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Regular City Council Meeting <br />August 11,2003 <br />Page 24 <br /> <br />staffing remains the same the payroll is running 6% or 7%. <br /> <br />Gene Anderson, Director of Finance, came forward and advised that the <br />salaries under the proposed budget has the 3.43% in it. There are going to be <br />in some departments what appears to be a larger variation. Mr. Anderson said <br />last year the city purchased a software module that is called payroll budgeting <br />and it automated the calculation of our budget and they had problems in using <br />it last year. There was a large data base set up and it just did not work exactly <br />right. We either did not get the data in there just right, or it performed in a <br />way that we were not expecting. Some of the numbers that they were working <br />on in the budget last year just did not look right. They did some manual <br />manipulation and they ended up as being estimates. Mr. Anderson said they <br />have gone back through this past year and they work all of that base data so it <br />would take the number that is being proposed, but some of the budget numbers <br />from last year, they do not think are right. <br /> <br />Mr. Anderson said there was a combination of two things in the city's pay <br />plan. They have a salary what they think a job is worth and that is step five on <br />the pay plan. When an employee is hired, he is hired at step one and over a <br />period of three years as they gain experience and perform well they go through <br />that pay plan until they get up to what they are worth. Mr. Anderson said he <br />does think that the problem they had with the software is an issue, but they <br />think it has been corrected. <br /> <br />Councilman Guest said the old budget figures can't be relied on so then we <br />would have to add another two months on the year to date. Mr. Anderson said <br />that was correct, assuming the number of personnel is the same and, in some <br />cases, those budget numbers are not going to be off much. <br /> <br />Councilman Guest asked if the computer problem runs into the hospitalization <br />also. Mr. Anderson said that the problem they have with the hospitalization <br />is they have had a half dozen people that have had catastrophic illness <br />requiring the payment of claims in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. He <br /> <br /> <br />