2006-11-20 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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Regarding a payroll lag, Ms. Crawford said the County does not have one, and life would be simpler if it did. She explained that employee paychecks include their regular salary and wages. Then there are timing issues and changes or corrections to be made. There is a one pay period lag before a paycheck reflects exception pay, such as overtime. One pay period later, the County pays the exception pay with any other adjustments. Each paycheck pays two things: the employee's regular salary /wages plus the exception pay from the prior pay period. The Chair said the payroll lag was being suggested to avoid having to make all the corrections. If there was a one -week lag, the County could work on getting the correct amounts on the paychecks. Ms. Crawford felt a five -day or one -week lag would not be enough time to complete the actual processing, printing, and distribution of payroll. Though it would give them more time, the exception time would still need to come on the next paycheck. The Chair asked whether a two -week lag would work, and Ms. Crawford said though it would be simpler to have the regular salary /wages with exception time cycling together, the reality is that it would put a financial burden on employees. The lag would involve delaying their regular salary and wages, and some would miss a paycheck, which is not acceptable. Also, the unions may take issue with a lag, even though the State has done it. She said she should talk to her own payroll people to see what they would recommend. She also said that even with a lag, the people who would be working the hardest are the one putting the time sheets in the front end. They have one to three days to get the timesheets in. Some put them in every week, and some wait until the end of the pay period. The departments have found a way to cope one way or another with whatever works best for them, and she would prefer to leave it with the departments. Each department is unique. Some are small and simple, but others, like Police and Fire, have large and complex payrolls and would have the greatest pressure. Ms. Nicholson said that the Commission heard complaints about the FRESH system from several departments, and also about the payroll system, specifically with employees being overpaid and the need for more paperwork to adjust for that. She explained that the Civil Service Department had said two years were spent and over $50,000 in overtime tweaking the program to make sure the FRESH payroll system was running correctly. They were told the system is so bad that two additional positions were created to accommodate it, which seems the opposite of what computerization is all about. There was also concern about who would input the data if the regular staff person who does so is sick. She said there were clearly some frustrations with the system and that Civil Service has not adjusted too well to it. Ms. Crawford said that Civil Service, now Human Resources, has had the largest adjustment to make, because they were never computerized before. They never had to input information and thus have a greater adjustment to make than departments who had already been doing payroll on the computer. She hoped that some of the overtime incurred related to the conversion and going live. It would be attributed as a temporary cost, which is unavoidable to some degree, of converting the system over. Ms. Nicholson pointed out that the cost is not temporary if two new positions had to be created and filled. Ms. Crawford said her answer is that the system is not the ideal one that Human Resources might have gotten for themselves. Ms. Stremski said the three -day window period to do the input is a difficult aspect. Ms. Crawford said they have been requesting modifications and enhancements, and they have 31