Paycheck Delay Angers Workers

It has been nearly a month since Stephanie Franklin and her staff of 25 day-camp workers got a full paycheck.

There have been late mortgage payments, missed tuition deadlines and mounting frustration. And those workers are not alone: All across the West San Fernando Valley, hundreds of city Recreation and Parks workers, classified as part-time employees but actually working full-time in the busy summer months, have labored through the hottest weeks of the year without getting the money they’ve earned.

That is because one person failed to process a batch of forms in time, and because other bureaucrats then failed to do enough to fix the situation.

“They could do that,” said Franklin, who leads a day camp in Reseda. “They chose not to because they don’t care.”

Nicholas Sumandra, another day-camp supervisor, said he barely scraped together the money for his rent this month, and then only because he dipped into his savings. Paying off his credit cards was impossible, he added.

“I’m just barely getting by,” Sumandra said.

The unpaid workers’ complaints began July 31--the day after they were shortchanged--and by late last week, were resonating through the corridors of Los Angeles City Hall, where top aides to Mayor Richard Riordan eventually heard them and intervened. The checks are supposed to be delivered today, but officials admit that the delay has been inexcusable.

“This is just another example of how in this city no one is accountable, and it’s hard to sharply focus blame,” said Deputy Mayor Stephanie Bradfield.

The problem started with a courier who was late dropping off time sheets for the West Valley employees. The forms then sat around an office for a day or two. By the time they actually were filed, they were too late for employees to get their full paychecks in late July. Instead of getting paid for two full weeks, the workers got money for about half that. For some, that meant receiving $500 or more less than they had earned.

In fact, the workers got their last full check on July 16.

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That would have been hardship enough, but compounding the frustration of some employees was the lackadaisical attitude they said they sensed among their supervisors--all of whom, the workers pointedly note, got their pay on time.

“I talked to all these people in our department, and everyone said there had been a mistake but that they couldn’t help me,” Franklin said.

Jackie Tatum, who heads the city’s Recreation and Parks agency, was out of the office Tuesday and unavailable for comment. According to Franklin, David Gonzales, the agency’s district director for the West Valley, was helpful and friendly but ultimately all he could suggest was that Franklin try calling someone in the mayor’s office.

It was not until late last week, when Franklin reached Riordan’s office, that the bureaucracy started to come unstuck. Bradfield talked to Franklin and sympathized with the workers. Aides to the mayor contacted leaders of the Recreation and Parks Department, as well as the city controller’s office, which is responsible for payroll.

The problem came as news to the controller’s office, which had not previously been notified of any holdups in paychecks to those workers. “We just recently learned that some employees did not get their full pay,” Deputy City Controller Tim Lynch said Tuesday. “They will get those hours in their upcoming paycheck.”

Those checks are scheduled to go out today, but--at this point--the parks workers said they will believe it when they see it.

“I just am greatly offended by how apathetic they have been to everybody’s situation,” Franklin said of the Recreation and Parks Department authorities.