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Jefferson County reviews payroll deduction errors for employee insurance; board directs staff on small outstanding amounts and policy drafting
Summary
County staff told commissioners payroll deductions for some employee health, dental, life and disability premiums were processed incorrectly between Oct. 2024 and Aug. 2025, leaving about $15,000 under‑deducted and roughly $500 overcharged; commissioners authorized small adjustments and asked staff to draft a policy on constitutional officers’ participation in county insurance plans.
County staff informed the board that payroll deductions for certain county and constitutional officer employees were incorrectly processed from October 2024 through August 2025. According to the report included in the agenda materials, about $15,000 in employee insurance premiums were not deducted and roughly $500 was overcharged to some employees during that period.
Staff said the clerk’s office and county manager have taken steps to correct payroll accounting entries and work through the insurance broker portal; approximately $10,000 has been recovered so far and refunds were issued where employees were overcharged. The county manager and clerk prepared a report for the board that itemized affected employees by policy and the amounts involved.
Staff told the board that two constitutional offices (the property appraiser and the tax collector) had former employees responsible who have since left county employment and those offices had been unable to recover the unpaid deductions. Staff requested board confirmation that each constitutional officer may use other legally available funds within their budgets to cover those amounts — the staff estimate was about $424 for the property appraiser and about $370 for the tax collector — and recommended doing so.
The board voted to authorize the property appraiser and tax collector to use legally available funds within their offices to close those small shortfalls. Commissioners also discussed whether the county should develop a written policy to govern constitutional officers’ participation in county health insurance plans going forward, standardizing employee and employer premium shares, open enrollment and recordkeeping. Staff said it would work with counsel and affected offices to draft a proposed policy for future board consideration.
Next steps: staff will pursue recovery of outstanding amounts where feasible, document the approved use of constitutionals’ funds for the specified shortfalls, and return with a draft written policy standardizing constitutional officers’ participation in county insurance plans.
