WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Warner Robins City Council met to discuss outsourcing payroll Monday, and paying for the North Houston sports complex.
At Monday's city council meeting, council unanimously passed a motion to outsource payroll.
"At first, I was against it, but after I looked into it, I think it's a necessary thing that we do because our payroll department, we need to bring it back up to the 21st century," Councilman Derek Mack said.
Mack says the city's payroll department works really hard, but "is a little outdated." He says outsourcing the city's payroll will help the city with pay issues they've had in the past.
"Sort of the things that happened with the IRS issues that we had, the ways that payroll was filed, and this is just really to help us out so that these things don't happen again," Mack said.
According to Mack, the city administrator has already vetted several companies. LaRhonda Patrick attended the city council meeting for the first time as mayor-elect. She says outsourcing the city's payroll will be good for Warner Robins.
"You are no longer in charge for the compliance, the daily operations. It goes to another company; and a lot of companies have started to do that if they have not already, so I am in agreement with that move," Patrick said.
Both Mack, Patrick, and Councilman Charlie Bibb believe the outside company will help hold the city accountable.
"We have people that audit us. We have people that look at our finances and look at what we are doing. It's not going to make any difference if we outsource it to another contractor," Bibb said.
"This is not necessarily a bad thing. I know we are outsourcing another department, but our department was very small. It's to create a successful environment with our payroll department," Mack said.
Council also worked on a few other agenda items. They voted to move $10,000 from the "general fund balance reserve" to help fund recreational activity scholarships for the North Houston Sports Complex that opened in June, but it wasn't a final vote. According to Toms, the ordinance was tabled.
Council also passed a resolution for the Warner Robins Police Department to donate "X26" Taser cartridges to the Perry Police Department. Right now, the Perry Police Department's Taser order is on backorder.