Minutes - Council Work Session - 02/03/2009

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Councilmember Dehen stated that he isn't against cooperation with other cities, but asked what the City is trying to accomplish with outsourcing payroll services to Oak Grove. Finance Officer Lund stated that Oak Grove is looking to outsource their payroll, which is where this idea came from. Councilmember Dehen stated that there may be a perception of the taxpayers of "don't you guys have enough to do?" and noted that he thinks there should be a reason for providing this service. City Administrator Ulrich stated that this is a good point and it is addressed on the last page of the proposal because there will be an impact on things at the City that may not get done if this is taken on. Councilmember Look stated that his concern is that there isn't a lot of staff time spent on this. He stated that he doesn't disagree with the concept of working with other cities, using staff more efficiently and also getting paid for it. Councilmember McGlone stated that he also had a conversation with ADP the day they met with Paychex. Finance Officer Lund stated that ADP also doesn't do PERA reporting which is a major concern because this is the employee retirement accounts. She noted that PERA is also different for police departments than it is for office employees, so it can be complicated. She stated that there would still be staff time inputting PERA and verifying this report. . Councilmember McGlone stated that he feels there may be advantages other than costs, to using one of these companies, such as the use of biometrics for clocking in and out. He asked how much it would cost for the staff to continue doing the PERA functions. Finance Officer Lund stated that currently the PERA is completed within the system, so with a company like Paychex or ADP it is probably about six hours of man time to complete that portion, which is about $4,200. Councilmember McGlone stated that if the City could recoup unproductive paid work time with this kind of system, he feels $4,000 seems like a small amount of money for the advantages the City could receive: Councilmember Jeffrey stated that on top of the $4,000 there is still staff that needs to be justified. He asked at what point the City should have an FLSA audit similar to what the State recently did. Mayor Ramsey stated he feels this issue is a separate issue and, from his perspective, being a former government employee, he thinks the City needs to track hourly employees time better and there needs to be some sort of system. He stated that he thinks it is a bad policy to pay people for 80 hours if you don't know for sure they worked 80 hours. City Council Work Session / February 3, 2009 Page 9 of 15