Sheriff's office employees tell Pueblo County commissioners Workday payroll errors left deputies short hundreds to thousands of dollars

PUEBLO COUNTY, Colo. — Dozens of Pueblo County Sheriff's Office employees told the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 4 that a switch to the Workday payroll system produced large, unexplained changes to paychecks and left some staff unable to pay basic living expenses.

Sandy Perkate, speaking for the sheriff's office, said employees submitted tickets and requests for correction but had received little response. “Our people are very concerned about their pay; some were underpaid significantly,” she said, adding that some staff received less than a quarter of their expected paycheck.

Several sworn officers and civilian staff described the same pattern. Detective Amy Colvin said her monthly pay “fluctuates on over a thousand dollars” and said she sees months with nearly a 50-hour difference in pay calculations, about 25% of a full paycheck. Patrol Captain John Romo and Deputy Paul Padilla described individual shortfalls of about $1,300 and $1,800 respectively; Sergeant Melissa Rourke reported being paid $2,500 in the most recent check after receiving $7,100 the prior month, a shortfall she said equated to a missing 96 hours from her pay.

Detective Amendola told the board a year of no federal tax withholding had not been applied to his checks in county payroll records and said he expected to owe the IRS a substantial amount as a result.

Speakers urged the commissioners to act quickly to avoid losing trained staff. A captain in investigations said replacements would be costly and warned the office is handling major cases while staff are distracted by pay problems. Several speakers said recruitment and retention would suffer if the problem was not fixed.

Commissioners responded that they had heard the concerns and had placed the payroll issue on the day's executive session agenda. One commissioner said the board was "prioritizing some of the more egregious instances" and would work with departments to correct errors quickly. County officials discussed short-term options, including the idea of interest-free loans; staff said any such program would take time to implement.

County officials and commissioners acknowledged multiple causes, distinguishing between human errors (timesheets not approved, payroll missed entries) and systemic issues stemming from the new payroll paradigm. Officials said they were investigating both types of problems and that they would attempt to make employees whole for errors while continuing to evaluate whether system settings or policies should be revised.

The board asked employees to report the most urgent financial impacts so staff could prioritize relief and said it would provide more information to employees via email and other updates in the coming days.

No formal vote on a corrective policy or emergency payout was recorded in the public transcript; the board placed the issue on the agenda for executive session and directed staff to report back.