Luzerne County Government

April 13, 2010

County selects firm to put in time clocks for employees

Firms to handle credit-card payments and to run tax claim office privately also picked.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
Jennifer Learn-Andes on Facebook   |   @TLJenLearnAndes on Twitter

Luzerne County Commissioners have chosen companies to install time clocks for county workers, privately run the tax claim office and handle credit-card payments for county fees and services.

The selections were announced during Monday’s work session, with official votes scheduled for Wednesday’s 10 a.m. commissioners meeting.

Commissioners chose Chelmsford, Mass.-based Kronos Inc., a work force management software provider, to install and maintain Biometric readers that will require employees to press their fingers or palms on a special pad to clock in and out.

“It’s kind of a way to get away from buddy punching,” said county Chief Clerk/Manager Doug Pape, referring to badges that could be scanned for workers who aren’t physically present.

Kronos, which was selected from five responses to a public proposal, will be paid an estimated $410,160 to implement the system and a $45,140 annual maintenance fee. Money borrowed in the past through a bond has been set aside to fund the project, officials say.

Pape said all rank-and-file workers will be expected to use the clocks, and commissioners must decide if any management-level workers will be exempt from clocking in and out.

The Kronos system will transmit payroll data electronically, reducing or eliminating the need for payroll workers to manually enter this data, county officials say. The clocks should be operational in about six months, he said.

Taxpayers have been demanding time clocks for years, and commissioners have been contemplating the idea since 2004. County officials have estimated the system will save an estimated $1.5 million annually, largely through the elimination of abuse.

“It’s a big initiative. This has been talked about for so long now, going back to the previous administration,” Pape said.

Northeast Revenue Service LLC, Wilkes-Barre, was chosen to handle the collection of back taxes in the county.

The company, which submitted a joint proposal with the Wetzel, Caverly, Shea, Phillips & Rodgers law firm, was chosen from eight proposals.

Northeast Revenue will be paid through a 5 percent penalty added to overdue taxes, said the company’s president, attorney John Rodgers.

The county will continue to receive its 5 percent penalty on county taxes, but Northeast will keep the penalty on delinquent school and municipal taxes collected by the county, according to Rodgers and county officials.

Rodgers said the county will no longer have to pay for any of the services to collect back taxes, including staff, public advertising, title searches and the serving of notices to delinquent property owners. Northeast will offer jobs to some of the county’s seven full-time tax claim workers.

Northeast also will pay the county a rental fee to keep the tax claim office on the first floor of the courthouse, Pape said.

Only one or two other counties in the state have privatized their tax claim offices, he said.

The privatization will take effect in about a month, and tax claim workers will remain on the county payroll during this 30-day transition period, Pape said.

Properties are supposed to go to back-tax sale if taxes are unpaid for two years. However, the county’s tax claim office has been heavily criticized in recent years because some politically connected property owners stayed out of back-tax sales, even though these property owners were not keeping up with payment plans or paying at all.

Federal agents have interviewed workers and reviewed records about properties questionably removed from past back-tax sales. The county’s request for proposals said the new company must treat all property owners “consistently and without favoritism” and keep detailed records of all collection attempts.

Maine-based Government Payment Processing was selected from eight applicants to handle the acceptance of credit card payments for county fees and services, such as the payment of delinquent taxes.

The county won’t pay anything because Government Payment will charge cardholders a processing fee.

Several other counties have started to accept credit-card payments. Some property owners determine that the user fee is less than the penalties added to delinquent taxes, according to officials in other counties. Companies that handle credit-card services also note that customers may prefer to earn reward points by running expenses through their cards.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.

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