Study shows: County lacks dialogue

Whitman County government lacks an open dialogue between county offices, according to a recent report from Washington State University’s Division of Government Studies and Services.

That lack of communication exhibits itself in a lack of “factual or empathetic understanding” between departments.

“A general lack of trust is apparent within the County system, especially across departments,” the report stated.

WSU’s researchers found that, while employees take a great deal of pride in their own jobs, they do not understand or appreciate the work done in other areas of county government.

That is one reason Whitman County has been cited by the state auditor’s office for incomplete, inaccurate and missing information on its year-end financial reports.

“It’s really not anything we didn’t already know,” said County Commissioner Michael Largent. “We need to open up and standardize our lines of communication and our reporting processes if we ever want to move forward on our accounting reports.”

Commissioners last year enlisted the school to find efficiencies in the county’s government that might alleviate the reporting problems. WSU was paid almost $12,000 for the study.

Whitman County has not submitted a complete year-end financial statement to state auditors in four years.

The report said employees expressed particular difficulty in dealing with the county’s finance and information technology departments.

Employees complained procedures for preparing departmental financial reports were handed down as edicts from the finance department without an explanation of why or how the reports needed to be filled out.

Largent said those departments were likely fingered because every other county department interacts with them.

“But we still need to get them to do a better job of explaining why things need to be reported a certain way,” said Largent.

The report noted that a restructuring of the departments has helped create a more cooperative atmosphere.

Earlier this year, commissioners separated the two departments, and transferred administrative director Sharron Cunningham to the finance department. Cunningham has been the county’s lead coordinator in setting departmental budgets.

Largent, a former certified public accountant, said the problem is not misinformation, but antiquated financial reporting

The study surveyed several department heads and a random selection of rank-and-file employees to determine where such efficiencies might be found.

“I think it helped to describe the situation we’re in, and what dysfunctions exist in our system,” said Largent.

Largent said the next step is to develop standard procedures to work around those dysfunctions.

Commissioner Greg Partch said he viewed the study as a way to get departments on the same page while implementing the county’s new accounting software, which has been long delayed in coming online.

“I don’t really know what we’re supposed to do with this, to tell you the truth,” Partch said. “These are issues we knew we had, but the study doesn’t tell us what to do about them.”

Commissioner Pat O’Neill said he had not been in office long enough to fully process the results of the study.

The county’s contract with WSU included three phases for research, evaluation and implementation of changes that would make the county more efficient.

The county’s current budget crisis has delayed the implementation phase of the study. Largent and Partch said they will work with the school to see what kind of implementation strategies it could come up with without cost.

The study did suggest some ways to improve communications and trust.

Among those are better training, having employees work in different departments and bridging bargaining gaps between employees and senior officials.

The report also suggested the county offer better employee incentives, but noted the budget deficit makes that more difficult.