CAMPBELL Workers wait an extra day for checks

Special pay will be delayed until next week because the city lacks the money.
By D.A. WILKINSONand ROGER G. SMITH
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
CAMPBELL -- City workers will receive their regular pay today, a day later than usual.
Checks for some, such as fire and police, also won't be as large as they were expecting.
The city usually releases biweekly paychecks around noon on Thursdays even though paydays technically are on Fridays, said Dennis L. Stephens, finance director.
There wasn't enough money in city accounts, however, to meet the $125,000 payroll due and release the checks on Thursday, Stephens said this morning.
"I know exactly what I have in the bank," he said. "The money wasn't there."
The payroll normally is about $85,000 biweekly but was especially large this week.
Instead, workers were to get their regular checks today, Stephens said this morning.
The paycheck snag affects about 61 full-time workers and 12 part-timers. Workers at city hall today seemed calm and were going about their regular business. There was no apparent interruption in city services.
Mayor Jack Dill returned this morning from an out-of-town trip and was still getting a handle on the situation.
Special payments delayed
Special pay that was due in this check, however, will be delayed until next week.
This week's payroll was higher than normal because the city was scheduled to make payments for longevity, hazard pay and uniform allowances, primarily to police and firefighters.
The city should receive enough revenue to make the special payments sometime next week, Stephens said.
He said not making the extra payments probably is a violation of union contracts.
The city is in contract talks now and has been trying to negotiate spreading out such payments to avoid similar problems in the future, Stephens said. Employees like receiving their extra pay around holiday time, but that timing creates cash-flow problems, he said.
Tax collections
Income tax collections in Campbell are $128,991 behind compared to the same time last year, Stephens said.
The city lost about $160,000 annually in tax revenue when Cold Metal Products went out of business last year.
"People think I have cash in 55 gallon drums back here," he said. "The city isn't in good shape."
In May, city voters overwhelmingly approved a 3-mill, five-year tax levy that is to raise $220,000 annually. The city, however, won't start collecting that levy money until early next year, he said.