TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A months-long transition to a new payroll system led to nearly $54,000 in overpayments to dozens of Tucson Police Department employees, according to the City of Tucson’s Human Resources Department.
City officials say the errors stemmed from confusion over entering pay codes as HR and TPD shifted from one payroll platform to another — a process that began earlier this year in January and has posed challenges across multiple departments.
“Our team for the HR department has been actively involved for the better part of this calendar year with a transition for our payroll system,” said Teri Traaen, the city’s human resources director.
She added that the changeover was especially difficult “particularly with some of our departments where schedules and assignments, specialty assignments, unique pay, that kind of thing, are also part of the picture for payrolls.”
Departments like TPD.
According to the city, 74 Tucson Police Department employees received overpayments between July and October, when the issue was discovered during an internal audit. Traaen said the mistakes were the result of miscoded entries for different types of hours worked — not intentional wrongdoing.
“Incorrect coding that was deliberately entered, that would show to our team, and we would be able to then go in and do other analytics to see whether or not there is evidence of anything that is deliberate,” Traaen said. “We do not see anything that is reflecting that.”
The overpayments varied widely. “The range of impact on the smallest side was actually $15.67. The largest overpayment was about $6,900,” Traaen said. On average, each affected employee received $719 more than they were owed, totaling $53,960.
So far, 34 employees have fully repaid the money, while the remainder have established repayment plans.
“The city is on track to recover the money,” Traaen said, adding that HR will require additional payroll training to prevent future errors. “That’s the best way to do it and so we’ve introduced that now because of the payroll changes. This is, again, and again a unique challenge for everyone.”
The city says it will continue auditing payroll processes as the new system is fully implemented.
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Eddie Celaya is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9. Born in Tucson and raised in the Phoenix area, Eddie is a life-long Arizonan and graduate of the University of Arizona who loves the desert and mountains and hates the cold. Previously, Eddie worked in print media at the Arizona Daily Star. Share your story ideas with Eddie at edward.celaya@kgun9.com, or by connecting on Facebook or Instagram.
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