District of NB Issued Payroll Checks That Bounced?!
The District of New Berlin’s August 22nd press release conveyed that on August 13, the District had signed a settlement agreement with its three unions that provides a total of $525,000 to be paid to retirees and employees to resolve disputes. According to the press release, this was a resolution of four years of pay and benefits disputes.
How interesting to learn that the checks issued by the District of New Berlin bounced.
And this from a District that tells us to “ Expect Excellence”, no less!
The District Finance Director issued this explanation for the screw-up to staff and an apology:
Sunday, October 14, 2012
From Roger Dickson
To: SDNB Staff
If you were one of the individuals that received a payroll check related to the Global Settlement you have not been, or will not be, able cash or deposit the check. We have been advised that the payroll checks sent out have an error that prevents banks from being able to process the payment.
As you are aware, the District does not normally print payroll checks, but instead, utilizes direct deposit. After the Global Settlement checks were printed and mailed we learned that the district’s computer system, being set-up to allow for direct deposit, did not create the physical checks properly. When we created physical checks for this payment, we were unaware of the computer program limitation that resulted in the printed checks not having the required magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line used by banks.
Replacement checks will be delivered to each school on Monday, October 15 before 9a for current employees. Replacement checks were mailed to all other employees Sunday afternoon.
I am embarrassed that these checks were released without the required MICR coding and extend my personal apology for any inconvenience this has caused.
Roger J Dickson
Chief Finance and Operations Officer
School District of New Berlin
262.789.6210
You hadn't heard about it?
Not surprising. I just consulted the District Website homepage and its District Communication page and could find no reference whatsoever to the payment snafu or an announcement regarding replacement checks. The District has not issued a press release about it, either.
