Problem solved.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 07/04/2010 10:00:51 AM PDT by Enterprise
"A state appellate court ruled in Schwarzenegger's favor Friday, but the state controller, who issues state paychecks, says he can't comply. One reason given by Controller John Chiang, a Democrat elected in 2006: The state's computer system can't handle the technological challenge of restating paychecks to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Riiiight.. sure.
What a load. It’s not the technology. It’s the techno-geezers... who just happen to be Democrats.
Old technology is running Taxifornia. Old LIBERAL technology. What a crock. Arne should make this liberal stooge write all the checks by hand. Better yet, he should make him TYPE THEM out on a vintage typewriter.
Then this creep can get a taste of “old technology”.
Outsource the state paycheck work to ADP.
OUCH! If they're really dealing with thirty-plus year-old legacy code, that's ugly. Obama ugly.
If we were talking about a proposal to DOUBLE every state worker’s wages, imagine how quickly that could be done.
The states computer can’t handle resetting California to conservative principles.
There’s a ghost in the machine.
If he can’t comply, then by-pass him and find someone who can. Then put the comptroller on minimum wage.
“The state’s payroll system was designed more than 60 years ago and was last revamped in 1970, Hallye Jordan, state controller’s office spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.”
I actually do not find this too hard to believe. The stories of state (and federal) government run IT disasters are legion. The University of Wisconsin spent $26M trying to adapt PeopleSoft to their payroll needs before throwing in the towel. While the smoke has not yet cleared on that one - in many instances you find that the private sector software provider or consultant is, shall we say, “under-matched” by the counterpart IT folks on the state or federal government side of the deal. That we could be in the year 2010 with a system designed in 1970 running in CA, well - it speaks for itself.
Exactly. He needs to outsource this to people who have a can-do attitude.
John Chiang should be fired, on the spot, for incompetence.
He better break out the adding machine. Who ever spec’d out the technology failed (him).
They were given $130 Million in 2005 to upgrade.
They could pay me $1 Million and I’ll run the damned payroll for the entire state on an XT or one of my 386s I got laying around here.
Egad tho, that is just absurd! The company I work for has a better system than a state? Goodness...
For those not familiar with 1970’s mainframe code, this may seem hard to believe. Having worked in the IT department of a large retailer that had a payroll system written in the late 60’s early 70’s in legacy COBOL, seemingly simple changes like this can be a nightmare. With each new union contract — and at one time we dealt with five different unions — came massive projects with changes that often touched dozens of programs. When it came time to upgrade the old system, it was a multi-year project. I’ve worked in multiple IT departments over the years, and this was BY FAR the best skilled and organized of them all. After a little more than a year, it became obvious that both the time and funding estimated were woefully inadequate. This sort of change is much more than simply updating one field in a database.
I disagree that old code is easy to deal with. Old COBOL code, frequently patched by multiple programmers with varying coding styles, can make a root canal seem like a pleasure cruise.
1. Get a court order and put the controller in jail for contempt of court until he figures it out.
2. Take a basic dump of all state employee info and SSN and pay everybody a straight 80 hours pay period at $7.25 an hour and sort out the errors later.
For many years, when State employees earned overtime, it had to come on a separate check, because the system could not process the overtime and add it to the regular check. That problem has been solved, it took a LONG TIME to do it.
I wonder how they were able to program all of the pay increases they have received over the past 40 years? I never heard any problems the state had doing that?
If Arnie was giving everyone a $10 an hour raise the civil serpents in charge of payroll would not have the slightest difficulty complying overnight.
They didn’t happen overnight either. We typically had at least six months to make the appropriate changes.
At this point, he has given an explanation and the Governor has yet to effectively refute that explanation. I think the Freepers have given better information than the Controller.
There are about 37,000 employees who are exempted from the minimum wage order because they have agreed to the concessions the Governor wanted. I suppose though that your suggestion could work. Put all employees on minimum wage, and it will be remedied when the budget is finally settled.
If though, the Governor and the legislature don't budge, and the impasse goes on until next year when the new Governor takes office, many employees will lose their homes.
I’d guess that there are edits/checks on fields in the screen apps that require that hourly pay is a certain minimum value based on the specific union contract and/or location of the employee. This is just one of many changes that would need to be made for the system to function.
