Local Opinion: Huckelberry retirement legal, but lessons learned

There has been recent discussion in the community about the former county administrator, Chuck Huckelberry, his resignation earlier this month and the revelation that he activated his Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) pension several months ago. My purpose for writing is to lay out the facts and to reassure the public that Mr. Huckelberry abided by the terms of his contract and ASRS regulations. It is also fair to point out that my colleagues and I should learn some lessons from this experience to inform our practices moving forward.

The Board of Supervisors renewed Mr. Huckelberry’s contract for an additional four years in January 2021. He has served as the county administrator since 1993. We inserted into his contract a provision that allowed him to retire and return to work as a contractor without affecting any of the contract’s terms. However, we did not add language that required Mr. Huckelberry to notify us if and when he retired.

Arizona State Retirement System records show that Mr. Huckelberry initiated his retirement on July 4, 2021. He continued to receive full pay up until the time that he was involved in a bicycling accident on Oct. 23, 2021. Two days after that accident, he began to use accrued sick and/or vacation leave and continued to receive his full pay. This continued until Nov. 14, 2021.

Beginning on Nov. 15, 2021, Mr. Huckelberry began to use 19 hours of accrued sick and/or vacation leave so that he could be in compliance with the ASRS 20/20 rule. This rule states that an ASRS retiree cannot work for any ASRS employer for more than 20 hours per week for 20 or more weeks in a fiscal year. After 12 months, the retiree can return to full-time work and their pension benefits continue. This is often referred to as “double-dipping” and is allowed under ASRS regulations.

According to our Human Resources Department, if Mr. Huckelberry had continued to use 19 hours of accrued leave through the week of May 2, 2022, he would have been in compliance with the ASRS 20/20 rule. Since he began using accrued leave in November of last year, he received part-time pay and all the terms of his contract. The Board accepted his resignation on April 5, 2022 and the contract was terminated as of that date.

If Mr. Huckelberry had not been involved in a tragic accident in October of last year, I am certain that Board members, both individually and collectively, would be engaged in dialogue with him about why he did not let us know that he had retired in July. For both interpersonal and political reasons, it would have been ideal for him to notify us of his decision. Nevertheless, in taking the action he did, there was no violation of his contract, nor of ASRS regulations.

What are the lessons learned? First, we should have inserted language into the contract requiring that Mr. Huckelberry notify us when he initiated his retirement. The Board should have also anticipated the need for Mr. Huckelberry’s compliance with the 20/20 rule and inserted language into the contract as to how his duties would be addressed during that 20-week period. I certainly should have considered that fact since I am an ASRS retiree myself.

Mr. Huckelberry began his professional career with Pima County in 1974 and worked within the Transportation Department before being named the county administrator 19 years later. He is a hometown boy who made Pima County a better place to live, work and raise a family. I am sorry, as a new supervisor, that I was only able to work alongside this extraordinary public servant for less than a year. Nothing associated with either his resignation or retirement detracts from the fact that our entire community owes him and his family a sincere debt of gratitude.