Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — The Presque Isle Finance Department has changed over the years, both in personnel and in the way information is processed.
The summer of 2007 saw the retirement of two longtime members of the department’s staff. Tax Collector Sharon Willette, who was hired by the city in 1966, retired with 41 years to her credit. Donald “Spike” Savage, who was hired in 1975, retired from his position with the city, having served as Presque Isle’s finance director for 32 years. Following Savage’s departure, Pat Webb was hired to serve as finance director.
When asked how the department’s changed in the past 25 years, Webb turned to her staff for the answer.
“I have two people in the department who have been here that long, so this was quite the trip down memory lane. They said they’ll stick with the current technology,” said Webb.
The Finance Department is made up of the City Clerk’s Office, the Tax Collection Office and the Treasurer/Accounting Department. Over the years, Webb said, the functions of these offices have remained relatively unchanged.
“It’s the way that we perform those duties that has changed — a lot,” Webb said.
Webb said basically the Finance Department is responsible for: the collection of various city and state taxes and fees; safeguarding and investing funds while they are in the city’s possession; paying the city’s bills; overseeing all elections; and safeguarding all marriage, birth and death certificates of the citizens of Presque Isle.
Technological advancements have streamlined the process a great deal, she said.
“In 1984, the city was just getting into computers. It owned one computer — as large as a refrigerator and had discs the size of a pizza. There were two operators; one to input payroll data and the other to input accounts payable, voter registration and general ledger data. I’ve heard that at times the computer was so slow, they could do cross-stitch while waiting for it to process,” said Webb.
Everything else, according to Webb, was done manually using a calculator and a typewriter.
“Interest on taxes was hand-calculated. All liens, notices, foreclosures, etc., were typed — anyone remember the IBM Selectric typewriter and carbon paper? Tax bills were printed off-site, but each item on them had to be hand-verified to be sure they agreed with the assessor’s records,” said Webb.
In addition, daily cash collections were added on adding machines and the totals were forwarded to accounting to be posted to the computer, Webb explained.
“When taxes were due in October, the line was out the door because it took a while to process each one,” she said.
That’s changed for the better, Webb said, with newer technology speeding up the process. Pencil and paper have been replaced by monitors, keyboards and printers.
“Today, everyone has a PC (personal computer) and all of our systems are interfaced. When you pay your tax bill, it’s posted directly to your account and the amount received is posted to the general ledger — no manual entries involved, so the chance for error or fraud is greatly reduced,” said Webb.
Webb said the technology has greatly improved the voting process as well.
“Our voter registration program is updated each year and is interfaced with the state database,” said Webb.
With all the improvements the department’s made over the past 25 years, Webb said there’s always room for improvement.
“I’m not saying that we’re as technologically advanced as we could be, but we’re working on it,” said Webb.
