregon Department of Education
Office: 503.947.5627 | Fax: 503.378.5156 | *michael.s.elliott at state.or.us




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/busmgrs/attachments/20150608/0295fc45/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Master_amendment_to_school_intercept_agreements 6-8-15.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 24790 bytes
Desc: Master_amendment_to_school_intercept_agreements 6-8-15.docx
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/busmgrs/attachments/20150608/0295fc45/attachment.docx>