Marlborough Finance Committee endorses new treasury/payroll manager post 4-0

MARLBOROUGH -- November 14, 2022, Marlborough Finance Committee unanimously backs new treasury/payroll manager amid software overload. The committee voted 4-0 on Nov. 14 to recommend Mayor Arthur Vigeant's order 22-108701 creating a non-union, 40-hour treasury/payroll manager in the Finance Department, funded mostly from an existing vacancy plus roughly $30,000 in additional appropriation. Finance Director Patrick Jones told members nearly $160 million of the city's $180 million budget flows through treasury annually and that the two-person payroll office now handles roughly 400 city employees plus back-end processing for the School Department, pushing summer headcount to 1,100–1,300. Jones said he had previously considered outsourcing to a vendor like ADP but abandoned it because police and fire line-item complexity meant "we weren't going to save any money." Vigeant said the COVID experience, when only two employees citywide could run payroll, drove the need: "It was a scary time." The committee will seek suspension of the rules at the next council meeting to post the job immediately.