DETROIT -- The city's largest union pleaded with the Detroit City Council on Tuesday to fix mounting glitches in the payroll system.
   Jimmy Hearns of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 25, which represents 6,016 city workers, said too few payroll workers represent "a fundamental collapse in government."
   As a result, paychecks have been for the wrong amounts or distributed late.
   "If we had proper staffing, we wouldn't have the magnitude of the problems," Hearns said.
   There are about 100 vacant payroll audit positions, city officials acknowledge. Furthermore, the city uses a 25-year-old payroll system.
   In 2000, police sued the city for ongoing problems with the biweekly paychecks. The state also fined the city $1,200 for failing to turn over time records.
   The pay problems range from the city's failure to promptly pay overtime and sick leave to incorrect payroll deductions. In one case, 152 police officers didn't get their regular paychecks following a power outage that affected the payroll computers.
   Rissa Long, an assistant to chief financial officer Sean Werdlow, said a payroll adjustment task force was developed to address the issues. The task force has set an April 1 deadline to develop a plan.
   City Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi said correcting the staffing issue is a quick-fix to the problem, but "we've got to do more than just staffing.
   "An overhaul of the whole system is what is needed," she said.

Detroit News

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