Pima County Admin Huckelberry Actually Retired In July, Has Resigned

TUCSON, AZ — The Pima County Board of Supervisors accepted the resignation of County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry on Tuesday, following a 50-minute discussion on the matter that was closed to the public.

The Tucson Sentinel reported on Monday that Huckelberry had actually retired in July 2021, when he began exercising a clause in his contract that allowed him to continue working as a non-employee consultant. It was in July that he began receiving his monthly $12,228 pension, the Sentinel reported.

The members of the Board of Supervisors on Monday told a Sentinel reporter that they were unaware that Huckelberry had officially retired and had been working as a consultant until the reporter brought it up.

Supervisor Steve Christy objected to going into a closed session to discuss Huckelberry's resignation Tuesday because of what he said was the public's perception that too many issues surrounding Huckelberry's retirement and subsequent continuing employment had already been handled out of the public's view.

“So much has been conducted behind closed doors that it’s led to this feeling that things are getting done in a surreptitious manner,” Christy said. “By going into executive session we’re just promulgating that whole feeling in the community that things have been dealt with secretly and that certain deals and concessions have been made secretly.”

But the other supervisors agreed to go into closed session. Christy is often the odd person out, as the only Republican on the board, and is regularly the only dissenting vote.

Huckelberry has been out of the office since Oct. 23 when he was grievously injured when he was knocked from his bicycle while riding in Tucson. He suffered a brain injury and and several broken ribs in the wreck and has been working to recover since then.

Following the closed session, the supervisors gave few hints of what they spent almost an hour discussing.

The board unanimously accepted Huckelberry's resignation, with the clarification that the resignation terminated his current contract, which would end the agreement for him to continue working for the county as a consultant.

In his initial resignation letter, Huckelberry wrote only, "I desire to resign as the county administrator due to the recovery time now required as a result of my bicycle accident."

He later sent a more lengthy letter that said while he was resigning as administrator, he was not retiring from Pima County. He added that once he is fully recovered from the wreck, he'll be available to assist the County Administrator's Office and the Board of Supervisors in achieving future opportunities for the county.

He added that he was proud of the county's achievements during his tenure and said it was an honor to work as county administrator.

"Thank you for the opportunity to have served our great community," Huckelberry wrote.

Huckelberry has worked for the county since 1974 and has been administrator since 1993.

Also on Tuesday, at the end of an incredibly lengthy Board of Supervisors meeting that went from 9 a.m. to after 3 p.m., the board voted 4-1 to appoint Acting County Administrator Jan Lesher as the new county administrator.

Christy, who advocated for opening up the position to other applicants, was the only dissenting vote.

Lesher began filling in for Huckelberry immediately after his bike wreck, and was officially named acting county administrator in December.

Lesher is a Tucson native and has worked for Pima County since 2010. She's been the chief deputy county administrator since 2017.

All of the county supervisors spoke highly, during the open session, of Huckelberry's work for and dedication to Pima County.