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Heights-Mayflower Residents Association to meet Wednesday

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Wilkes incoming freshmen help set up bazaar at St. Nicholas

<p>To prevent fiscal surprises, Luzerne County&#8217;s home rule charter says the manager must obtain council approval for contracts or obligations costing $25,000 in any future calendar year for which no budget has been adopted.</p><p>A discussion on if the administration&#8217;s recent purchase of a payroll processing system met that requirement is set for Tuesday&#8217;s council meeting.</p><p>Council Chairwoman Linda McClosky Houck said Monday she added the subject to the agenda because it appears the purchase will require more than $25,000 in payments in 2018.</p><p>&#8220;I want to make sure the charter is followed and that council is informed,&#8221; McClosky Houck said.</p><p>According to the contract, human resources management company ADP will receive a one-time implementation fee of $197,650 to set up the program; up to $2,650 for implementation-related travel and expenses; and $5.50 per employee monthly once the system is implemented, which would amount to $92,400 annually with the county&#8217;s estimated 1,400 workers.</p><p>Implementation is expected by the end of this year or early 2018.</p><p>The contract took effect June 1 and runs through June 1, 2018. The county&#8217;s budget adheres to a Jan. 1-to-Dec. 31 calendar.</p><p>Even if the upfront fees are paid in 2017, McClosky Houck said the per-employee costs from January through June 2018 should exceed $25,000.</p><p>County Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo said Monday she is confident the contract complied with the charter because the county is not locked into an obligation to keep ADP if the expenditure is not funded by council in 2018. The contract allows four one-year renewals.</p><p>McClosky Houck said council members have expressed support for synchronizing the payroll schedule of all employees to eliminate a longtime practice in which some workers are paid for days not yet worked. But she does not believe the management&#8217;s plan to outsource this task to ADP was made clear to council.</p><p>County Manager C. David Pedri said Monday the administration pursued the contract because council members wanted to shift all employees to the same schedule. The plans to seek a payroll software company were discussed at numerous meetings, he said.</p><p>Crocamo said the county doesn&#8217;t have the in-house resources to tackle the conversion, largely because employees are covered by 10 union contracts, three memorandums of understanding and a non-union personnel policy. The administration negotiated a good price with ADP, she added.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a daunting task,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Citizens also had publicly criticized the contract at a council meeting earlier this month. They argued council had earmarked only $150,000 for payroll software and the service already should have been covered by a payroll module in the county&#8217;s $1.28 million financial software program purchased from Michigan-based New World Systems Corp. in 2012.</p><p>Pedri said the New World payroll module is not equipped to handle all the services that will be provided by ADP &#8212; a subject county Budget/Finance Division Head Brian Swetz will address at Tuesday&#8217;s meeting.</p><p>The manager also said $450,000 in budgeted funds are available to cover the ADP contract this year.</p><p>Councilwoman Kathy Dobash also has questioned the need for the contract and requested an explanation on how the budget allocation increased from $150,000.</p><p>Pedri said the administration has charter authority to shift funds within each division as long as it does not exceed the overall division allotment provided by council. Council approval is necessary to move budgeted funds from division to division, he said.</p><p>The ADP program will replace the county&#8217;s labor-intensive paper system with a more efficient computerized version and allow employees to track their amount of time off on their pay stubs, the administration said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">McClosky Houck </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_lindahouck.jpeg</photo0><caption0>McClosky Houck </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p>Tuesday&#8217;s county council meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Approval process of Luzerne County payroll contract up for discussion