Payroll approved, training scheduled

Following the curtailed Saratoga Town Council meeting on Oct. 1, the regular meeting of the governing body on Oct. 15 saw the return of a complete agenda. That, however, did not stop continued discussion over the town finances and their presentation to the town council from taking place.

During the two meetings of the town council in September, the Sept. 3 meeting saw Councilmember Jon Nelson vote against approval (see “Financial inquiries” on page 1 of the Sept. 11 Saratoga Sun) and the Sept. 17 meeting saw five different numbers suggested for approval (see “Financial questions continue” on page 1 of the Sept. 25 Saratoga Sun).

The council also unanimously approved to send Saratoga Town Treasurer Sammy Flohr to training in Casper for Caselle, the government accounting program used by the Town of Saratoga.

Payroll Presentation

After the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call, Flohr read the accounts payable—$95,262.22—and gross payroll for Oct. 1 and Oct. 15, $45,295.39 and $39,698.53 respectively. Mayor John Zeiger stated that, despite the payroll not being ready for the Oct. 1 meeting, he was “not not going to pay our employees.”

“So, I went ahead and signed payroll,” said Zeiger.

The accounts payable were approved unanimously without discussion. With a motion to approve from Councilmember Judy Welton and a second from Councilmember Bob Keel, the payroll was open to discussion with Nelson raising concerns about the presentation.

“We’ve talked about this extensively at the workshop we had last month and I sent out an email earlier trying to clarify this before the meeting, but I thought we had agreed to show the payroll as the sum of the net payroll plus employer liabilities rather than approving the gross payroll,” said Nelson.

It was during the Sept. 3 meeting that Nelson had proposed that the payroll report should include net payroll with employer liabilities paid separately or that the employer liabilities should be included in gross payroll.

Nelson proposed that the correct amount to be approved for Oct. 1 was $55,802.12 with $35,246.32 for net payroll and $20,555.80 for employer liabilities.

Welton, who serves as the Town Hall Representative for the town council, stated that she believed the report the governing body was provided would explain things in a better way. Nelson, again, stated that he believed that gross payroll did not represent the total amount of leaving town hall in the form of paychecks.

“I think it depends on how you want to present it, Jon,” said Welton.

As discussion continued, Welton told Nelson that it was possible for the town council to “nitpick this to death,” but that she found both payroll reports for October to be correct. She added that she believed he did as well, stating Nelson had received the payroll reports ahead of the town council meeting.

“I think it’s a matter of preference,” Welton said. “It’s up to the mayor.”

Nelson replied, stating that he didn’t believe it could be a matter of preference if one amount was correct and one amount was incorrect. He then asked Tom Thompson, legal counsel for Town of Saratoga, if the approval of the finances was the financial record for the municipality and required by state statute.

“Yeah, I think you need to approve the correct amount,” said Thompson.

Nelson asked Saratoga Town Clerk Suzie Cox if the net payroll was the total of all paychecks, which Cox confirmed it was. Nelson added that the employer liabilities were another batch of checks that needed to be approved along with payroll.

“Prior to September, we were approving gross payroll plus manual checks. Now we’re being asked to approve just gross payroll,” Nelson said. “I think my question on this has been consistent over the last three meetings which is; should we be approving the net payroll plus the employer liabilities?”

Welton asked Nelson if that was the total he was wanting. Nelson replied that he believed it was the accurate number that would be dispersed from town hall. Following the total suggested by Nelson for Oct. 1 payroll, he also suggested the total of Oct. 15 payroll was $49,229.24.

The rest of the council agreed to approve the totals suggested by Nelson and payroll for Oct. 1 and Oct. 15 was approved unanimously.

Headed To Training

Under reports from town hall, Zeiger informed the council that Flohr was registered to attend training in Casper on Oct. 29 and 30. The mayor asked what the town treasurer would be learning at the training during those two days.

“It does have a lot of information that Sammy’s going to use with the general ledger, accounts payable. I think it will be very beneficial for him,” said Cox.

She added that there was another Caselle class considered for Saratoga Town Secretary Brenda Mistelske concerning utilities, but that it was only two-hours long and could be done via webinar instead of a two-day training.

The Saratoga Town Council unanimously approved Flohr to attend the training in Casper.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on Nov. 5 at Saratoga Town Hall.