Board reviews housekeeping updates to payroll and travel policies; staff clarifies jury duty pay and UKG payroll system references

City staff briefed the Board of Mayor and Aldermen at a June 2025 work session on a set of administrative housekeeping changes to travel, payroll and investment policies intended to modernize language and align procedures with current practice.

Why it matters: the updates clarify what qualifies as a travel expense versus a business expense, adjust payroll procedures to reflect the city’s recent software change, and propose other cleanup to investment‑policy language; these changes affect how employees are reimbursed and how the city records payroll and benefits.

On travel policy staff said the proposed resolution clarifies that travel and meal reimbursement tied to an overnight stay is classified separately as a travel expense, while day‑trip meals and incidental costs for meetings (for example, a same‑day meeting in neighboring Murfreesboro) are business expenses and remain reimbursable under existing accounts. Staff noted they were removing an antiquated reference that reimbursed employees for long distance phone calls from hotel rooms.

On payroll procedures staff said the city replaced its prior payroll software (“green employee”) with UKG about a year ago and the resolutions would update names and internal references to reflect the UKG system. Staff also described a policy change on jury duty pay: rather than requiring employees to remit jury pay (for example, modest county checks) back to the city, staff recommended employees be allowed to keep the jury pay to reduce administrative burden. Crossing guards are being transitioned from paper time cards to clocking in and out in UKG, and the payroll updates formalize that change. Staff said the longevity program previously adopted in November has been reconciled with payroll procedures as well.

Other items on the city agenda that staff described as cleanup included an investment policy amendment to align non‑pension assets with Tennessee Code Annotated provisions and routine contract renewals such as a small legal‑software subscription and a six‑month extension for third‑party claims administration.

Ending: Staff said the budget and finance committee reviewed the items but lacked a quorum and the items were being brought to the full board for simultaneous consideration at the work session and the voting meeting. Aldermen asked clarifying questions about how the travel/business expense distinction would be handled in practical cases; staff said they would accept prior authorization for business meals if needed and that the chart of accounts already distinguishes inside‑county business expenses from travel expenses that require an overnight stay.