Payroll Procedures for Constitutional Officers Administered by the Board of Commissioners

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1 Payroll Procedures for Constitutional Officers Administered by the Board of Commissioners In order to achieve the economy and efficiency of a single payroll administration system for both county employees and employees of Constitutional Officers, the Miller County Board of Commissioners (BOC) and the Miller County Constitutional Officers (MCCO) recognize and agree that it is desirable to have a uniform payroll procedure. The following procedures are adopted create such uniformity for all offices whose payrolls are administered by the BOC. 1. Recognition of separate entities. Each MCCO is an entity separate from Miller County and the BOC, and from the other MCCO s. The employees of each MCCO are that officer s employees, and are not employees of the BOC or Miller County. To maintain such legal separateness: Each MCCO will have a separate payroll checking account with the financial institution of his/her choice. This will be a controlled account, i.e. no checks except payroll checks will be drawn on this account, and check totals should never exceed payroll deposit totals in each month. Each MCCO will provide the BOC with identifying information concerning his/her payroll checking account. The MCCO s will be responsible for reconciling books, monitoring, balancing, or overdrafts on the MCCO s payroll checking account. The MCCO will provide a legible copy of the complete payroll bank statement, with all attachments, to the BOC no later than the 10th of the month following statement date. If the MCCO becomes aware that there may be insufficient funds to cover payroll checks requested, he/she will request the BOC to amend the MCCO s budget or notify the BOC, by the submission of a budget amendment request, that funds are being transferred from another MCCO budget account to cover the potential overdraft. The BOC will deposit 1/10 th of each MCCO s budget for payroll in the MCCO s payroll checking account on the first business day of each of the first ten (10) months of the fiscal year. The BOC will review each MCCO s payroll budget at its regular monthly meetings to determine whether extraordinary circumstances occurring since the last meeting require an amendment to increase each MCCO s payroll budget to provide for resulting additional payroll expense. Absent a budget amendment approved by the BOC there will be no deposits to the MCCO S payroll checking account in months 11 and 12 of the fiscal year. Each MCCO will have his/her own federal and state Employer Identification Numbers, TAX ID numbers, and Department of Labor numbers. Each MCCO will provide the BOC with his/her identification numbers. The cost of setting up these separate bank accounts and identification numbers will be included in the BOC appropriation for each MCCO s budget. The employees of each MCCO are not subject to the BOC s control or the BOC s personnel policies, including vacation, sick-leave, holiday, or other paid time off policies. 1

2 Personnel policies for the each MCCO s employees, including vacation, sick-leave, holiday, or other paid time off will be as determined by that MCCO in his/her discretion. 2. Payroll administration services. The Miller County BOC will provide administration of payroll for the MCCO employees which will consist of the following services: (f) Bi-weekly processing and printing of all payroll checks or direct deposit by electronic fund transfer at the employee s election. Bi-weekly processing and printing of all payroll deduction checks or direct deposit by electronic fund transfer at the vendor/payee s election. Bi-weekly processing and printing of all payroll tax deposits (EFT deposits biweekly, FICA, and other tax withholdings). Quarterly processing and printing of all quarterly payroll tax returns (941, G7, DOL4). Annual processing and printing of all W-2 Forms and other tax forms. Providing the MCCO with payroll reports for each bi-weekly payroll, which will include a payroll budget report which shows the budget status of the payroll account for each constitutional officer and any other reports concerning payroll administration as may be agreed upon by the BOC and the Constitutional Officer. The MCCO is recognized as the employer of his/her employees, and the BOC will function as an outside payroll service. 3. Processing period. The BOC payroll administration system operates on a 28 day work period and processes payroll bi-weekly. The MCCO will submit all hours worked by their employees to the BOC for payment during the bi-weekly payroll period. The BOC does not process special payrolls to pay comp time or holiday pay. The MCCO will include comp time or holiday pay in their regular bi-weekly payroll requests, and the BOC will include such pay in the bi-weekly payroll checks when they are issued. 4. Payroll changes and deductions. The MCCO will submit payroll changes on a payroll change form provided by the BOC three (3) days prior to the date the next payroll is processed. Any changes not timely submitted will be processed by the BOC on the next payroll after timely submission of such changes. The MCCO will timely submit information concerning garnishments and other deductions, including the proper amount to be deducted for each employee, on the payroll deduction form provided by the BOC three (3) days prior to the date the next payroll is processed. The BOC will not be responsible for computing the garnishment or deduction 2

