The city of Green Park recently solicited bids for banking services. When the day of bid opening rolled around on Feb. 9, no banks had submitted a proposal. Now, Green Park navigates a complicated financial situation as city staff searches for a solution.

The biggest issue stems from a processing and verification issue between Simmons Bank and Sikich, the consulting firm that employs city accountant Anna Cadmus. Due to changes within Sikich — and the third-party tool they use to process Green Park’s payroll — payments cannot be made electronically from the city’s account at Simmons Bank. 

City clerk Theresa Pfyl has been handwriting checks on behalf of the city of Green Park for over a month and a half. She says this is not a big deal, workload-wise; the real issue comes with payroll taxes.

According to Pfyl and Cadmus, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not accept handwritten checks to cover payroll taxes — taxes that would be paid by the employer (Green Park, in this case) to the government, such as Social Security or Medicare. 

And since the difficulties between Sikich and Simmons Bank have persisted, and payments still could not be made electronically as of The Call’s press time, “Our taxes are not being paid,” Pfyl said.

“All the tax withholdings that are taken out of the last few checks are being held and need to be paid,” Cadmus said. “We’ve tried to look for other opportunities to get that payment processed, and they just won’t take a physical check. It has to come out of a bank account electronically.”

As a short-term solution, the Board of Aldermen voted at its Feb. 17 meeting to temporarily bank with Regions Bank, where the city already has a small account. Cadmus says the account has around $3,000 in it. This would give Green Park the ability to process payroll electronically and therefore pay its payroll taxes until the board finds a permanent banking relationship. 

That should solve the city’s short-term banking problems. With no bids from banks for a long-term partnership, Pfyl is reaching out directly to banks; a representative from one bank said they would take it to higher-ups, and that Pfyl should hear back soon. Otherwise, Pfyl will continue contacting banks that either did not see the bid solicitation notices or did not submit a bid to Green Park.