I’m very confident our wonderful state could move very quickly if they were being asked to implement a pay increase. Perhaps the problem is their programmers are not familiar with the minus sign.
Count on it!
Problem solved.
Arnold was able to do that with a former DMV manager. Chiang though, is elected, and cannot be fired by the Governor.
Salary Increase
There are several types of salary increases that State employees may qualify for, while appointed to their job classification. The frequency and amount of salary increases differ, with the following being the most common types of increases:
* Special In-grade Salary Adjustment (SISA): When an employee is appointed to the minimum range of a classification that includes a SISA and has met the standards of efficiency required for the position, he/she may be authorized to receive a SISA upon completion of six months of qualifying service after appointment. A SISA is a one-step salary increase (generally 5% above the employee's current monthly salary). SISA's are one-time increases. Classifications with monthly maximum salary rates at or above $2762 are not eligible for a SISA.
* Merit Salary Adjustment (MSA): When an employee is appointed to a salary step other than the maximum for his/her job classification, and has met the standards of efficiency required for the position, he/she may be authorized to receive a MSA upon completion of twelve months of qualifying service after appointment or the last salary increase. A MSA is a one-step increase (generally 5% above the employee's current monthly salary) but not to exceed the maximum salary rate of the classification. MSA's are generally given to employees yearly, until the maximum salary range of the classification is reached.
* General Salary Increase (GSI): State employees' salaries and benefits are bargainable. The State of California and each of the 21 Bargaining Units enter into contracts (time frames of each contract vary) that specify any GSIs to be given to employees. The amount and frequency of GSIs vary by bargaining unit. Employees should refer to their unit's contract for more detailed information.
* Alternate Range Change: Some State classifications are considered "deep classes" which means they have more than one salary range that may apply to incumbents and/or positions. The number of salary ranges and the requirements for movement between the ranges vary by classification. Each classification with an alternate range has specific requirements that must be met prior to movement or appointment into another range. Employees usually move between ranges through certification by their supervisor that they have met the alternate range criteria.
Easy fix. Don’t issue any at all.
I've BTDT. I support what the governor is trying to do, but technologically speaking, it's likely not possible.
Yes - I get it. Complex pay increases they have down cold - but simple pay decreases are impossible to code. I have that problem too when I’m paying myself.
No, you don’t get it. And, that’s fine. It’s obviously not your line of work. Showing such disdain for the people who work to implement a very complex system, so complex that it’s difficult for many people to understand, is rude.
As FReeper Wally_Kalbacken has pointed out, in 2010 California is running payroll on 1970 technology. Looking back to 1970, a lot of business was still being done on standard typewriters. But now, State agencies are routinely able to upgrade their existing technologies. They’re not always state of the art, but it sure as hell isn’t 1970s era technology either. Chiang’s explanation might be truthful, but the question would then be this: If Many of the other State agencies have generally maintained pace with computer technology, why has your office failed to do the same?
LOL- now THAT is funny!!
In DB2, the solution to California's problem is particularly short and sweet. Two words, in fact:
DELETE Employees
When the garbage workers went on strike, someone went around putting flyers on thousands of doors that said the garbage workers union did not want citizens to suffer while they were on strike, and to dump your garbage on the front lawn of the garbage worker union hall, and they would dispose of it. The flyer included a map to the hall. The union hadn't issued the flyers, but ended up with several tons of garbage on their front lawn. Government is like a car wreck. You don't want to watch, but you can't help yourself.
California is a clusterblank.
LOL! You're trying to solve the wrong problem, namely, fixing the old system so that it can do what the Governator wants.
The proper course of action is to do something along the lines of what Truth29 suggests in #20. Scrape a basic employee file off the old system (using Ruby or Python) and export it to ADP with instructions to pay all employees at the minimum wage. Then sort out the details later, once the state is back in the black.
I'm not being rude - I am agreeing with you. Everyone knows what you are saying is correct - it is impossible to get state employees to program a decrease in their state salaries.
Could be, selectively. I bet they know how to subtract State of California deductions, child support and garnishments, though.
Probably written in COBOL.
Why not apply a salary increase of -20%.
COBOL takes 40 lines of code to say “Hello World”.
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