Butler County Commissioner Jim Eckstein is being blamed for delays in making electronic payments.

Over Eckstein’s protests, Commissioners Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton on Wednesday voted to delegate approval of electronic fund transfers to chief clerk Amy Wilson when a majority of the commissioners are unavailable.

Eckstein insisted there was no reason to take that step.

“I don’t think its needed,” he said.

Eckstein denied he was tying up the payments, including those sent to vendors and foster parents caring for children under Children and Youth Services.

“There’s been accusations of things clogging up in my office,” he said. “There is no problem.”

However, county Treasurer Diane Marburger disagreed.

“I would dispute that,” Marburger said in an interview.

She said the electronic transfer payments are taking longer to process because they’re lingering in Eckstein’s office.

According to Marburger, her office is continually seeking payment authorization forms from Eckstein, so delegating that function to Wilson will ensure the transfers are done on time.

“We are simply trying to get the ball rolling,” Marburger said.

In electronic fund transfers, various payments are included on one authorization, which total roughly 10 a month.

The controller’s office generates the due payment information, the commissioners sign and date the authorizations and the treasurer’s office submits the transfers to the Automated Clearing House for distribution of the funds.

Marburger said the transfers must be submitted to her office by the due date because the ACH, an electronic network for financial transactions, won’t accept them late.

When the treasurer’s office gets the authorization form too late, the process must be restarted, causing further delays and inquiries from the payment recipients.

Marburger said a transfer was late in mid-November because of a delay receiving Eckstein’s signature.

Eckstein said in an interview he doesn’t recall that alleged incident occurring or any other delays caused by him.

“I want them to prove it,” he said.

Eckstein claimed he once received an authorization form a day after it was due to Marburger’s office.

He said a fellow commissioner signed the form a day earlier, so that could have been an attempted setup to make him look bad.

Eckstein stressed the overall situation was insignificant.

“This isn’t a big issue,” he said. “They’re making it an issue.”

The county still uses paper checks for roughly two-thirds of all payments.