All TRICK: no treat!!!

FLASH: This just in: Camden County flubs this week's payroll! Camden County employees - 100 % of them - got a nasty trick this Halloween. When employees or their spouses tried to make debit card purchases this afternoon, many were in for a shock. It turns out that for some as yet unknown reason, NOT ONE SINGLE county employee's check made it to their banks under the direct deposit program this week. It will be interesting to see if local banks will waive the overdraft fees. If not, it is only right that the county should pay them, along with explanatory letters to anyone who received a bad check from a county employee. This will probably be a computer glitch or a human error on the computer. I would not be surprised if it turns out to be somehow related to the CCSO not being paid this week. Update (maybe): 11.01.08 @ 1227 HRS. This just showed up on TOPIX, Kingsland 30 minutes ago. just me Saint Marys, GA Reply » Report Abuse Judge it! #2 29 min ago lets nip this in the bud now.it wasnt the county it was the treasury dept and southeastern bank. the county worked diligently all day yesterday to correct this.also they were open this morning along with the bank to assist employees "Just me," I would be very surprised if you do not follow my blog as well. Perhaps you would be so kind as to come on here in the comments section and expand upon your rather cryptic explanation and dismissal. By "the treasury dept.", may we assume correctly that you are referring to the U.S. Department of the Treasury? If so, could you explain the relationship between the U.S. Treasury and the Camden County, GA payroll? My heretofore 100% reliable source assured me that it was all checks to all banks, not just Southeastern. Where did you get your information? I certainly hope that the problem has indeed been corrected, as you suggest

The True Skinny:

11/01/08, 1525 HRS : I just got off of the phone with Camden County administrator, Steve Howard.

Here are the facts.

1. Only the 300 of the 400 employees who are on direct deposit were affected.

2. No one at the county was at fault.

3. The fault was entirely with Southeastern Bank, which handles the county's payroll account.

4. Someone other than the regular clerk at SEB was handling the wire transfer of all of the direct deposit funds this week. They unwittingly submitted the transfer request one day sooner than the Federal Reserve allows. The Fed rejected the request, but no one at the bank caught it, or if they did, did not act on it.

5. When Mr. Howard and Mr. Fender first learned of it from calls form employees just after 8:00 Am Friday, they sprung into action. They and several Finance Dept employees as well as SEB employees worked until 8:00 PM Friday to resolve the problem. Moreover, they were back at the old courthouse bright and early this morning cutting manual checks for those employees who wanted them. Some employees preferred to simply wait until the checks hit their accounts on Monday by direct deposit. By early this afternoon, all employees had been taken care of .

6. Monday, Mr. Howard will send a letter of explanation / apology to all affected employees.

7. SEB has promised an internal systems analysis to design a fail-safe program to prevent this from ever happening again. Not that when someone from Mr. Fender's office called earlier this week, as they always do, tho confirm that all was well, they were misinformed that it was.

8. SEB has agreed to make good any and all overdraft charges which employees may have incurred as a result of their error.

As always, my sincere thanks to Mr. Steve Howard for his prompt reply to my request and his thorough explanation.

Go Dawgs!

1755 HRS. Just before the end of the 1st qurter of the Ga/FL game, Camden County Finance Director Mike Fender called. In addition to giving me the same information that Steve Howard had, Mike pointed out that they were able to contact all but two of the affected employees by phone on Friday. He thanked employees for being very understanding. Mike also pointed out that because all of the county employees involved in putting in extra hours solving the problem are salaried, administrative employees, no overtime pay is involved. Moreover, total related expenses (i.e., sending out letters to employees) will be quite minimal.