Willow Glen Resident
News
Public employees find temp work back at city hall after retirement
By Eli Segall
Larry Lisenbee, long-time San Jose budget director, decided after 20 years of service it was time to retire.
The city hoped Lisenbee would change his mind since his replacement hasn't been found.
Faced with a dearth of applicants, interim city manager Les White asked Lisenbee, 59, to return temporarily and lead the budget process one last time. He agreed.
"I wasn't going to spend my days on the golf course," Lisenbee said. "My golf game stinks, anyway."
After convincing his wife, Lisenbee reclaimed his post in mid-February and, as promised, helped deliver the city's 2007-08 budget, which the city council approved on June 19. Lisenbee is now free to leave--again.
His situation is not unique. Nearly 60 city workers, ranging from administrative assistants to White himself, are retired San Jose employees, said Mike Sang, senior analyst for the city's human resources department. Some are there temporarily to help with special projects, but many, like Lisenbee, fill in for themselves until a replacement is found.
Ed Overton is another such employee. After working for the city for nearly four decades, he retired in late March as director of retirement services. But the search for his successor, which was launched well before his last day, was stagnant, so White came knocking.
"I've been doing this for 37 years, so I thought a few more months won't make a difference," said Overton, who returned in April and will stay until a replacement is found.
The city prohibited rehiring retirees until 2001, when it changed the municipal code to match state labor laws, which allow the practice. Retirees must wait 30 days before returning and can work either a maximum of 960 hours per year to still receive their pension payments, or "unretire" and forfeit their pension to become a full-time employee again. White, a former city manager in the 1990s, unretired in February 2005 but will retire again on July 7.
Recycled workers can help in a pinch, but they can't permanently refill a workforce. This issue will loom large in the next five years, when at least 35 percent of San Jose's 7,000 city employees become eligible for retirement, said Jeff Ruster, executive director of Work2Future, a city-funded job placement group.
Some recruits are turned off by the area's high cost of living, while others hesitate to uproot and relocate, White said. The search for his own replacement attracted roughly 50 applicants, he said.
"A few years ago we would have had 100," he added. Current Los Gatos town manager Debra Figone was chosen.
In addition, harvesting government workers is tough in Silicon Valley, where bright college grads can choose more lucrative fields such as computers or bio-science, Ruster said.
Fortunately, a surge of homegrown employees could be on the horizon. A San Jose high school is considering a public sector magnet program of classes, career guidance and internships for aspiring public officials, said Ruster, who would not disclose the school or district.
In the meantime, retired workers continue to provide a pool for San Jose to fill its ranks. Lisenbee said Figone tentatively asked him to return in the fall. He has not decided.
