Butler County is switching to the electronic processing of certified mail to save money.

The county commissioners on Wednesday awarded a contract to Pitney Bowes for a computerized system that will eliminate the need for manually filling out and tracking the required green cards for certified mail.

The contract, which runs 63 months, is for $398 a month.

Chief county clerk Amy Wilson said the switch saves the county $165 a month on postage and more than 37 hours of labor.

The county sends roughly 450 certified letters each month, which costs a total of $563, for such reasons as court-related issues.

Under this plan, the cost to mail the certified letters through the U.S. Postal Service drops from $2.45 a letter to $1.15.

Wilson said in an interview the new method should begin in two months.

Retirement fund

The commissioners approved an $8,000 contract with Municipal Finance Partners to do an actuarial experience study on the county pension plan.

County Controller Jack McMillin explained the study is part of the county’s proactive approach in managing the pension fund, which is mostly in the form of investments.

McMillin said the study is a “quasi-audit” of assumptions, or estimates, used to calculate employee benefits.

He said the study is the second part of the process begun when the county switched its investments from active managers to indexing, which adheres to the average, or benchmark of each asset class.

McMillin said the county retirement board, which is the three commissioners, the county treasurer and the controller, have taken theses steps to help the fund.

“We’ve done things, unfortunately, many others have ignored,” he said, referring to other government pension funds that are not doing as well.