Topline: The assistant city manager in Austin, Texas stopped working four months before his retirement but kept collecting his taxpayer salary anyway, netting $85,000 at the end of last year.
Key facts: On September 1, 2023, Austin announced in a memo that Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzalez would retire “effective in January,” implying that Gonzalez would keep working for the rest of the year.
In reality, Gonzales stopped working that September. The city placed Gonzalez on paid administrative leave, allowing him to keep collecting his salary until January, according to city records provided to OpenTheBooks through a public records request.
Gonzales made almost twice as much per month as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott despite being on leave.
Auditors at OpenTheBooks.com discovered the payments through the records that revealed $12 million in paid administrative leave spending in Austin from 2021-2023. Paid leave is used for employees who are not working for reasons like jury duty or a disciplinary investigation.
When reached for comment, city officials said only that, “It was part of the agreement between Gonzales and the City to assist during the transitionary period.”
Records revealed three other Austin employees who collected more than $100,000 while on paid leave and 83 people who spent more than 100 days on leave since 2021.
That includes the first-ever director of the city’s Office of Civil Rights and the former head of Human Resources.
Background: The city manager’s office has been at the center of Austin’s taxpayer waste for some time now.
OpenTheBooks found last year that former City Manager Spencer Cronk earned nearly $1 million in a single year, including salary, benefits and severance pay, when he was fired in 2022,
This February, video leaked of Bozeman, Montana City Manager Jeff Mihelich discussing Austin’s attempts to recruit him to replace Cronk. He called Austin “stupid” — among other words not fit to reprint — for offering candidates a very high salary of $475,000, plus allowances for a car, house and more.
The city never returned OpenTheBooks’ request for comment on the accuracy of Mihelich’s statement.
Mihelich was put on paid leave by the Bozeman City Commission for mocking the waste of public money. Ironically, his severance package ended costing Montana taxpayers $172,000.
Summary: Taxpayers are on the hook for paid administrative leave in most U.S. cities, but funding an administrator’s secret early retirement is anything but normal.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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