Pay Raise and Bonus for HR Head

For the previous four years, almost all employees of Glendale, Arizona had their wages frozen. During that span, the human resource director for the city still received close to a $14,000 bonus in 2010, and an 8.6 percent increase in salary to $151,111 in July of 2011. Alma Carmicle, the human resource director for the city, began working from her new home in Mississippi by phone and email when she is not on a return trip to Glendale.

Carmicle was planning to retire in August but she said that city manager Ed Beasley convinced her to continue working through the end of 2011 in an effort to negotiate new contracts with police and firefighters. Carmicle has retained the title of human resource and risk management executive director even though the city promoted another worker to acting director.

Pension records show that if Carmicle works another couple of months, she will be able to retire at 52 with a full pension from the Arizona State Retirement System. Her lifetime monthly pension payment will hit $7,000 as a result of the bonus and the pay increase. If she had retired when she planned to do so, her monthly pension would have been a couple of hundred dollars less.

Carmicle has been an employee of the city for 21 years, saying she stayed with the city because of her commitment to Glendale. “I did not ask to stay on. My family made a solid decision to leave. This is a loyalty issue.”

The mayor of Glendale, Elaine Scruggs, has questioned the city’s decision to extend the employment of Carmicle and issue pay raises. Scruggs does not supervise the staff or run the city on a day-to-day basis for Glendale.

“Your information that Ms. Carmicle has been given a raise totaling 8.6 percent is even more shocking to me than finding out she is telecommuting from Mississippi,” Scruggs said in an e-mail to The Arizona Republic. “My recollection is that during our budget workshops, the council (this year) was told that in addition to the employees being required to take mandatory furlough days, which, of course, reduces their income, there would be no pay increases.”

Beasley claims that the compensation for Carmicle increased because she took on more responsibilities as human resources director. He said she is also an invaluable member when it comes to biennial labor talks, which should conclude this month.

“It is a unique circumstance,” said Beasley, who said he will retire sometime in 2012. “At the end of the day, we have to look at the best interest of city operations and what will help us to meet our goals and be efficient.”

Other human resource officers in the country said that they could not effectively complete their job duties by working remotely.