John Coffelt, Editor

The Manchester Finance Committee at a special called meeting Wednesday, Jan. 11 approved a request for proposal (RFP) for the contracting of Human Resources and payroll services.

Director of Finance Lisa Myers, citing an MTAS advisory group report, said that the HR representative should be outside the direct supervision of the Finance Director and should be a department head position.  

Additionally, only one person handles processing all the paychecks for the city, creating the potential for problems in the event of illness or an unexpected vacancy of the position.

Myers said the RFP would allow the city to see if outsourcing the services would be a cost savings.

“Payroll and Human Resources are highly specialized fields, and it’s getting more and more complicated,” Myers said.

She said that payroll personnel have to be dedicated to planning their lives around the payroll cycle. The city has one open position in payroll. It could be cheaper and more efficient to outsource instead of filling that opening.

Vice Mayor Mark Messick opposed outsourcing, saying that employees would be better served by an in-house payroll clerk.

“If an employee has a problem, I want them to be able to come here – into somebody’s office here and be able to talk to them. I don’t want them to have to call Nashville or Murfreesboro and wait for an answer,” he said.

Myers said that the suppler would provide a contact person who would provide timely service.

“We would still have someone here that would be responsible in communicating with that third vendor,” Myers said.

-But (the employee would be able to get in touch with that person who is in charge. If I have a problem today – if you messed up my paycheck, and I want it straightened out, I don’t want to have to go downstairs and talk to somebody and have them talk to somebody else. I want to go into the person who is writing paychecks and say, “I think you made a mistake,” Messick said.

Myers said her experiences with third-party payroll services has been the firms are very responsive and quickly resolved any problems.

Chairman Joey Hobbs said that in his company, a third-party vender works well.

“It’s a matter of data-in, data out. It can’t be wrong if we give them the right numbers,” Hobbs said.  

A department head salary would be a substantial bump from what is currently paid. A payroll clerk salary would be in the $40,000 range.

Messick said that MTAS’s reports are suggestions and do not carry the weight of an audit.

The RFP was approved with a 2-1 vote. Messick offered the no. Any proposals received would have to be approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.