County official opts not to apply for city manager
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Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said Friday that he will not apply for the soon-to-be-vacant city manager's job and will seek a four-year renewal of his current contract.
The county Board of Supervisors will discuss Tuesday whether to grant Huckelberry's request for a new contract that would pay him a combined $216,000 in annual salary and deferred compensation. That's about a 5 percent boost from his current $205,707.
The new contract would give him $198,000 salary and $18,000 a year in deferred compensation, which won't be taxable until he retires and starts using it.
Huckelberry, who took the administrator's job in December 1993, seems likely to get the contract he wants from the board.
Democratic Supervisors Richard ElΓas and RamΓ³n Valadez said Friday that they were inclined to support Huckelberry's request. They said he has done a very good job handling difficult issues such as the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan and Kino Community Hospital and that his background as a native Tucsonan continues to make him a good choice.
Board Chairwoman Sharon Bronson, also a Democrat, didn't return calls but she has been a strong Huckelberry supporter.
Republican Supervisor Ray Carroll, who opposed Huckelberry's contract four years ago, was the only supervisor who said he'll vote against this one. He said that a pact that long doesn't provide enough accountability and that Huckelberry needs to resolve the Wastewater Management Department's financial and management problems before he gets a long-term contract.
Fellow Republican Ann Day said she didn't want to publicly discuss the contract until the board talks about it in executive session.
Two Tucson City Council members, Democrat Jose Ibarra and Republican Kathleen Dunbar, said in October that they saw Huckelberry as a top candidate to replace outgoing City Manager James Keene. They cited his intelligence, knowledge of both city and county governments, and personal popularity. Keene is leaving city government in January to become director of the California Association of Counties.
On Friday, Huckelberry said he wants to finish up several key county initiatives started during this and previous terms. They include:
* Showing that bond money is spent appropriately and wisely, after voters approved a $732 million bond package last May.
* Reforming the criminal justice system.
* Wrapping up and getting federal approval of the conservation plan's proposal to protect endangered species, which is slated for formal release next year.
"I think I'm pretty much done after this. I think probably 14 years in any chief executive position in local government is about enough," Huckelberry said. Actually, if he serves a new four-year term, it will be 16 years as administrator.
Keene's current combined salary and deferred compensation is, at $204,968, slightly lower than Huckelberry's current combined pay. The city manager gets a $3,900-a-year vehicle allowance. Huckelberry doesn't get one, although he has use of a county car. Keene doesn't have a city-owned car.
But Huckelberry said salary has nothing to do with staying with the county rather than pursuing a city job, and that he was not trying to parlay the two council members' interest in him into a higher county salary. He doesn't know what Keene makes other than what's been reported in the paper, he said.
ElΓas, who joined the board in the middle of Huckelberry's latest term, said he thinks Huckelberry has a reasonable level of accountability to the public and the board.
"He is subject to serve at pleasure of the majority of the board. I think that is adequate accountability," ElΓas said.
Carroll, however, said that the current and proposed Huckelberry contracts contain no formal accountability standards or year-end review.
"Until he gets Wastewater straightened out, it's too premature to talk about his contract," Carroll said. For now, the supervisor said, "I'll be happy to give him an extension."
Huckelberry's office is slated to release a comprehensive audit next week on the Wastewater Department, which has been plagued by budget deficits, cost overruns in major sewer projects, and problems with management and oversight of projects such as the Randolph Park reclamation plant.
The administrator said there's no question that the Randolph plant has been plagued by poor planning and that the department should have told the board much earlier that it was going to use money that ultimately would come from bond funds for seven other sewer projects for Randolph.
But he said his record in winning voter approval of the bonds and in getting the board to overhaul the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, and his move to privatize Kino Community Hospital, show he can resolve the Wastewater issues.
"I think the board evaluates me probably every day of the week," Huckelberry said.
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Cost comparison
* The county Board of Supervisors will discuss Tuesday whether to grant Huckelberry's request for a new contract.
CURRENT ANNUAL PACKAGE
$205,707
total annual package, including deferred compensation
PACKAGE PROPOSAL
$216,000
total annual package, including deferred compensation
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If you go
* Huckelberry's contract renewal will be discussed in closed session followed by public consideration and a possible vote at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. The session starts at 9 a.m. in the board hearing room on the first floor of the County Administration Building, 130 W. Congress St.
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To-do list
Initiatives started during this and previous terms that Huckelberry wants to finish:
* Showing that bond money is spent appropriately and wisely, after voters approved a $732 million bond package last May.
* Reforming the criminal-justice system.
* Wrapping up and getting federal approval of the conservation plan's proposal to protect endangered species, which is slated for formal release next year.
