We’re In The Money: A Tale Of Part-Time Employment At City Hall

Jacksonville's city budget may be under serious financial strain with city employees currently in line for paycuts and proposed reforms in benefits, but that hasn't prevented the city from hiring a number of part-time employees at salaries well above the county's median income and, in fact, well above the salaries some of those very same employees were drawing before they "retired" from full-time city employment.

The City currently employs 798 part time employees who commanded a salary expense of $4.6 million this past year.  However, 123 of those 798 part-time employees earned a part-time income in excess of Duval County's full time median per capita of $25,530.  And 8 part-time individuals earned an average of $81.26 per hour, a rate that would equate to an annual salary $169,670--far above Duval County's median per capita.  

Paying someone more for part-time or contract work is not out of the norm in private industry, due in part to the fact that part-time positions do not typically come with benefits.  However, in the case of several part-time City of Jacksonville employees, they retired from the City with a full benefits package, so it is quite curious that they would be re-hired at rates higher than what they were paid when they retired.

And, that seems to be the trend at City Hall.  Highly-paid employees retire after reaching the required number of years and are re-hired as part-time employees, often at salaries significantly higher than the pay they had commanded while full-time employees with the city.  These part-time employees can only work a maximum of 25 hours per week, or no more than 50 hours in a two-week period--a pretty light workweek for a rather generous salary when compared to the typical 40-hour work week.

One such example of a former employee who has made a very profitable transition from full-time to part-time is the City's former head of Administration and Finance.  The Times-Union salary database shows that this individual earned $125,855, or $60.28 an hour before he retired.  After retiring, this former employee was re-hired in the same department at a part-time rate of $85.48 an hour--an increase of nearly 42%.  Despite working at most a little more than half of the hours he had worked in the prior year, this individual still earned nearly $81,000 in the last fiscal year.  This particular employee is not an exception.  Numerous former employees, including two former Council Auditors and the former head of the City's Solid Waste Division, have returned as part-timers, earning an hourly rate far in excess of what they had received as full-time employees.  

The practice of re-hiring retired City employees not only has a financial impact, it also has leadership development ramifications.  Younger employees may score a promotion when a department head retires, but when the retiree is hired back and the transition of power and duties never make a clean break, it negatively impacts the City's ability to infuse new blood into the organization.  It certainly doesn't make for a healthy work environment when retired employees are hovering over their replacements and it also impedes developing talent among younger professionals.

There is clearly room for reform with how the city handles part-time employees.  For starters, the practice of hiring retired city employees back as part-timers needs to be carefully reconsidered.  If it is necessary to bring a former employee to assist with a transition, it needs to be for a specified period of time--not an indefinite employment--and at a salary that is not in excess of what that employee was earning (on an hourly basis) before they retired.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 6:42 AM and is filed under Local Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.