Retiree cashouts in city budget sights

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The city of Albuquerque sits in a $66 million budget hole, but could make up almost 10 percent of that--$6 million a year--by getting rid of something critics call a waste.

That's the amount the city budgets annually for employees cashing out unused sick time and vacation time when they retire.

If you work a public safety job or even a desk job for the city, you can bank those days, cashing in when you retire by cashing out up to 150 unused sick days and 43 unused vacation days, often at your highest salary.

"This kind of bonus-baby incentive situation is out of control, and it needs to stop," said Paul Gessing of the Rio Grande Foundation, a conservative think tank that advocates penny pinching public dollars.

Retirement for city of Albuquerque workers can feel like winning the lottery, but there's no luck involved.

When Deputy Police Chief Michael Castro hung up his gun and badge this past year the city paid him $141,000. His fellow APD Deputy Chief Kevin McCabe walked away with a $126,000 parting gift.

From garbage to gold: the head of Solid Waste, Leonard Garcia, picked up $116,000.

And there are others:

• Fire Chief Robert Ortega walked with $114,000.
• The former Mayor's Public Information Officer, Debra James left with $80,000.
• Cultural Services Director Ray Darnell retired with a $78,000 payout.

The list goes on and on, year after year, but those workers didn't cheat the system, they simply got what they are entitled to.

"I wouldn't call it a golden parachute by any means," said Chistine Trujillo. The New Mexico AFL-CIO union president oversees four city employee unions and said most workers aren't getting rich in their jobs or in their retirements.

"I don't think it's a waste of money; I think it's a morale booster," she told KRQE News 13. "I think it's an incentive for workers who have donated their time and energy and commitment to their jobs."

The city's human resources manager, however, doesn't see it that way.

"It's an antiquated system," Eugene Moser said. The benefits were designed in the 1970s when working for the city didn't pay as well as employment in the private sector, he said.

Now the pay is roughly equal. "Consequently, we're really paying an awful lot," he said.

To put it simply, the payouts are meant to reward city workers for doing their jobs and for not calling in sick. It's a concept that frustrates Gessing.

"Incredible. Unbelievable," he said. "In the private sector you don't show up for work, you abuse sick leave, you lose your job."

Now Mayor Richard Berry, who campaigned saying he wants to run the city more like a private business, thinks it's time for a change. The mayor's office is negotiating with the seven unions representing city workers to overhaul the retirement payouts.

Moser conceded it won't be easy, "We've got a lion's share of work in front of us," he said.

The mayor's office expects Albuquerque City Council to begin consideration of a compromise by next year.

Here's how the city stacks up to other levels of government, when it comes to payouts for unused sick time and vacation days:

• Bernalillo County workers don't have a cap on the amount of sick days they can cash in on at retirement but often have lower salaries.
• State workers can only bank half the sick time city workers can, and then they can only cash  out what they bank after that at 50 cents on the dollar.