SBC O FD BEHIND THE SCENES
SERVICE ABOVE AND BEYOND
By Alix Anderson
ERIKA MORALES
Payroll Specialist
KRISTA
COLVIN
By Dan Nelson
County Fire is a place where roles can be as challenging as they are import-
ant to the success of our organization, and the position of payroll special-
ist is no exception. These folks have huge workloads that require great
attention to detail and very tight deadlines. It takes highly-skilled and
dedicated people to keep the payroll ship sailing smoothly. In this edi-
tion of FIREWIRE, we sat down with Payroll Specialist Erika Morales to
learn about her and the important work that she does for County Fire.
Erika’s career at County Fire started in June of 2013, when she
was hired by the department to serve as a PSE (part-time) payroll
specialist. In November 2014, Erika was promoted to full-time. Prior
to working at County Fire, Erika worked at Chapman Woods Nursery,
a family-run business. During her time working for the nursery, Erika
received training in payroll management. She quickly learned that she
had a knack and a passion for payroll, and the rest, as they say, is
history.
A typical week for Erika and the other payroll specialists begins early
Monday morning with running payroll reports from the weekend. As
errors are found, payroll specialists then send emails to the appropriate
battalion chiefs and captains asking for the errors to be corrected.
During the rest of the week, payroll specialists review payroll hours for
every employee at County Fire. This task ensures that everyone is being
paid appropriately for hours worked, injury time, vacation, holiday and
sick leave. Errors in payroll can lead to lost money for both employees
and the county. As one can image, with over 1,000 employees, this is
a daunting task.
According to Erika, the most stressful part of her job is when the payroll
division is short-staffed. Because the many tasks within the division
are extremely specialized, the payroll division cannot just “borrow” a
person from another division within the department to pick up the
slack. When short staffed, each specialist must take on extra work
so that payroll is completed on time. There have been times during
her tenure with SBCoFD that Erika and one other payroll specialist
have been responsible for the entire department’s payroll processing.
Despite the stresses of the job, Erika loves her role at County Fire. “I
like being able to help people by fixing payroll mistakes and making
sure that those who are out on OC (injury leave) are receiving their
proper benefits. It feels good to know that I can help make the job less
stressful for others.”
Local 935 introduces Faces of 911 Dispatcher Krista Colvin. She has been a fire/rescue and EMS
dispatcher for nine years, including the first five as a call taker. Krista’s career first started as an EMT/
security field training officer for the Irvine Spectrum and as an officer for the Laguna B