To: Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): Sheriff’s Office
Staff Name and Phone Number: Connie Newton, 565-8884
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Time Limited Administrative Aide for Sheriff’s Payroll Unit
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Adopt a Resolution amending the Sheriff’s Office Department Allocation List to add 1.0 Time Limited Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Administrative Aide, effective January 7, 2025, to support project implementation in the Sheriff’s Office Payroll Unit.
end
Executive Summary:
The Sheriff is requesting authorization to add a time limited Administrative Aide to the Sheriff’s Payroll Unit to assist with the implementation of an electronic scheduling system and to address other backlogs of work in the Unit. This position will be paid for with one-time funds, held in a special revenue fund, for a period of 3.25 years and have no impact on the General Fund. The fund, 10077, is named “Sheriff - Donations/Escheated.” The fund accumulates balance from unclaimed property and donations. The unclaimed property intended use is for one-time funding that supports projects at the Sheriff’s Office as approved by the Board of Supervisors.
Discussion:
In July 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved a project to implement a time and attendance software service subscription for the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office identified an operational need for an electronic scheduling system to automate mandatory overtime scheduling and callout coverage for its 24 hour per day operation. Scheduling and notifications are currently being done manually by sergeants (the supervisors) in both the Law Enforcement and Detention Divisions for over 400 full-time sworn employees and nearly 100 extra help employees. This manual process is time intensive and complicated for both sergeants and staff, in addition to competing with sergeants’ other critical supervisorial and mentoring duties.
While this system is expected to free up sergeant and operational staff time, implementation will require more time from the Sheriff’s Payroll Unit. The Payroll Unit has three employees and is responsible for processing payroll for nearly 700 employees. They monitor and track the various types of pay allowed under employee labor agreements, such as: 21 different premium pays, shift differential, bilingual pay, and standby pay. The Payroll Unit ensures over 225,000 hours of overtime are coded correctly. There are many other duties and complexities associated with payroll processing, to include leave of absence management and timecode reconciliation for disaster and mutual aid cost recovery. The tasks performed by this Unit are critical and highly time sensitive, with daily, weekly, and bi-weekly deadlines. If one person is absent, time sensitive work must fall on the other two, often creating overtime or the need for extra help. On many occasions, Payroll members have worked during pre-approved time off to meet deadlines. The Payroll Unit is barely keeping up with existing workload, currently relying on an extra help employee working half time to keep up with critical payroll deadlines. In addition to the baseline workload required to ensure payroll can be processed, the Sheriff’s Payroll Unit has a backlog of work, including audits and best practices that staff must defer in order to meet the Unit’s time-sensitive deadlines. Now with Telestaff, payroll staff will be required to become the experts of the new system. This request for a time limited Administrative Aide, through June 30, 2028, will alleviate new workload associated with this software implementation in the Sheriff’s Payroll Unit.
The new software, Telestaff, will require significant personnel resources for implementation. Once the system is functional, we anticipate the system will help reduce payroll processing time by reducing the number of time entry errors which require post-payroll corrections. The new position will become the system expert, serve as the liaison to the vendor for implementation and testing, and develop procedures and training for staff. Creating schedules and work rules in Telestaff that align with all Sheriff’s employee labor agreements requires a high level of complexity because of the numerous schedules, premium pays, specialty pays, and varying overtime rules associated with the Sheriff’s Office varying job classes and various schedules. This new body of work cannot be absorbed within the Sheriff’s Office existing staff.
Based on other related payroll software implementations, such as Timesaver, HRIS, and Dimensions, the Payroll manager anticipates support will be needed from an additional position for approximately three years. The request is for 3.25 years to build in sufficient time for the hiring process, which takes a minimum of three months for Sheriff’s employees. A substantial amount of training and auditing will need to occur after initial implementation, to incorporate the use of this new system into the Sheriff’s Office daily operations. The Sheriff’s Office will use a one-time funding source of accumulated unclaimed property to fund this time limited position.
Strategic Plan:
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Organizational Excellence
Goal: Goal 1: Strengthen operational effectiveness, fiscal reliability, and accountability
Objective: Objective 1: Align the Board of Supervisor’s strategic priorities, policy, and operational goals with funding and resources.
Racial Equity:
Was this item identified as an opportunity to apply the Racial Equity Toolkit?
No
Prior Board Actions:
7/11/2023 - Board of Supervisors approved an Addendum to the County’s Agreement with Kronos Incorporated to add Telestaff.
08,22/17, 09/17/19, 08/31/21,9/26/23, - Board of Supervisors authorized transfer of unclaimed funds to Fund 10077, Sheriff - Donations/Escheated
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY24-25 Adopted |
FY25-26 Projected |
FY26-27 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
$46,279 |
$134,021 |
$142,182 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
|
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$46,279 |
$134,021 |
$142,182 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
|
|
|
|
State/Federal |
|
|
|
|
Fees/Other |
|
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
$46,279 |
$134,021 |
$142,182 |
|
General Fund Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$46,279 |
$134,021 |
$142,182 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
This request will be funded with a combination of savings from discontinuing use of extra help ($45,000) and the Sheriff’s Office “Donation / Escheatment” Special Revenue Fund (a one-time funding source). For FY 24-25, if approved, we anticipate the position being filled in the 4th quarter. The recruitment and Sheriff’s required pre-employment background investigation process takes a minimum of three months. If savings do not exist, there are adequate funds in the escheatment fund, Fund number 10077, to cover the cost. The Board of Supervisors approves the transfer of unclaimed property to this fund this fund through Resolutions, where funds have accumulated over several years. The entire cost of this request is approximately $460,000 for the 3.25 years. The available fund balance is $634,000. A consolidated budget adjustment will be submitted to add budgetary appropriations.
|
Staffing Impacts: |
|
|
|
|
Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
|
Administrative Aide |
$6,203.96 - $7,539.72 |
1.0 |
0.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
This position will assist in relieving existing Sheriff’s payroll staff by addressing both new workload and various backlogs. Once the Telestaff system is fully implemented and audited, the operational staff workload related to payroll and scheduling is expected to decrease, as Telestaff should assist with call-out notifications, scheduling, and prevent scheduling and timecard errors. The workload for the Sheriff’s Payroll Unit should also decrease by reducing timecard entry errors and corrections. If Telestaff works as intended, the Payroll Unit should be able to incorporate best practices like consistent auditing into their regular workload.
Attachments:
FY 24-25 Position Resolution
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
Sheriff’s Program Change Request to add a time-limited Administrative Aide to the Sheriff’s Payroll Unit