DMV now plagued by payroll problem

Monday, April 17, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The trouble-plagued state Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety either overpaid or shortchanged 150 workers last year, the agency has revealed.

"We just messed up," said Dennis Colling, administrative services chief of the department, which has been criticized for problems in its vehicle registration program.

Colling said today that meetings will start soon with the 65 workers who were overpaid to start recovering an estimated $23,000. Individual workers received anywhere from $27 to $1,350 before the error was discovered.

The law requires the department to seek reimbursement, Colling said.

The department said about 85 employees were underpaid between July 1, 1999, and February 2000, and they have been reimbursed the money they were owed.

In January 1998, a group of technicians asked that their jobs be upgraded. The state Personnel Division did a study and agreed. The reclassification of 654 workers was eventually approved in July 1999. The technicians were paid back to January 1999 with some receiving checks of $5,000 to $6,000.

While the changes were being made, a reorganization of the department was approved, promoting some people and making other changes. Colling said because of human error the pay of 150 of the 654 technicians was miscalculated.

Colling said there will be individual meetings with each worker who was overpaid to show them the paperwork and to set up a repayment schedule. The department will withhold no more than $50 per pay period unless an employee agrees to a higher deduction.

All of the errors were corrected in February.