New Pima County Admin Will Make $30K Less Than Last One

TUCSON, AZ — The newly appointed Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher will start out at a salary of $260,000 per year, around $32,000 less than what her predecessor was making. She will also be getting significantly fewer benefits than former Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve Lesher's contract.

Board members Steve Christy and Matt Heinz voted against the contract. Christy was the only county supervisor who voted two weeks ago against Lesher's appointment as the new county administrator. Heinz did not share with the public why he voted against the contract, but Christy reiterated that he believed the county should have opened up the administrator job to other applicants. Lesher had served as the deputy Pima County Administrator since 2017.

Some members of the board, including board member Adelita Grijalva questioned Lesher about her perspective on being paid less than the former administrator while doing the same work.

Lesher acknowledged that it might not look great to see a man leave job at the county to be replaced by a woman who will be paid significantly less than him.

Lesher said that she had also left several of the benefits out of her proposed contract that Huckelberry enjoyed but had been met with public disapproval.

“I am at peace with the salary being offered,” Lesher said. She added that she felt the salary was appropriate for her years of service to the county.

Huckelberry had been in the administrator position for nearly 30 years and had worked for the county since 1974. Huckelberry left the administrator position in a swirl of controversy after the Tucson Sentinel reported that he'd actually retired last July, but continued working for getting paid by the county after that, while also receiving a significant pension.

While this arrangement is allowed in Arizona law, some of the Pima County supervisors expressed frustration that they didn't know about this arrangement until a reporter told them about it just before Huckelberry officially resigned on April 5.

Huckelberry had not worked as county administrator since Oct. 23 when he was seriously injured in a bike wreck in Tucson. Lesher had been filling in for him since then.