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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Approving the Memorandum of Understanding with Story County Regarding the City Assessor's Office Payroll and Benefit Administration RESOLUTION NO. 21-147 RESOLUTION APPROVING THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH STORY COUNTY REGARDING THE CITY ASSESSOR'S OFFICE PAYROLL AND BENEFIT ADMINISTRATION FOR THE CITY OF AMES,IOWA WHEREAS, in December 2020, a Story County representative to the Ames Conference Board raised the prospect of transferring the payroll administration for the Ames City Assessor's Office from Story County to the City of Ames; and, WHEREAS,City staff prepared a Memorandum ofUnderstanding(MOU)to accomplish this transfer and document a variety of other pay and benefit administration details for future reference; and, WHEREAS, currently, the City Assessor's Office staff is eligible to participate in the City of Ames health insurance, life insurance, flexible spending, and 457 deferred compensation programs; and, WHEREAS,the County withholds the employee payroll contributions as required for these programs and transfers the funds to the City, and the County issues the payroll for the employees; and, WHEREAS, the current situation(County payroll, City benefits)is complex and raises the prospect of compliance issues with the Affordable Care Act requirements; and, WHEREAS, of the seven City Assessor's Offices in Iowa, three have payroll and benefits administered by theie county(Mason City,Dubuque,and Iowa City);two have payroll and benefits administered by their City (Davenport and Sioux City), and the Cedar Rapids City Assessor functions largely independently of both the County and the City; and, WHEREAS, only the Ames City Assessor has payroll administered by the County and benefits administered by the City; and, WHEREAS,Iowa Code requires that the County Treasurer hold the funds levied to finance the City Assessor's operations [Iowa Code 441.16(5)(a)]; and, WHEREAS,the County Auditor is required to keep a complete record of the City Assessor's expenses and issue warrants on the requisition of the assessor and in order to satisfy Iowa Code,the City will calculate the total payroll and benefit expenses each pay period to be transferred from the County to the City; and, WHEREAS,the amount will be sent by the Finance Department to the City Assessor's Office for validation and then subsequently submitted to the County Auditor; therefore, the County will transfer only a single payment amount per pay period for the total payroll and benefit expenses for the City Assessor's Office; and, WHEREAS, the transition to City administration of payroll will require a change in tax reporting information;therefore,to minimize the reporting burden,the change will go into effect on January 1, 2022; and, WHEREAS,City Assessor employees would be terminated from the County's payroll system on December 31, 2021, and added to the City's system on January 1, 2022; and, WHEREAS, another key change resulting from this transition would be to bring the City Assessor's Office under the City's Worker's Compensation and liability insurance, since the City would be listed as its employer; and, WHEREAS, the MOU outlining these changes also formalizes that the City Assessor's Office is provided space in City Hall and common area use privileges in the same manner as other City departments and will be charged for internal City services (e.g., occupancy, communications, messenger services, etc.) in the same manner as other City departments; and, WHEREAS,on March 3,2021,the Story County Board of Supervisors approved the MOU. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Ames, Iowa, that the Memorandum of Understanding with Story County regarding the City Assessor's Office payroll and benefit administration is hereby approved. ADOPTED THIS 23rd day of March, 2021. Diane R. Voss, City Clerk John A. Haila, Mayor Introduced by: Martin Seconded by: Betcher Voting aye: Beatty-Hansen, Betcher, Corrieri, Gartin, Junck, Martin Voting nay: None Absent: None Resolution declared adopted and signed by the Mayor this 23' day of March, 2021.