Denver Department of Human Services alleges 101 employees owe $175,000

"There are times when I've sat down to pay bills and just cried, wondering where the money would come from--and that was before they reduced my salary," says single mom Cathy Mollendor, a case manager for Denver's Department of Human Services. "I just feel used and abused."

Mollendor, a member of the FPE/AFT-affiliated Colorado Federation of Public Employees (CFPE), is one of the 101 employees who received written notification Jan. 26, 2001, that she had been overpaid since January 1999. "We will correct that computational error in your next paycheck," the letter from department head Chris Veasey reads. Then, before telling employees that they "must return all overpayments," Veasey apologizes for the problem and "any extra burden" it will cause.

Now, Mollendor, who was purportedly overpaid $1,700, just comes home and cries, she says, trying to figure out how to make ends meet with nearly $100 less a month--and a college education ahead for her 17-year-old daughter Shina.

Despite Veasey's matter-of-fact explanation about the computational error and the city rules requiring employees to return all overpayments, the situation is far from clear-cut.

CFPE president Jo Romero explains that "reallocations" carrying an automatic 2.25 percent pay increase were approved for the welfare services workers when they transferred from the state pay system to the county system in January 1999 under the state's welfare reform initiative.

"This is not a debt," Romero says. "If the employees knew they were being overpaid, it would be a different story. But this is compensation they were told they would receive for the work they have done over the past two years."

At press time, the union was scheduled to argue its appeal May 23 before the Career Service Board. Altogether, the 101 employees allegedly owe $175,000. The purported overpayments range from several hundred dollars to $6,000 per employee.

Romero plans to take the case to court if the union's efforts to rescind the reallocations, recoup the money and reinstate salaries fail.