The City of Belen is becoming well-known for its double-dipping, which means an employee retires, waits three months to return to work, and then receives a City of Belen salary and government retirement benefits.

This time it’s an elected official, Kathy Savilla, municipal court judge. The Valencia County News-Bulletin reports:

Savilla, who retired from her position as municipal judge on Nov. 1, says she plans on returning to the bench in early February when she hopes the Belen mayor and city council will re-appoint her. She said she would like to return after the required 90-day absence set by the Public Employees Retirement Act (PERA).

What the News-Bulletin fails to report is context.

Two appointed officials, Belen City Manager Sally Garley and Police Chief Mike Chavez, have both retired and returned after the required 90-day period.

Both Savilla and Chavez “quietly” retired, but news of their retirements got out anyway. Both said they didn’t announce their retirements because they didn’t want to cause any problems within their departments during the transition.

Savilla puts it uniquely, saying she didn’t want to “get anyone feeling insecure because I wasn’t there.”

This page was published on December 20, 2008 at 12:00pm and is filed under Archive.