Workers cash in on retirement incentive

City employees have until Nov. 30 to request $15K

Dozens of city employees are taking the Webber administration up on a $15,000 offer to retire early.

Three employees have already received the $15,000 retirement incentive, and an additional 48 are in various stages of signing up for the program.

“This could of course change if we get more employees who retire or employees who decide not to retire,” Kristine Mihelcic, the city’s council and constituent services director and acting spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

“Employees have until November 30, 2020 to submit their request.”

Faced with a budget deficit initially pegged at $100 million, the city set aside $1.5 million in the current fiscal year for a retirement incentive program designed to encourage vacancies through attrition and ultimately reduce salary and benefit costs, which account for about two-thirds of the city’s general fund budget.

The program is open to all retirement-eligible employees on a firstcome, first-served basis.

“Many other municipalities nationally and locally have also developed similar models and incentive programs in response to the economic crisis caused by COVID,” Mihelcic wrote.

While the city will reduce salary and benefit costs, it also will lose institutional knowledge with the departure of longtime employees.

“Any time an employer loses a member of their team it is challenging,” Mihelcic wrote. “The city greatly appreciates the service and dedication of our employees and we are working with retiring employees to have effective transition plans with their supervisors, divisions, and departments.”

The $1.5 million the city budgeted for the program will cover the $15,000 lump payments as well as payouts for leave accrual.

The city initially declined a verbal request to provide leave-accrual payout figures for the three employees who already have received the incentive.

The city asked that a request for the information be made under the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act. The New Mexican filed such a request Sept. 24.

Mihelcic said she “generally” wants to provide records without requiring a formal request under the law. But

the city “has reason to believe that these employees may feel uncomfortable with the disclosure of the amount they were paid for the leave they accrued as employees of the city,” she wrote.

On Tuesday morning, the city’s records custodian, Cindy Whiting, said the city would need until Oct. 9 to respond to the request.

But the city released the information late Tuesday after the newspaper asked for the request to be expedited.

According to the records, Robert Siqueiros, who worked for the city for 25 years, received a leave payout of nearly $9,200. Carl Schmitt, who worked for the city for 19 years, received nearly $2,900.

And Aaron Miller, who also worked for the city for 19 years, “did not have annual leave hours to be paid out.”

Siqueiros was a project administrator in the Public Works Department. Schmitt and Miller both worked for the fire department.