By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-12-20 13:05:01 | Word Count: 496
The punch and cookies in most Chandler municipal conference rooms these days have nothing to do with holidays. Most are for retirement parties.
Sixty-two experienced municipal employees who accepted retirement incentives this summer have to leave their jobs before the end of the year. Most are saying their goodbyes now, taking decades of experience and municipal knowledge with them.
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They include Assistant Community Services Director Dave McDowell, who has overseen construction of more than 55 parks since he took the job in 1985. And there's tax and license manager Sandi Rodenbeck, whose creation of a special auditing program helped the city collect millions in unpaid rental taxes. Supply supervisor William Robinson has managed the municipal stockpile of everything from sewer valves to paper clips since 1986.Experienced librarians, street workers, numbers crunchers and building plans examiners have gone.
Fire Marshall John Gardner ended his 21 years with the department. Utility workers Manuel Garcia and Gilbert Munoz, streets workers Harold Garcia and John Leanos and park groundskeeper Art Womack are leaving after more than 30 years as Chandler employees.
On Monday, the Planning Department will host retirement receptions for 12; all but two have been on their jobs for more than a decade. "There is definitely a wealth of knowledge walking out the door," Planning Director Jeff Kurtz said. But because many of those who took the buyouts remained on the job for months after their decisions, they were able to train those who are assuming their duties, he said. "It's going to be a good, orderly transition," he said.
There's a down side to losing experienced employees, said Debra Friedman, dean of the College of Public Programs at Arizona State University. Local governments' loss of talented professionals can affect municipal services and economic development. Relationships between city officials and the private sector are critical for successful economic development and a rash of retirements can affect those ties, she said.
City Manager Mark Pentz said he expects Chandler's wealth of experienced workers will insulate the city from a brain drain and keep it running smoothly, even as he plans his own retirement in a few months. Pentz has announced he will retire in June; he is not among those who are receiving financial benefits to leave.
To encourage the early retirements and reduce labor costs, the city offered 20 weeks pay and a year of city-subsidized health insurance.
The incentive also gives the retirees potentially thousands of dollars in their individual retirement health savings account based on years of service and unused sick leave.
Because so many requested the retirement incentive, Chandler avoided layoffs this year.
