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Puallup council authorizes budget to add payroll specialist to address system issues
Summary
Council approved funding to hire an additional payroll specialist (half-year cost estimated $65K–$69K) after Finance Director Barbara Lopez described payroll complexity and ongoing implementation issues with the city’s payroll system.
Puallup — The City Council voted Feb. 24 to authorize budget funding to hire an additional payroll specialist to strengthen the city’s finance team and address ongoing payroll processing challenges.
Finance Director Barbara Lopez told the council that Puallup has about 330 employees but only one dedicated payroll staffer, and that the number and complexity of bargaining units have made processing increasingly difficult. "We at the city of Puleup, we have 330 employees and we have one payroll person," Lopez said during her presentation, noting that comparable cities average roughly one payroll employee for every 160 workers.
Lopez requested budget authorization to hire a payroll specialist for a mid-July start; the one-half-year cost to the general fund was estimated at about $65,000–$69,000, with roughly 10% charged to other funds. Council members questioned whether the additional FTE would address recurring errors and system implementation problems; Lopez said the new hire is intended as a permanent solution rather than a temporary fix.
Council moved and seconded the authorization and approved it by voice vote. Deputy Mayor Johnson and other council members expressed support, noting temporary staff redeployments had been used to cover issues and that adding staff should improve redundancy and reduce single-point failure risk.
The new position will be incorporated into the next biennial budget for ongoing funding; staffing and recruitment details are to be handled by the finance department.
