Criterion 1: Importance to COD

Program Review

1.1a What? The purpose of this program is to effectively process a payroll on a monthly basis. Protecting the district’s assets and assisting in maintaining an effective level of human resources (workforce). Why? To ensure that the district is equipped to carry out its missions and goals. How? Paying employees accurately and on time as well as ensuring that their benefits are delivered as promised will contribute to their level of job satisfaction.

1.1b Purpose changed- NA

1.1c Future changes- As College of the Desert expands locations with two more campuses and increased enrollment and classes, the workforce will continue to grow; this won’t change the purpose of the program, but will increase demand on the program.

1.2 Most important goals:  Accuracy  Timeliness  Thorough record keeping and maintenance  Compliance with laws  Keeping abreast with changes in the laws and regulations of the retirement systems that our employees are eligible for  Customer service  Payment to employees  Proper retirement reporting of employees

1.3 Key functions:  Generating payments for employees  Monitoring employee eligibility for benefits (i.e. retirement systems, longevity, vacation…)  Ensuring that our employees are receiving the benefits they are entitled to  Maintaining accurate and thorough employee payroll records  Timesheet monitoring Criterion 2: External/Internal Demand

2.1 Key users:  All employees  Government agencies (Chancellor’s Office, IRS, SSA…)  Retirement systems  External vendors (recipients of employee payroll deductions)

2.2 The demand for this program would be measured as high; without it employees could not get paid.

2.3 Changes in demand:  Increases in responsibility  Increases in accountability  Changes in laws  Changes in users (employees) expectations (i.e. retirement planning (403b))

2.4 Future changes in demand- program will constantly evolve as the employee population grows in their understanding that they need to prepare for the future and their expectations of job satisfaction increases. Also as competition in the education field increases due to an increase in educational facilities in the area being available, we need to ensure that our faculty and staff are satisfied so that they will want to stay, and will in turn pass that on to the students who will want to attend.

2.5 Campus dept. interaction:  HR- vital employee information rec’d from this dept.  Instructional divisions- budget information & employee status issues  President’s Office- receive instruction on financial issues

Criterion 3: Quality

3.1 Quality measurement- Audits, staying in compliance with the laws and regulations that we are bound to, employee satisfaction, receiving positive feedback OR not receiving negative feedback

3.2 Meeting benchmarks? There have been no findings on the payroll function by external auditor’s or government agencies.

3.3 Measured by who & how? Faculty, Management and classified staff evaluate every month if they feel the payroll department has met their expectations with their paycheck. 3.4 Program accomplishments (last 2 years):  Passed audit w/no findings  Issued accurate W-2s  Met all payroll deadlines  All external vendors received employee payroll deductions on time resulting in no lapse of coverage for insurance, etc…  No employees exceeded IRS limitations in annual TSA contributions

Criterion 4: Cost Effectiveness

4.1a The program cost effectiveness has been measure by the ability of the three payroll staff to prepare and distribute the payroll timely within the confines of their normal eight hour a day workload. During the preparation process incurring little, if any overtime in the preparation of each of the three payrolls.

That no fines, late fees or penalties are incurred from inaccurate tax information provided to State or Federal reporting agencies.

That Union disputes with regards to payroll preparations are eliminated or found in favor of the department.

4.1b The program has measured very good against these benchmarks. With the small exception of some overtime needed during peak periods all have been met.

4.2 There is always a negotiation with Riverside County to decrease the cost of their services in the actual preparation of the payroll. Although not always attainable the College strives to save dollars on these types of services where they can.

There has been a constant effort made to increase the number of direct deposits. This helps save on postage, check stock, production costs and staffing costs on payrolls that are aligned with Holidays and mandatory vacation days.

The use of preprinted payroll timesheets for employees has cut down on some department administrative costs for payroll preparation.

We are currently looking at 403b processes and reviewing proposals to help cut back on administrative duties and still provide and even better benefit to the employees for their retirement.

4.3 Attached is an organizational chart with every employee of the program identified by name and title.

The three Payroll Specialists are listed with major program responsibilities: A) Misti Carrillo major functions include:  Creating, distributing, collecting, reviewing and processing employee timesheets for assigned groups.  Posting and monitoring/processing employee leave accrual and usage.  Responding to inquiries and/or requests for assistance from departments and employees.  The processing of voluntary and mandatory deductions from salary/wages.  Tracking assignments for both classified staff and faculty overloads and monitoring budget funding codes  403b administration for employee retirement accounts

B) Diana Ortiz major functions include:  Oversee, coordinate, interpret, organize, monitor and generate payroll for assigned employee group.  Knowledge of District polices, collective bargaining agreements, fair labor standards, federal employment laws labor code and education code for payroll compliance issues.  Review employment forms for accuracy and completeness to ensure that requirements are met for reporting and payroll preparation purposes.  Oversee, monitor, interpret and determine proper eligibility for each retirement system.

C) Cecilia Woodward major functions include:  Coordinate collection of monthly time sheets from individual departments.  Monitor and interpret time sheets to determine eligibility for various benefits per collective bargaining agreements, retirement benefits, decipher and scrutinize, correct timesheet entries such as marking holidays/weekends in error, proper authorization, duplication of earnings.  Organize for calculation of assignment, deductions, regular, overtime or fair labor standards act computation for full-time classified teaching a class, classified or certificated sick leave benefits, assignment and proper codes.  Generate payroll on-line to Riverside County Office of Education.

4.3 Cost Effectiveness:

Misti Carrillo

Annual Cost $67,813.32 Annual Salary 46944.00 Cost Total 237,023.52 H&W 11007.00 Retirement 4368.60 Salary 168,696.00 Taxes 4818.72 H&W 33,053.40 403b 675.00

Retirement 15,698.88

Diana Ortiz Taxes 17,550.24

403b 2,025.00 Annual Cost $83,320.68 Salary 59916.00 H&W 11003.40 Retirement 5575.80 Taxes 6150.48 403b 675.00

Ceil Woodward

Annual Cost $85,889.52 Salary 61836.00 H&W 11043.00 Retirement 5754.48 Taxes 6581.04 403b 675.00

There is no individual operating budget for payroll employee’s non-personnel expenses and there is no anticipated equipment purchases planned for the next two years. Criterion 5: Opportunity Analysis

5.1 The Payroll processing function is outsourced to the Riverside Department of Education.

Because of the outsourced payroll the District has been able to eliminate:

 Payroll software costs  Informational systems support costs  Equipment costs to produce payroll  Personnel needed to run production of checks and direct deposits  Backup systems needed incase of primary system failure  Higher educational requirements for hiring, leading to increase personal costs

5.2 We do not see any possible revenue generation possibilities.

5.3 We would like to see everyone use Direct Deposit and remove any option of getting an actual check. This would save operational costs for Riverside that could be passed through to the District. It would also eliminate staffing payroll personnel to work on Holidays, Fridays during 4/40 and mandatory Vacation days.

5.4 Many of the Community Colleges operate the same as College of the Desert. Some are starting to bring the payroll process back in house instead of outsourcing.