Sheila Kuehl, retiring at 81, is honored at her final Board of Supervisors meeting as the district’s longest-serving employee.
At issue at last year’s regular Board meeting was the district’s hiring of a retired employee as a new director of the district’s health and human services center.
Krueger said she retired after nearly 33 years at the district and was eligible to retire, but had opted instead to continue working with a district-paid substitute until her official retirement from the district.
Kuehl would have been eligible to retire at age 65 under District Policy 4.10. The policy also says that the board could extend Kuehl’s retirement to age 70, but she would receive compensation for “full retirement.”
During the meeting, Supervisor Kathryn Guzman-Mack called for a vote to extend the retirement of Kuehl from age 65 to age 70. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, the dissenting voice in the vote, said he could not support an extension because there had not been a formal application for retirement made by Kuehl. Kuehl was paid for the last year of her last term in September.
Guzman-Mack and Ridley-Thomas voted yes. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said Kuehl would be “entitled” to her final year of service, but Guzman-Mack said, “That is up to the board,” and she voted no to extend her retirement to age 70.
“I am concerned that she was only entitled to one year,” Guzman-Mack said. “I feel very strongly about this.”
In the months since the vote, some officials said the decision was rushed, and they were unsure how it would affect people already retiring or would affect other district employees applying for retirement.
“They are trying to run out the clock,” Ridley-Thomas said. “I can’t think of anything more absurd.”
But Ridley-Thomas said he had not read the district’s policy before the meeting. In November, he