STAMFORD -- Board of Finance officials want the police and fire departments to join the city's automated payroll system, but officials say the plan has problems.
Sworn-in police and fire officials and certain Board of Education employees are the only municipal workers who do not use KRONOS, the computerized system that keeps track of work, vacation and sick days by requiring employees to punch in and out of their shifts.
But firefighters are not like other city employees, Chief Robert McGrath said. They do not work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday -- they work 42-hour weeks, often swap shifts and come in at different times to relieve others of duty.
"It's going to be very difficult to enact that," McGrath told the Board of Finance's Audit Committee last week.
Police Chief Brent Larrabee said officers' schedules are complicated, too. They often trade shifts and get paid differently week to week, he said. Besides, the existing payroll system is based on the police union's contract, he said.
"You're going to have to engage (union representatives) in some contractual items," Larrabee said. "These are long-term past practices."
Two years ago, the Board of Finance examined whether to include police and fire departments in KRONOS but dropped the idea. Tim Abbazia, who became chairman of the Audit Committee after the November election, said the move could improve how the departments operate.
"Once you implement an automated system, sometimes it flushes out practices that are not necessarily the best practices," Abbazia said. "We feel this system can make us more efficient."
McGrath said it takes about six hours a day to process the fire department's payroll.
Audit Committee member Joseph Tarzia said a city the size of Stamford should not be tracking payroll on paper because it is time-consuming, cumbersome and ineffective.
"As an elected official, I'd like to know there's accountability," he told the two chiefs. "It's not a matter of trusting you. I think it's a matter of us telling the taxpayers we have a better system than your grandparents were using."
Peter Lucia, KRONOS administrator, said he will write a report on how long it could take to get the two departments on the system, how much it would cost and whether KRONOS can be programmed to fit the schedules and pay scales of police officers and firefighters.
"We'll get a system up and running if that's what everyone will embrace," Lucia said.
The city has budgeted about $100,000 to finish implementing KRONOS, he said.
Union officials did not attend the Audit Committee meeting, but said in interviews that they are concerned.
Brendan Keatley, president of the firefighters' union, said the department has many layers of accountability, with several officials checking all payroll documents. Firefighters have to respond quickly to calls, and swiping in and out could lead to delays, he said.
"We basically told the city if you can show us how this is going to work or show us another fire department that uses it, we'll be more than willing to talk about it," Keatley said. "But for now, it doesn't make much sense because there are many layers of built-in accountability at the fire house."
Michael Merenda, president of the police union, said officers do not need "big brother" watching over them.
"I just think that's additional work," Merenda said of the need to punch in and out for duty. "I don't see any problem with the way work is being done now, so I don't see why you would want to add another burden."
Liz Moughan, a spokeswoman for KRONOS, based in Massachusetts, said she did not know how many municipalities use the system in police and fire departments, but named several that do: Atlanta; El Paso, Texas; Huntington Beach, Calif.; and Culver City, Calif.
Those cities do not use the system to pay the employees, but rather to keep track of hours worked, Moughan said.
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