The 2022 resignation of longtime Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, who for months had continued to gather his wage whereas additionally being paid pension advantages behind the scenes, has caught the eye of federal investigators, sources advised the Tucson Sentinel. 

Huckelberry’s greater than $300,000 wage and advantages bundle was augmented by as much as $12,000 in month-to-month pension funds, and payouts from a pot of greater than $1.1 million in “extra” retirement funds.

The
circumstances of Huckelberry secretly retiring whereas persevering with to carry
on to his place as probably the most highly effective particular person in Southern Arizona
politics are being investigated by the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, alongside
with presumably the FBI and a federal grand jury, a number of sources with
unbiased data of the state of affairs advised the Sentinel.

The specifics of what — and who — the feds are wanting into should not clear. Sources weren’t capable of point out if anybody — together with Huckelberry or any of the small variety of county staffers who have been conscious of the association — has been advised they’re the goal of a investigation. It is unclear if any felony or civil case is being contemplated.

Huckelberry exercised a clause in his contract that was authorized below Arizona statutes. The probe has been carefully held, and few particulars have been out there. Final week and Monday, the Sentinel filed requests for public information with a number of authorities businesses, however no paperwork have but been launched. Federal legislation enforcement businesses don’t usually affirm whether or not any investigations are happening. Solely a handful of individuals on the county knew of Huckelberry’s job standing earlier than the Sentinel’s unique report final yr.

2022: Huckelberry retired 9 mos. in the past, withheld information from Pima County supervisors

Huckelberry retired and commenced gathering his pension on July 4, 2021, however didn’t inform any of his bosses on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, and retained his place as the highest bureaucrat within the county for an additional 9 months.

On prime of his wage from the county — pegged at $292,000 plus intensive advantages — and a pension of greater than $12,000 month-to-month, Huckelberry was being paid some $8,000 to $10,000 per thirty days in “extra profit funds,” routed from the state retirement system by means of the county. These funds have been drawn from greater than $1.1 million in “extra” retirement funds he had constructed up over time.

Huckelberry’s contract — which had been accepted earlier in 2021 by the board — allowed him to retire and proceed working as a contractor — a course of usually known as a “double-dip” that’s permitted as outlined in state legislation.

Even so, he instructed the small variety of county staffers who realized of the transfer to maintain it secret — even from his elected bosses.

The supervisors didn’t be taught of his employment standing till knowledgeable of it by a Tucson Sentinel reporter in April 2022, as Huckelberry was leaving his publish of 29 years within the wake of a devastating bike crash.

Every expressed shock when advised their prime worker had resigned months prior, and continued to carry on to his publish below his contract.

Monday, these supervisors who have been reached by the Sentinel principally declined to remark relating to phrase of the federal probe.

Board Chair Adelita Grijalva mentioned she did not have any remark.

Supervisor Rex Scott mentioned he may “neither affirm nor deny” that an investigation was happening.

Supervisor Matt Heinz mentioned he wasn’t conscious that anybody on the county was being investigated, however nonetheless blasted Huckelberry for his conduct.

Protecting up his employment standing was “a betrayal fully inconsistent with the connection any county administrator ought to have along with his 5 bosses,” Heinz mentioned.

Huckelberry, who’s reportedly nonetheless coping with accidents after a automobile hit him on his bicycle in October 2021, has not been attentive to the Sentinel’s inquiries about his resignation. He had a traumatic mind harm, punctured lung and damaged ribs, and
was hospitalized for almost a month earlier than being moved to a bodily
rehabilitation facility for months extra.

County Administrator Jan Lesher, who changed Huckelberry after serving as his longtime prime deputy, advised the Sentinel she wasn’t out there for an interview till after Tuesday’s assembly of the county board.

The opposite two members of the five-member board, Supervisors Sharon Bronson and Steve Christy, could not be reached for remark Monday night.

Restricted details about the probe was conveyed to the Sentinel by sources inside the county, in addition to outdoors sources with data of it. The sources spoke on situation of anonymity to guard their jobs.

Govt classes

Final month, at a gathering of the Board of Supervisors on August 21, a closed-door dialogue was held on the request of the Pima County Legal professional’s Workplace. The one disclosure of the subject on the assembly agenda was that it was “relating to communication with the federal authorities.”

The supervisors didn’t focus on that government session merchandise within the public portion of the assembly, however sources point out that it was associated to the probe.

At Tuesday’s assembly, one other imprecise government session dialogue is scheduled, at PCAO’s request, about “protection and indemnification of county workers.” Sources advised the Sentinel that closed-door a part of the assembly is probably going additionally associated.

