Committee approves small transfer to correct Board of Health chair pay; funds taken from substitute nurse and auto allowances

The finance committee approved a transfer March 11 to correct a payroll oversight that left the Board of Health chair without an authorized stipend. The transfer request, submitted by Timothy Rivers, Board of Health director, said the error was discovered during payroll reconciliation after the city’s new payroll system was implemented and that the accountant provided a dollar figure to make the correction.

Rivers explained staff located sufficient balances in related lines — substitute nurse funds and an auto allowance that became unnecessary when animal control began using a city vehicle — and proposed moving the needed amount into the Board of Health board members line. He wrote that the substitute nurse line was unused because of a shared service arrangement and that the auto allowance line had surplus funds because an employee no longer used a personal vehicle for animal control duties; the auto allowance will be eliminated from the FY26 budget.

The committee took the transfer off the table for discussion and approved it by voice vote. Committee members noted the documentation in Rivers’s communication and accepted the transfer as an administrative correction to payroll records.