Human resources, balancing books - county treasurer wears many hats

Newsboy photo/ Sharon Kerr BIGGER THAN THE LOCAL BOOK, County Treasurer René Kelley thumbs through the bank statement for just one month, one account.

Jasper County Treasurer René Kelley wants to clarify something- the welfare of county employees is one of many hats she wears, but in her estimation it is one of the most important.

In larger counties like Jefferson or Harris, there would be a separate human resources department to handle employee benefits questions.

In Jasper there is Kelley and her assistant, Donna Berger.

Together, they handle many of the human resources needs of almost 200 county employees, everything from explaining benefit options to new hires to filing workman's comp, unemployment forms or injury reports, not to mention all the state and federal paperwork that goes with a major payroll.

The question of reducing the requirements for payroll deduction plans came up at a recent commissioners' court meeting. Currently, a proposed plan must recruit at least 51 percent of county employees before the court will authorize a payroll deduction plan.

That includes life insurance, various additional medical plans, dental insurance, legal insurance, credit unions and additional retirement plans.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Charles Shofner and Precinct 3 Commissioner Willie Stark both said before that requirement was in place, the county was deluged with representatives wanting to pitch to county employees.

Kelley agrees the requirement has reduced the number of requests, "and we have to have guidelines," she said. "It takes time out of employees schedules to arrange a courtroom and have employees meet with these people."

Kelley said she doesn't consider it a burden to administer these plans, but requiring a minimum does weed out a number of time-consuming requests.

Other duties

In addition to handling human resource matters, Kelley's office also does the usual duties of a county treasurer, including reconciling more than 40 bank statements, some of which ihave up to 25 separate funds within the account.

For example, the JP Technology fund receives a portion of the revenue generated by the Justices of the Peace, and can only be spent on a specific and very short list of items that benefit the function of their courts. Kelley must file state fee reports for both criminal and civil courts.

Other accounts include revenue from the Pecos School Lands, various grants, forfeiture accounts, and the general fund. A typical accounts payable month might be more than 700 checks. Some monthly statements are thicker than the Local Phone Book.

In her spare time, Kelley must attend training courses for county treasurers to keep up with constantly changing requirements.