Moving On
Have any of you ever retired? Have you ever changed jobs? If you have, it is likely that your manager knew you were leaving, Human Resources processed your paperwork, accounting stopped paying you, you no longer had the ability to execute contracts, hire people, or commit the organization to any business relationship on behalf of the organization. People come and go in organizations and the employees who process these actions understand the importance of getting it right, and in this case the importance of keeping it quiet.
Why would we let the county government operate any differently? How could the County Administrator of the 44th largest county in the United States retire and no one know about it? Not even the Board of Supervisors who are charged with oversight of the county! Of course, they knew. Accounting knew, HR knew, the Assistant County Administrator knew! Who did not know? Me, maybe you, and the Board of Supervisors; the people responsible for paying the taxes to pay the salary and the people responsible for making sure the work of the county gets done—that’s who didn’t know.
Corruption or Incompetence?
The Arizona Daily Star said, “The Pima County Board of Supervisors accepted Chuck Huckelberry’s resignation on Tuesday amid news of the former county administrator retired from the position in July.” His monthly pension is $12,228. The Star goes on to say that Pima County was unable to confirm Huckelberry’s official employment status. Is the County Human Resources Office incompetent or corrupt? Huckelberry had an attorney officially announce his resignation as the County Administrator but said he will continue as a contractor assisting the County Administrator’s office and the Board of Supervisors. Pima County HR and Payroll both new of this arrangement in July. Or did they? Did they change Chuck’s status? Does his pay reflect his retirement status? Did they do their job? If HR accepted his retirement without notification to the Board of Supervisors, are they complicit?
Shady Deals
Some deals are just shady and the one Huckelberry pulled is exactly that. Let’s look at what he did. In January 2021, he negotiated a contract with a clause that said he could retire without any changes to his contract. Then he gamed the state retirement system collecting full-time compensation for 19 weeks and compensation for 19-hour work weeks from his accrued vacations and sick time. Nothing illegal here, just shady.
Meanwhile, with a vote of 4-1, with Supervisor Steve Christy dissenting, the BOS at their April 5th meeting appoint Jan Lesher to take over as the County Administrator. The good news is that she has been the Deputy County Administrator and then the Acting County Administrator for several years; she knows the job. The bad news is that she most certainly knew about Huckelberry’s retirement in July and played along with the game in what should be known as ‘Pima’s Payola’ to hide this from the BOS and entangle county employees. Here’s where the shadiness really gets fun. When reporter Dylan Smith reveals the news to Supervisor Grijalva she states “That’s complete news to me”, and Supervisor Heinz said “Every single taxpayer in the county had a right to know” and “What a catastrophe. This undermines the confidence that people should have in us.” And Supervisor Scott straddled the line with not having enough information (same guy who didn’t have information but voted on ePoll books and voting center).
Influence Peddling
There you have it. Corruption, shady deals, and influence peddling. What’s influence peddling? Remember all those people we talked about? People knew, but you did not. What does it take to keep people quiet? If I were a Supervisor, there would be a lot of questions. But then again, these are the people who just appointed a new County Administrator. Is this county doing so well with who we have that we don’t need to look for a more competent, results-oriented county leader? If you believe that, then stay tuned for more Corruption, Shady Deals, and Influence Peddling, the continuing saga of Pima County.
If you don’t believe that, then let’s start looking for our 2024 candidates for the Pima County Board of Supervisors. It’s time for Republicans to run this county again. Join me.