Black Friday holds unpleasant surprise for county workers

By Charlene Sims

linncountyjournal@icloud.com

MOUND CITY – Linn County employees nearly missed, and some did miss, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales after an error with the Linn County payroll stopped their checks from being direct deposited to their accounts on Friday.

No information was offered about this during the Monday, Dec. 1, Linn County Commission meeting until the end of Linn County Health Department Director Amanda Snyder’s presentation when Snyder asked if there had been an update about the payroll situation.

Newly appointed County Clerk Chasity Ware told Snyder that as she left the office that morning Deputy Clerk Rose Mohler was working to resolve the issue. She said if the the money cannot be deposited on Monday afternoon, then her office would be cutting checks for those people that it affects directly.

In a telephone interview later on Monday with Ware, she said that employees who banked with Farmers and Merchants (F & M) Bank in Mound City, one of the county’s depositories, were able to receive funds on Friday. Employees who banked at other banks did not fare so well.

Ware said the direct dial deposit file was sent on Wednesday, but no error message was received from FiServ, the financial services company the county uses.  Ware said that the error was discovered Friday and corrections were made as soon as possible on Monday. As of 3 p.m. on Monday, some employees said they had not received the funds in their accounts yet.

Ware said that the county was working with employees to get them the funds they needed.

On Aug. 11, 2023, the same thing happened when David Lamb was county clerk. At that time, Lamb had sent a letter to all employees that they could take to their banks asking them to waive any overdraft fees they may have incurred. At that time, the error was announced in the following commission meeting.