The supervisors, and any county employees who take part, are barred by Arizona legislation from disclosing something that takes place in an government session with no vote of the total board to make info public.

Nothing finished in writing

Huckelberry took pains to make sure that his exercising the contract clause permitting the “double-dip” was saved below wraps.

Sources with data of the state of affairs advised the Tucson Sentinel that
all the things was finished orally, with no paperwork shared between staffers,
to maintain a lid on Huckelberry’s job standing for months.

Underneath state legislation governing such preparations, he was restricted to working simply 19 hours per week after mid-November 2021, regardless of his place as a full-time administrator.

Lesher advised the supervisors final spring that she knew about Huckelberry’s job standing “someday after July.”

2022: Pima Supes OK Lesher’s contract; Huckelberry getting $1.1 million in ‘extra’ pension

Lesher wrote in a memo to the board then that he had “instructed a restricted variety of employees to carefully maintain
this info.”

Noting that “there was hypothesis by some within the media”
(that means the Sentinel’s push for info and public information) “that
there are county personnel information” associated to Huckelberry’s change in
employment standing to gather his pension, and a transfer in November to
restrict his hours to adjust to the Arizona State Retirement System’s
“20/20 Rule,” Lesher advised the supervisors “there aren’t any such information.”

Pima
County coverage signifies that every one information of modifications in employment
standing are required to be saved in a staffer’s personnel file.

County staffers “did as (they) have been instructed,” Lesher mentioned final yr, in
limiting who knew about Huckelberry’s employment standing. Whereas staffers
in Human Assets and the county’s payroll division have been conscious of the
modifications, they “adhere to quite a lot of requirements of confidentiality
relating to not solely this worker however each worker.”

That info was so carefully held, Huckelberry was nonetheless listed as
a “full time” worker in an
inner file of all Pima county staffers as of the center of March 2022.
That doc was leaked to the Sentinel by a supply who requested
anonymity. It didn’t point out that Huckelberry’s work hours had been
modified to simply 19 per week, nor that he was retired and gathering his
pension.

Huckelberry had been paid full-time below his contract by means of the
starting of November, after which for 19 hours per week after that, in accordance with the state’s “20/20 Rule” on so-called “double-dip” employment. Huckelberry’s
contract, nonetheless, didn’t point out that lower than full-time employment
was an choice, even when he ought to select to retire.

One in all Huckelberry’s attorneys mentioned in a letter to the supervisors,
earlier than they voted to just accept his resignation final April, that “he has an employment
settlement with Pima County that requires that he work full time.”

County officers haven’t defined how Huckelberry, had he not been on sick go away, may have been operating county authorities in simply 19 hours per week. In response to Lesher, Huckelberry had instructed his work hours be modified from full-time earlier than the bike
crash that severely injured him, inflicting him to be out of the workplace for
months.

On the time, Lesher advised the supervisors that “I’m not able to go backward on what could have occurred below a
totally different administration. I can let you know that what we’re
recognizing is the place are the teachable moments that we will use to maneuver a
system ahead and to offer, we hope, extra transparency for the
public and for the board.”

Further $1 million in retirement flew below radar

Huckelberry’s wage was set in January 2021 by the Board of Supervisors (on a 4-1 vote) at $292,000, together with an intensive profit bundle,
together with medical insurance (which Pima County self-funds), additional sick
and trip time, additional retirement contributions and a well being financial savings
account. 

His pension could possibly be paid on prime of that quantity below a
retirement/persevering with contractor association, below a clause he inserted into the deal after supervisors balked at rising his pay to $315,000.

That clause learn, “If worker retires as allowed by the Arizona State Retirement System, worker can return to work as a contractor with none negation of the phrases of this contract, together with its size.”

2021: What the Satan will not let you know: Huckelberry’s two scoops of a double dip — pension scandal or enterprise as standard?

On the time of his resignation final yr, the latest
paycheck to Huckelberry, not together with a cost of “extra” retirement,
was for $9,815 for about 77 hours of remaining trip time, alongside
with 4 hours of sick time and 31 hours of trip time utilized in his
ultimate two weeks.

However on prime of his pension, Huckelberry was set to
obtain an extra $10,167.49 every month from the retirement system,
as an “extra profit cost,” in keeping with a Nov. 9, 2021 letter from the Arizona State Retirement System despatched to the county payroll division. That determine was modified to
$8,556.09 per thirty days in more moderen checks, for unexplained causes.

State
officers described the “extra retirement” quantity as “the distinction
between the total quantity of pension offered by state legislation” and the
most profit attainable below federal limits. As a result of Huckelberry paid
into ASRS for many years, and the present federal limits have been
extra lately utilized, he’s allowed to be paid out the overage.

