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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Councilor's Kin Takes Buyout
By Kiera Hay
Journal Staff Writer
Following Andrew Leyba's retirement from the city of Santa Fe last month, the former police captain exchanged his unused sick leave for a $170,930 check. It was one of the municipality's largest — maybe the largest — sick leave payouts in recent memory.
Leyba took advantage of a relatively new rule allowing nonunion employees with 23 or more years of experience in public safety, or 27 or more years in any other city department, to cash out accumulated sick leave in a one-for-one lump sum upon retirement.
A resolution enacting the rule, sponsored by Councilor Matthew Ortiz, was adopted by the City Council in January 2008. Leyba's son-in-law, Councilor Carmichael Dominguez, was also a member of the governing body that made the decision.
Ortiz and Dominguez both say passage of the resolution had nothing to do with rewarding Leyba or any other known individual.
Asked why he pushed the legislation, Ortiz pointed to statements in the resolution he said "speak for themselves."
Those statements included, "the governing body wishes to recognize those non-bargaining unit employees who have worked for the City of Santa Fe for 23 years with the Santa Fe Police or Fire Department or 27 or more years of service with other City of Santa Fe departments."
Dominguez also denied any motivation related to rewarding his father-in-law.
"The city of Santa Fe, from my opinion, values all employees, regardless of their position, regardless of who they are related to," Dominguez said.
He added, "I'm one city councilor and I just get one vote." He said he wasn't even sure how much sick leave Leyba possessed, though he did suspect it was quite a bit.
"He and I really don't mix business and our personal lives together," Dominguez said.
Meeting minutes
In the official city minutes from a Nov. 19, 2007, city Finance Committee meeting, Ortiz took part in a discussion on "a resolution amending the city of Santa Fe personnel rules and regulations by creating a new rule 13.2 regarding the establishment of a sick leave incentive program for non-union employees."
The following is attributed to Ortiz in the minutes: "Councilor Ortiz said when he initially started this, it was about rewarding people who had been with the City a long time who had not taken time off, and had accumulated too much sick leave, and how to reward these people. He said it was a simple Resolution to deal with two specific instances.
"He said there are particular instances of particular employees receiving, by contract, an accelerated buyout at a different rate than what is in the City policy which was approved by former H.R. (human resources) directors and former City managers, and that practice no longer happens. Councilor Ortiz said when he discussed particular instances with the City Manager, the City Manager said no, this is a policy decision, and he had no authority to do it. Councilor Ortiz then drafted a resolution containing a policy to do something for the non-union employees."
Prior to Ortiz's resolution, nonunion workers who stayed at the city beyond 22.11 years (for public safety employees) or 28.8 years (for other departments) forfeited their sick leave upon retirement. In doing so, they lost related benefits, including the opportunity to use the leave to "accelerate" their retirement by remaining on the payroll for a certain period of time after leaving city employment.
Different plans
The city currently has varying retirement-related sick leave rules for different employee groups: nonunion workers; members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Santa Fe Firefighters Association; Santa Fe Police Officers Association; and, per Ortiz's resolution, nonunion employees with 23 years of public safety experience or 27 years with another city department.
Ortiz's resolution also allows for nonunion police and fire employees who retire before 23 years to use sick leave to accelerate their retirement under the same provisions negotiated with the police and fire unions.
But the longer-term employees, with their one-for-one, lump-sum buyout of all sick leave, have the sweetest deal.
To date, assistant pool manager Theresa Hamilton is the only employee besides Leyba to take advantage of the one-for-one buyout. Hamilton got $26,342.
But city officials say the total cost of the benefit could reach $2.3 million over the next five fiscal years, with payouts for up to 28 individuals.
There has been talk at City Hall about whether or not some of the programs related to retirement and sick leave are too expensive as the city faces budget problems during the recession. It's a discussion that has prompted concern — as well as a few retirement announcements — from some city employees afraid the current payouts could be pared back.
No decisions have been made in that regard, but, on June 10, upon approving a preliminary budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the City Council also agreed to formally analyze the sick-leave buyout program.
An employee with 40-odd years of experience such as Leyba "shows some dedication" and should be honored, Dominguez said Thursday.
"Really, what it comes down to is there are some employees who have been with the city of Santa Fe a long, long time and have accrued this leave. We need to value those workers," Dominguez said.
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