Post-Bankruptcy Detroit Hasn't A Clue How Much Comp Time It Owes Employees

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 9/7/2016 | Tom Gantert

[MichCapCon]

The Detroit News has reported that "glitches" left about 1,600 Detroit city employees without a paycheck in the first week of August. The city had 8,588 employees as of its last audited statement in June 2015.

A city spokesman said that the problem was caused by an antiquated payroll system, according to The Detroit News. The city stated an upgrade would be implemented by fiscal year 2017.

ForTheRecord says: This is a bad sign for anyone who hoped for improved stewardship from Detroit officials following the city's emergence from bankruptcy in 2014, assisted by a state taxpayer bailout.

In 2012, Detroit and the state Treasury department agreed that the city needed to upgrade its payroll system.

According to bankruptcy-related filings by the city in June 2013, Detroit contracted with a vendor to transition to a modern payroll system with the work to be completed in March 2014.

Two years after that deadline passed and more than four years after the city and state agreed that the city needed to modernize, the last word from Detroit is "wait until next year."

The outdated payroll system's most recent round of public scrutiny began when the media broke stories in 2015 documenting overtime abuses in the police department

Additionally, Detroit revealed in January that it has failed to compile the amount of compensatory time due to employees over the course of their careers. Reportedly, the information exists only for the most recent year (2015). The city estimates it would cost $100,000 and take 10,000 employee hours to track how much comp time employees have accumulated.

Compensatory time is the extra time off a city gives it employees who work extra hours but don’t take overtime pay. Employees can bank these hours over many years and cash them in at retirement. This unknown number of hours is potentially an unfunded liability whose magnitude is also unknown.

[bgill]

Kick backs. Money laundering. Scams.

[Stevenc131]

Comp time lol. Good luck. I worked in data processing for nearly 30 years, you were more likely to run into bigfoot in the hallway than get to take comp time (if your hours weren’t billable, they didn’t want to see it on your timesheet).

[PGalt]

Very interesting. Continuous improvement coming out of bankruptcy? No, continuous UNaccountability. Let’s pour some $ into the pockets of the individuals running this “city”. Maybe that will help. /s

“It’s like déjà vu all over again.” - Yogi

[hecticskeptic]

Water pressure in a substantial area around the River Rouge and the Detroit Water and Sewage plant has been so low that businesses that depend on it can’t run. I wonder what the specific cause of that is.... Is it an aging infrastructure problem? Disgruntled employees? Design issues?

[x_plus_one]

And every one thinks slavery is long gone. What with Sharia Law and unemployment and the destruction of the US economy, slavery or lifetime employment with benefits looks pretty good to those who know no better.