The Health Services Department utilizes the Account Clerk – Advanced Level classification to perform duties associated with processing timesheets for over 4,600 employees. These timesheets are manually processed twice a month for pay periods ending on the 15th and 30th/31st. The Payroll Unit requires twelve (12) Account Clerks to review, process and record both work and non-work hours, code and enter pay differentials based on classification and bargaining unit, and meet stringent payroll deadlines. Due to recruitment and retention issues in the past few years, the department has relied on retirees to fill vacancies, train new employees, and meet payroll processing deadlines.
Account Clerks assigned to the Health Services Payroll Unit are responsible for reviewing and manually coding timesheets to ensure employees are accurately compensated their hourly or monthly salary, including any additional pay bargained in accordance with seven (7) unions and their memorandum of understanding. The pay practices are extremely complicated due to variations in contract language. For example, Holiday Pay can be processed 26 different ways based on union representation and bargaining unit within that same union. Moreover, the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and Detention Health are 24/7 operations with a myriad of approximately 150 pay differentials.
Within the past five years, six (6) Account Clerks have left for promotional opportunities as Payroll Technicians in the Auditor Controller’s Office, Retirement Specialists at Contra Costa County Employees Retirement Association, and Accounting Technicians in other county departments. Furthermore, the minimum qualifications for the Account Clerk classification require experience in processing financial documents and performing accounts receivable/accounts payable duties but does not require payroll processing experience. Consequently, recruiting staff with payroll experience has been difficult, and training newly hired staff without payroll experience typically takes a full year due to the complexity of Health Services pay practices.
During the Board of Supervisors meeting on June 11, 2019, Supervisor Karen Mitchoff directed Health Services Personnel/Payroll Director Dorette McCollumn to develop a plan to address the Department’s payroll staffing issues, including the establishment of new Health Services payroll-specific classifications. Hence, the Department is submitting this request to establish the classifications of Health Services Timekeeping Technician, Health Services Timekeeping Specialist, and Health Services Timekeeping Supervisor. The existing Account Clerk positions and incumbents will be reclassified to Health Services Timekeeping Technician with their salary steps set closest to their current salary without reduction in pay. The Health Services Timekeeping Specialist will provide lead direction and the new position will be filled on a promotional basis via a competitive process, offset by the cancellation of one vacant Account Clerk position #7899. The Health Services Timekeeping Supervisor will be equivalent to the Account Clerk Supervisor and the incumbent will be transferred into the new classification.
The proposed salaries for the new classifications are based on an internal comparison of similar classifications within Contra Costa County and are set at 5% below the Auditor-Controller’s Office with exception to the Health Services Timekeeping Supervisor, for which the salary remains the same as the Account Clerk Supervisor:
AUDITOR-CONTROLLER CLASSIFICATIONS:
CODE CLASS TITLE Min Salary Max Salary
PAYROLL TECHNICIAN $4,778.00 $5,808.00
SENIOR PAYROLL TECHNICIAN $5,017.00 $6,098.00
SUPERVISING PAYROLL TECHNICIAN $4,900.00 $6,567.00
COUNTYWIDE CLASSIFICATION:
ACCOUNTING TECHNICIAN $4,331.00 $5,531.00
CURRENT HS PAYROLL
ACCOUNT CLERK SUPERVISOR $4,801.00 $6,131.00
ACCOUNT CLERK-ADVANCED LEVEL $3,911.00 $4,995.00
PROPOSED HS PAYROLL
HS TIMEKEEPING TECHNICIAN $4,520.00 $5,494.00
HS TIMEKEEPING SPECIALIST $5,232.00 $5,769.00
HS TIMEKEEPING SUPERVISOR $4,801.00 $6,131.00
The new classifications should alleviate the significant challenges in recruiting and retaining payroll staff in the Health Services Department.
If this action is not approved, the Department is not able to recruit qualified payroll staff and retain knowledgeable staff, and will rely on increased overtime of existing staff and continued employment of retirees to accurately and timely pay over 4,600 employees in the Health Services Department.