The Board of Supervisors appointed Chuck Huckelberry as Pima County manager yesterday but delayed action on his $121,000-a-year contract for one week.
It was a case of two supervisors, Republicans Ed Moore and Paul Marsh, defeating three, Democrats Dan Eckstrom and Raul Grijalva and Republican Board Chairman Mike Boyd.
Moore and Marsh wanted to hold off approval of Huckelberry's contract, which calls for immediate payoff if he is fired before the end of 1996. And although Moore and Marsh would have lost by a 3-2 vote, Boyd acceded to their demand and postponed approval of the contract.
Boyd, a strong Huckelberry backer, complained that 24 hours was not enough time to review Huckelberry's contract. Supervisors had one day to read the contract, which consists of two pages and one paragraph.
Moore said he read it and objected because it didn't contain performance standards. And Moore said he and Marsh discussed the contract privately and that Marsh had concerns about the provision that allows Huckelberry to tap into the vacation and sick time accumulated during his earlier employment. Huckelberry is a 20-year-county official who returned in December as interim county administrator after an eight-month hiatus.
Marsh said the annual salary was too high, noting that former County Administrator Manoj Vyas made $105,000 and pointed out that supervisors last week ratified Huckelberry's spending freeze.
Grijalva said Huckelberry's contract is "reasonable given the tenor of the times."
The Democrats said they were concerned about what Moore would extract from Huckelberry this week in exchange for his support.
"With regard to performance criteria, I have no problem putting in the motion that one of the performance criteria (be) that Mr. Huckelberry assures us that he will on a daily basis suck up to Mr. Moore," Eckstrom said.
With Huckelberry in a sort of limbo, Moore attacked the county's Department of Environmental Quality, forcing an unadvertised hearing on the agency that is under attack at the Legislature and from some local businesses. They allege unfair and uneven enforcement of rules that exceed state and federal standards.
County laws prohibit supervisors from interfering in management decisions that are the domain of the manager or administrator, as in the organizational structure of the DEQ.
But when Marsh left the meeting without explanation, Moore lost any support to move the department under control of the Health Department and Board of Health.
Moore also was alone in his attempt to have the board support legislation that would limit the county's ability to regulate industry and monitor compliance of environmental laws.
Moore forced another lengthy, unadvertised public hearing on local enforcement of the Brady gun bill.
Supervisors allowed Moore to use about three hours yesterday for his two issues.
