GUADALUPE - Tim Ness says he was approached by the City of Guadalupe to take the job of City Administrator on a temporary basis.
Ness says he initially said no citing his retirement last year as City Manager in Santa Maria.
But he says changed his mind and took the job after encouragement from friends and former colleagues.
"Guadalupe has always been a kind of special place and I've been very fond of it", Ness says, "its kind of our sister city next door, closest city to Santa Maria, help out for an interim period of time, for a few months, run day to day operations of the city while they are recruiting to fill the position."
Already collecting a comfortable pension through the California Public Employee Retirement System. or CalPERS, Ness knew he faced restrictions on going back to work for another government agency that contributes to CalPERS.
As for those who say its unfair "double dipping", A CalPERS spokesperson says it's perfectly legitimate and adds the fund closely monitors retirees who return to work.
"If they are officially retired, they can go back to work for 960 hours on an annual basis, so per year", says CalPERS spokesperson Brad Pacheco, "anything above that they would have to forfeit their pension and actually reinstate as an active member."
Ness says he does not expect to stay in the job for the maximum 960 hours and says he'll be making exactly what his predecessor made.
"Broken down in an hourly rate, it's the equivalent of $38.47 an hour with absolutely no benefits of any kind", Ness says.
Ness says he does not expect to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
He says his top priority right now is to help Guadalupe get out of its budget deficit until they hire a permanent replacement for Regan Candelario who left to take a city manager's job in northern
California.