Every
month, the state retirement system will remit to the county the
“extra” quantity, which the county will then pay to Huckelberry, ASRS mentioned.

In an April 2022 assembly during which Huckelberry’s secrecy and the phrases of his contract have been mentioned by the supervisors, they didn’t increase the problem that Huckelberry was due greater than $1,139,000 in “extra” retirement funds.

Secret retirement, information withheld from supervisors

Though it was introduced originally of April 2022 that
Huckelberry would depart his publish within the wake of the devastating bike
crash, information solely revealed by the Tucson Sentinel in a report
earlier than his resignation present that the longtime native authorities honcho
really retired on July 4, 2021, and commenced receiving his pension.

That Huckelberry — the highest county staffer for the previous 29 years — had
handed in his retirement papers and apparently exercised a clause in his
contract permitting him to proceed working as a non-employee marketing consultant
was unknown to the members of the Board of Supervisors. Every mentioned that
they first realized of that reality due to questions from a Sentinel
reporter on April 4, with them expressing various levels of shock
and shock when requested about it.

“That is full information to me,” mentioned Grijalva on the time. “It is fully
unacceptable” that the board wasn’t knowledgeable he had retired 9 months
in the past.

“Wow,” mentioned Christy. “That is weird. It is information to me.”

Bronson mentioned “I assumed all people knew; they need to’ve recognized” that
Huckelberry “yanked his retirement,” however later walked again her feedback
to say that she had a dialogue with the county administrator someday
in October, previous to his accidents, about him taking that step earlier than the
finish of the yr.

“It is odd that he did not share” with the opposite supervisors, she advised the Sentinel final April.

“Oh… oh,” she mentioned, when advised that information confirmed he’d already retired in July.

“It was a poor choice on his half” to not inform the board, mentioned
Heinz on the time, whereas additionally elevating questions on Bronson’s dealing with of the matter,
if she had info that was not relayed to different supervisors.

“Each single taxpayer within the county had a proper to know” concerning the
transfer, he mentioned then. “What a disaster. This undermines the arrogance that
folks ought to have in us.”

Scott mentioned that whereas “I knew (Huckelberry leaving) was one thing that
was going to be within the offing,” he wasn’t capable of touch upon the July 4
retirement, as he did not have the entire particulars when knowledgeable of it by
the Sentinel.

Huckelberry, now 73, had not been working for the county since being knocked off
his bike whereas using Downtown in October 2021, when a automobile crashed into
him. He took sick go away for months whereas receiving remedy, and introduced his resignation as that go away was about to expire.

State Auditor Common dings Pima over Huckelberry secrecy

This yr, the Arizona Auditor Common’s Workplace raised Huckelberry’s behind-the-scenes retirement for instance of “deficiencies within the county’s processes for evaluating modifications to government administration employment phrases and making certain acceptable county governance.”

The gambit “impacted the board’s skill to successfully assess operational influence,” the AAG decided.

“As a result of the county administrator had not knowledgeable the board of his retirement and return-to-work standing, the board was unaware that the county administrator can be required to work a diminished variety of hours (lower than 20 hours per week) for half the yr after his retirement. Subsequently, the board couldn’t decide if any modifications to the county’s government administration have been essential to make sure acceptable county governance,” AAG employees detailed.

Lesher has instituted a coverage for prime county employees, together with her, to offer discover to their bosses if they’re exercising any “double-dip” retirement choices.

Lesher’s contract

Lesher’s contract as county administrator was accepted by the board at $32,000 lower than
Huckelberry’s in base pay, and it included about $75,000 much less in perks.
Huckelberry’s contract for $292,000 in wage additionally included extra
paid break day of 240 hours yearly, on prime of what a county worker
along with his years of service would obtain. It additionally included $26,000 per
yr in extra retirement fund contributions, and $15,000 in
contributions every year to a 401(a) retirement account.

Lesher’s
settlement — which was OKed by the board as she proposed on a 3-2 vote in April 2022 — overlooked
these additional advantages, and included common well being, dental and different
protection, in addition to trip and go away, as can be offered to any
different county worker along with her expertise. It did embrace a month-to-month
automobile allowance of $550, as did Huckelberry’s contract.

Along with the decrease wage and smaller profit bundle, the
contract didn’t embrace a provision, such because the one inserted by
Huckelberry into his employment settlement, that may permit Lesher to
retire below a “double-dip” and accumulate a pension whereas nonetheless working as
the county administrator.

READ
MORE FROM THE ARCHIVE within the Sentinel’s unique 2021 report: Huckelberry retired 9
mos. in the past, withheld information from Pima County supervisors