Delay in direct deposit scares county employees

By Peter H. Milliken

A county official doesn’t think any checks employees wrote Friday will bounce.

YOUNGSTOWN — A delay in direct deposits of paychecks into Mahoning County employees’ bank accounts on Friday caused some to fear that the checks they wrote from their accounts that day to pay their bills would bounce.

But late Friday afternoon, Sandra Lisko, assistant vice president for marketing at Huntington Bank, which handles the county’s payroll, said that, as far as she knew, all direct deposits had been made as of 4 p.m. Friday, which was the county’s payday.

“It’s a unique situation. It’s just a matter of the timing of the funding that we received from the county,” Lisko said.

The county notified Huntington Wednesday of how exactly much money was needed for Friday’s payroll, and the bank confirmed that the funds were available, said Dan Yemma, chief deputy county treasurer.

Yemma said the problem likely was a wire fund transfer ‘‘timing issue,’’ and that funds that should have been set aside to meet the county’s payroll were used to make a routine county debt service payment.

Yemma said money was transferred into the county’s bank account to cover the debt service payment. The county does not have a separate bank account devoted exclusively to payroll, he said.

Once they realized what had happened, bank and county officials began working on the problem early Friday morning, and the bank made a wire transfer to cover the payroll, Lisko said.

Yemma said he didn’t think any checks employees wrote Friday to pay their bills would bounce due to the delay in direct deposit of their paychecks.

If any checks employees wrote Friday to pay their bills bounce, Huntington will waive any bounced check fees, Lisko said. Other banks have been notified of the problem pertaining to Mahoning County’s payroll, she added.

About 85 percent of the county’s 1,975 employees receive their paychecks by direct deposit into their bank accounts, said Lisa Antonini, county treasurer. Employees who receive paper paychecks were not affected by Friday’s problem, Antonini added.

Mark Stan, chief steward for American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 3945, which represents employees of the Clerk of Courts, said many employees were worried about bounced checks when they first learned of the problem Friday morning.

However, he added: “Once they found out later in the day that they would have their money by the end of the day, I think a lot of people were satisfied.”

The county has more than sufficient funds on deposit at Huntington to cover Friday’s $1.5 million payroll, and there is no concern about the paychecks bouncing, Yemma said.

Typically, direct deposits of paychecks have been made into the employees’ accounts overnight or on the morning of payday, Yemma said.

County employees are paid every other Friday. The county auditor’s office serves as its payroll department.