In Carson: Audit shows City $92,500 short on retirement accounts

Carson City needs to pay about $92,500 to public employees' retirement accounts for overlooked holiday pay, according to a state audit.

Officials from the state Public Employees' Retirement System found that the city incorrectly reported wages and employee contributions to the system from June 2003 to November 2006.

More than 300 employees were affected, said Carson City Auditor Sue Johnson. The city cannot release who the employees were, however, or how much their accounts in the system would be reimbursed, she said.

Employees who are affected will learn soon how much will go to their accounts, Johnson said.

The mistake that caused the shortfall has already been corrected, she said, and had to do with how the city calculated payroll.

Johnson will ask the Carson City Board of Supervisors on Thursday to reimburse the money. She said the money will probably eventually come from the city's contingency budget.

"You can't plan for everything," she said.

The audit was an overall "positive thing," though, according to Johnson, because it benefited rather than hurt employees.

Every three years, officials from the state retirement system audit about 170 public employers. Errors usually happen when new payroll officers come in, said Executive Officer Dana Bilyeu, because they aren't sure how to do calculations correctly.

Bilyeu said the reimbursement should be seen as more of adjustment than a "significant error."

City Manager Linda Ritter also said the issue wasn't a significant error and that similar problems have happened around the state.

Bilyeu said she's seen much bigger problems, such as when public employers weren't making any reports to the public retirement system at all.

Both Johnson and Bilyeu said the officials from the state retirement system also found errors in how the city reported call-back time - special hours not normally worked - but aren't sure yet how much the city will have to reimburse the system for that miscalculation.

The city will have its overall yearly audit in December and the report will be presented to supervisors Dec. 20.