Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, exiled in a reorganization last year by then-Administrator Manoj Vyas, yesterday fired Vyas and abolished seven other positions.
Amos Moses, head of management review and organizational development and a key architect of last year's more sweeping reorganization, will lose his job along with three members of his eight-person staff in a cost-cutting prelude to Huckelberry's recommended budget.
In all, Huckelberry's moves will save the county $500,000.
"I can say that it is consistent with my approach to government," said Mike Boyd, the Republican chairman of the Board of Supervisors. "If you find functions that aren't needed, you get rid of them. He's making moves that are in the best interest of the taxpayers."
Democratic Supervisor Raul Grijalva said the cuts were done "humanely," but that more are needed.
"This is a start," Grijalva said.
After he was fired from the top post by the Board of Supervisors in December, Vyas was moved to a job heading special projects at $55,000 a year - $50,000 less than he made previously.
Moses was paid $76,499 a year. Five people from Moses' department, which started in 1990 with an annual budget of $100,000 and rose to more than $564,000 this year, will be moved to jobs in accounting and finance.
The five - Christopher Bradley, Richard Fappiano, William Foy, Cecilia Monroe and Andrew Vishner - have civil service protection. Moses and the workers who lost their posts - Elsa Hamblin, Ann Hamilton and William Kaehler - were in non-civil service jobs.
Other positions cut yesterday were public relations director, a $56,100-a-year post held by Theresa Garcia-Crews; economic development director, a $51,000-a-year job held by Pat L. Watson; and an unfilled position under Watson.
Garcia-Crews, former marketing director at Sun Tran, was one of the few people Vyas hired or promoted through a competitive process. Boyd, a former television reporter, pushed hard last year to create the public relations position, the first in county history.
Under Vyas' reorganization, which was set in motion during secret meetings by Boyd and fellow Republican Supervisors Ed Moore and Paul Marsh before they were sworn in, Huckelberry was stripped of most of the duties he had for 19 years.
He lasted four months under Vyas, then resigned to take a job with an engineering firm. He later directed the Metro Water District before returning to the county government.
Boyd praised Huckelberry yesterday for making the first of needed cuts in his own office before moving to other departments.
Boyd said the personnel cuts, as well as Huckelberry's move earlier this week to withdraw take-home cars from at least 82 bureaucrats, should set an example for elected officials as hearings begin June 20 on Huckelberry's recommended budget.
Huckelberry will release his budget, expected to be about $20 million less than the current $606 million, early next week. More shuffling and possible layoffs are expected to be included.
Although the personnel cuts come under "abolishment of position" - the same category Vyas used last year - they were done quietly and came without any of the instant controversy.
Vyas fired six longtime executives and demoted four others in the glare of television and newspaper cameras on Jan. 5, 1993, only his second day in office. Each of those people also had to look at festive balloons one of Vyas' supporters had sent him as congratulations for his promotion.
Huckelberry gave those dismissed yesterday more than 60 days to find other jobs. Terminations are effective 30 days after the July 6 tentative adoption of the budget.
Vyas demanded that those he fired clear out their offices within four hours after he notified them.
In a memo to supervisors, Huckelberry tied the reorganization to his upcoming budget, something Vyas could not do because his occurred in the middle of the fiscal year.
And although Vyas and the Republican board majority pushed the 1993 cuts as necessary to save money, Vyas added about 200 jobs last year while also depleting the 1992-93 $20 million surplus to about $6 million.
Seven of the fired and demoted executives have sued the county, Republican supervisors and numerous others in U.S. District Court, alleging wrongful termination.
Huckelberry told supervisors yesterday that "it is difficult to recommend budget reductions that affect existing personnel. These reductions should not be viewed as performance-related, but in response to fiscal and budget reality."
The only potential dispute could arise from Moses' status, which shifted last year from a board employee under contract to a regular county employee under administration.
Moses, an Oklahoma lawyer who joined the county as bond administrator six years ago, was a close Moore ally. He was named a special board auditor in 1990 on a 3-2 board vote and was given a contract that guaranteed his return to another job if his position were abolished.
But on Jan. 19, 1993, Vyas won board approval to transfer Moses to the new management review and organizational development department.
Responding to questions from Grijalva, Vyas told supervisors during that meeting that "under the new structured relationship" Moses would be the same as any other non-civil service employee without a contract.
County sources said earlier this week that the County Attorney's Office tried to block Huckelberry's dismissal of Moses by saying he had a contract.
The argument wilted when it was pointed out that the Board of Supervisors and the County Attorney's Office are forcing former County Manager Enrique Serna to sue to recover the contractual rights lost when Boyd, Marsh and Moore fired him Jan. 4, 1993. Deputy county attorneys have said there can be no multiyear contracts that bind a new Board of Supervisors.
It was in Moses' former office in the Great American Tower where Vyas and others met after the 1992 election to chart the reorganization.
Moses and Carl Remus, a former finance director who left last year for a job in Tulsa, also met with Boyd, Marsh and Moore at Moore's house to discuss reorganization before the new board took over.
