KINGWOOD — The Preston County Commission held a short regular meeting Tuesday with two items on the agenda.
An executive session with Prosecuting Attorney Jay Shay was held to discuss personnel. Shay requested the meeting during the budget meeting that was held Monday. The session ended with no action taken.
In other business, Sheriff Paul Pritt discussed a faulty computer system that will not let his office generate monthly financial reports. He said when the tax deputies input data into the system it reads that data incorrectly and prints out inaccurate reports.
Hunter Thomas asked how reports were previously printed and Pritt said his understanding was that the person doing them was using her own spread sheets. He said the current system is one he inherited when he took office.
“We’re trying to make it work,” Pritt said. “We’ve been working on this for a long time trying to get it fixed. When you’re dealing with multiple accounts, it takes time.”
He said only a handful of counties in West Virginia are still using the system that is being used by the tax office. He said most of the other counties have upgraded to newer systems.
Commission President Don Smith asked for contact information for the company that sold the county the system. He said the problem could be in the software.
This is not the only problem the county tax office has experienced lately; however, a previous problem was an easy one to fix.
In November, County Clerk Linda Huggins told commissioners she was not happy about a miscalculation concerning $500,000. She said she told the commissioners they had more money than they ever had and it was accumulating a lot of extra money in carryover.
Huggins said the $500,000 was basically money from the fire excess levy that the tax office was told to put in the general county fund. It was later found that a percentage of the money should have gone to local fire departments.
The next regular meeting of the Preston County Commission will be 9:30 a.m. March 26.