3 amount, but will only be responsible for deducting the requested amount from the employee s payroll check. Separate checks will be issued by the BOC for all deductions and delivered to the MCCO for distribution to the proper party or agency. The MCCO will be responsible for maintaining records of garnishment and other deductions, and distribution of checks. 5. New hires and terminations. The MCCO will report all new hires on a form provided by the BOC 2 days prior to the hire date so that the new employee will be included in the BOC payroll system prior to their first day of work. The MCCO will report all terminations by providing the BOC with a copy of the Georgia DOL separation notice within 2 days after it is issued to the departing employee. 6. Time records. It is not necessary for the MCCO to continue using the current time system, but the auditor and Department of Labor require some sort of time punch to verify the time for which each employee is paid. The BOC has been advised that a work schedule is not sufficient documentation of time worked. If the MCCO decide to continue to use the current time system, the MCCO will set up software on their respective computers for access to the system. The City of Colquitt prints the badges that are used with the current time system. The MCCO will purchase or make arrangements with the City of Colquitt to pay for expenses incurred for these badges. The BOC will include appropriate funding to cover such expenses in the MCCO s budget. The BOC is not responsible for calculating the time for each MCCO employee, or accessing the time system to correct erroneous punches for the MCCO. NOTE: E911 is a department under the BOC. Effective July 1, 2010, these E911 employees will not clock in any MCCO employees. E911 employees will only clock in themselves individually. BOC employees are not allowed to clock in other employees. 7. Payroll processing time for MCCO employees: The BOC will not calculate time or correct erroneous punches on the current time system. The MCCO will complete, approve and submit correct time for each employee to the BOC office on the time form provided by the BOC on Monday before 12:00 Noon in order to process payroll for the MCCO employees. In the event of a holiday, the BOC will give the MCCO advance notice of when employee time should be submitted to timely process the MCCO payroll. The MCCO will submit the following information for each MCCO employee to the BOC so that the BOC can process payroll for each individual MCCO employee: (1) Name of employee (2) Regular hours worked (3) Overtime hours worked 3

4 (4) Paid time off hours or amounts (5) Any supplement amounts included in the MCCO s budget Payroll checks will be available for pick up by the MCCO or their designees on Thursday at 2:00 pm. In the event of a holiday, the BOC will give the MCCO advance notice of when the payroll checks will be available for pick up. The MCCO will be responsible for distributing checks to employees or other persons or agencies entitled to them. If an MCCO employee elects to receive his/her payroll funds by direct deposit via electronic funds transfer, the MCCO will provide the BOC with the employee s bank account information on a form provided by the BOC. 8. Human Resources. The BOC will not be responsible for providing any Human Resources services for the MCCO and their employees, including, but not limited to, the following: Taking applications for jobs for the MCCO; Processing MCCO new hire package for employment; Drug testing MCCO applicants or new hires; Maintaining personnel files for MCCO employees; Providing Fair Labor Standards Laws reviews for MCCO employees. 9. The BOC will be responsible for providing the following employee benefits for the MCCO and their employees through the Miller County benefits and insurance plans: Except as provided in below, the same employment benefits provided to BOC employees, including but not limited to, retirement, health insurance, workers compensation insurance, and unemployment insurance. Enrollment forms will be the same as those used for BOC employees, and must be timely completed and submitted to the BOC by the MCCO for all new hires. Employee benefits does not include the same payments for vacation, sick-leave, holiday, or other paid time off benefits the BOC provides to county employees subject to its personnel policy. Within the MCCO s budget appropriated by the BOC, each MCCO will, at his/her discretion, authorize and direct the BOC to make such payments for each employee and classify such payments for charge against his/her budget. The BOC will issue checks and charge them to the MCCO s budget accordingly. Processing claims for employment benefits. Claim forms will be the same as those used for BOC employees, and must be timely completed and submitted to the BOC by the MCCO for all claims that must be submitted by the BOC to insurers or benefit plan administrators. The BOC will timely submit all such claims to insurers or benefit plan 4

5 administrators. After the claim is submitted and a claim or file number and claims representative has been assigned by the insurer or benefit plan administrator, subsequent claims processing communications or actions will be the responsibility of the MCCO or his/her employee, as the case may be. Health insurance claims are submitted directly to the insurer or its administrator by the individual employee or his/her health care provider on forms provided by the insurer or its administrator. Opposition to any claim for benefits, such as unemployment benefits or worker s compensation claims, etc., will at the discretion of the MCCO, and will be the MCCO s responsibility. To the extent legal representation is necessary and not provided by the affected insurer, legal services will be provided for the MCCO by the county attorney, and legal expenses will be paid from the BOC legal expense budget. The cost of providing these benefits will be included in the BOC appropriation for each MCCO s budget. The BOC will calculate the per capita cost of those benefits (total cost divided by total number of covered employees), and allocate to each MCCO the cost of providing those benefits to the MCCO s employees. The MCCO s budgeted payroll will include those costs and the BOC, when paying the county-wide premiums/contributions, will charge premium/contribution payments to each MCCO s budget accordingly. Provided, however, to the extent an MCCO receives similar benefits from a state or elected official s association sponsored benefit plan, the BOC is not obligated to provide duplicate benefits for that MCCO under a county sponsored benefit plan. ### Agreed to this day of June, 2010: MILLER COUNTY GEORGIA BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 5

6 Agreed to this day of June, 2010: CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT, MILLER COUNTY, GEORGIA PROBATE JUDGE, MILLER COUNTY, GEORGIA TAX COMMISSIONER, MILLER COUNTY, GEORGIA SHERIFF, MILLER COUNTY, GEORGIA 6