You'll get no report of
City
of Lansing payroll for 2025
April 28,
2026
I've reported City of Lansing payroll information
here for 2010,
2016,
2020,
2021,
2022,
2023 and
2024, but I
won't do so for 2025 because the City is not capable of producing a file
I can use. That's what city council president Peter Spadafore tells me in
denying my appeal of the City Attorney's Office's failure to deliver on
my request. On February 9 of this year, I submitted this FOIA request:
I would like the payroll file for 2025,
including regular payroll payments to employees and pension payments
to retirees. It should include these fields:
Employee name
Department
Position
Bargaining Unit
Hire Date
Separation Date
Hourly Wage
Regular Pay
Overtime
Miscellaneous
Buy Out
Total Pay
In addition, I would like the detail
behind these fields:
Regular pay
Overtime
Miscellaneous
Buyout
Be sure to include the totals for the above 4
fields as well as the detail. What I am asking for is a file with
the same data as provided in the files you provided to me for 2022
and 2023. I have attached the 2023 file as an example.
I received a
file
on the 27th, but instead of one line
(record) per person, there might be several lines (records), each
associated with a pay type. It was missing all the amount fields except
for pay rate and an amount that seemed to be associated with that
payment type. It was not something I could work with. I received another
file on March 9, but it was even less acceptable. I appealed to city
council president Peter Spadafore and he said this:
Mr. Harry,
I am in receipt of
your appeal of FOIA request C049526. For the reasons stated below, I
am denying your appeal.
Your request was for
the 2025 payroll file and included various fields taken from the
previously released payroll file for 2023. In response to your
request, the City released several
payroll files. As indicated in your appeal, the payroll files differ
from previous years’ payroll files.
Previously, the City used Finance Enterprise for payroll purposes.
The City converted to the
BS&A Cloud platform beginning with the first pay period of 2025.
Therefore, the 2025 payroll
files provided data and corresponding fields pulled from the new
system. Since the City no
longer uses the Finance Enterprise system, the City has accommodated
your request to the
extent possible using the new payroll system.
As this request was properly granted as to the specific
record requested and based on
the available documents with relevant payroll data in the City’s
possession that is responsive to
your request, I am denying your appeal.
This is really too bad, because the reports
I prepare from these files provide a lot of valuable information for
city leaders and the public - information to be found nowhere else. Here
is a list of what you will be missing. I will show you using my report
for 2024.
54-A District
Court
City Assessor
City Attorney
City Clerk
City Council
Neighborhoods, Arts & Citizen Engagement
Fire Department
Finance Department
Human Resources
Economic
Development and Planning
Downtown Development
Agency
Human Relations & Community
Services
Information Technology
Mayor's Office
Public Media Center
Parks and Recreation
Police
Public Service
All that information provided free of charge -
information City Council and the Mayor's Office would find useful.
There is no doubt the City could produce a file I
could use if they wanted to, but in the interest of keeping the public
in the dark, they are denying themselves valuable information.
Send comments, questions, and tips to
stevenrharry@gmail.com or call or text
me at 517-730-2638. If you'd like to be notified by email when I post a
new story, let me know.
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