City Hall Exodus? Nearly Half Of Manteca's Staff Eligible To Retire In January
MANTECA (CBS13) — Manteca is on the precipice of a major exodus as almost half of the city's staff will be able to retire in January.
Among them is City Manager Karen McLaughlin, who has already announced her Jan. 31 retirement. She's one of many Baby Boomers well represented at City Hall.
"There's always concern. If a bunch of our employees decide to leave, obviously we have to be cognizant of that, especially if they're in key positions such as police or fire," said human resources director Joe Kriskovich.
The city has confirmed 10 retirements in the coming year, including two police officers and one fire battalion chief—the latter already has his replacement.
"We have a pretty good handle on our people and their thought process and we talked to a lot of them who are potentially eligible," Kriskovich said.
Under the state's CalPERS retirement program, eligible retirees are 50 years old or older with at least five years of service in the system. In Manteca, 160 workers meet those requirements.
Kriskovich says just because employees may be eligible to retire, doesn't necessarily mean they will. And in most cases with the employees who do intend to retire, they give the city several months notice.
"Say they give us two weeks notice that they're retiring, it'll take them 60 to 90 days to get a retirement check from the CalPERs system," he said.
To replace the retiring workers, the city's website has a list of open positions and an email system notifying people when new jobs are open.
An outside firm will be brought in to find McLaughlin's replacement, but the other positions are already in the recruitment and interview process.