A recent audit of Erie County's parks system turned up one of those head-scratchers found in government: Employees who hold two different county jobs were paid simultaneously for both. The case involved two workers and only a few hours' pay - a total of $60 in wages they probably should not have received. But it shows that a new multimillion-dollar computer system can't root out all public-sector oddities.

Personnel Commissioner John W. Greenan theorized that a coding error - not malfeasance - caused the problem, which aides to Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz told him about Thursday. Greenan is now retrieving two-year-old payroll records from storage to find what went wrong.

The control board, too, has an eye on the matter and on other concerns raised in the audit, which concluded that the landmark 2004 agreement to let Erie County's Parks Department care for Buffalo parklands forces taxpayers countywide to subsidize the city's parks. That outcome runs counter to assurances given by County Executive Joel A. Giambra when he was selling the agreement to the County Legislature two years ago.

"As the long-term fiscal watchdog of the county, we urge the administration to address these financial and management issues in short order," said control board Chairman Anthony J. Baynes. "We do not plan to get into the detailed operations of Erie County, but we will be here as a voice of reason in fostering good management and good government to protect the taxpayers."

Countywide, 31 employees hold two county jobs at the same time, the comptroller's office said. A handful work at Erie County Medical Center, about 15 work for the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system, and seven are in the Department of Parks and Recreation division that cares for Buffalo parklands.

At least 15 minutes after quitting-time for one job, they can start the other if the jobs are at the same site, 30 minutes if they aren't. Dual earners don't get overtime pay if their combined hours exceed 40 a week, Greenan said. And they don't build pension benefits at a faster rate.

The county's handbook stresses that no one can collect pay at both jobs for the same hours. After all, you can't be in two places at once, as the adage goes.

Yet on Nov. 18, 2004, a parks supervisor was recorded as receiving sick pay from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. but collected pay for his second job, as a lifeguard at a city pool, from noon to 2 p.m. and then from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The auditors said he should not have been paid for 2.5 hours - from noon to 2 and from 2:30 to 3, when the shift for his first job ended.

The second employee was working as a parks utility worker and also as a pool filter operator from 2:30 to 3 p.m. on July 28, 2004, according to the auditors and Greenan, who said this snag might have been caused by the government's "summer hours" provision.

Unionized county workers are allowed to quit a half-hour early and still get paid for that half-hour. Greenan thinks the worker went off the first job at 2:30 and immediately started the second, yet on paper his shift did not end until 3.

Concerns over the accuracy of personnel records, and the benefits of the new computer system, were frequently mentioned in a study of Erie County government issued in August 2005 by the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. Researchers found that employee hours are assumed in advance, and adjustments are entered later by payroll clerks across the departments.

The auditors urged the Parks and Personnel departments to try and recover any overpayments to the two workers, to better monitor the attendance of workers with two county jobs and look to see if the computer system can be programmed to prevent such problems.