Waste of the Day: Texas Energy Manager’s Pseudo Retirement Comes to Light

Topline: On March 31, 2023, the City of Austin, Texas’ energy utility sent out a press release claiming that General Manager Jackie Sargent was retiring “effective immediately” following backlash over a botched winter storm response.

A Texas city offiical retires – not quite

That wasn’t the whole story. The same day, Sargent quietly signed a deal with the city to stay on the payroll until Dec. 31 as a “consultant.”

Sargent earned over $445,000 in 2023 — more than any active employee in the entire city — even though taxpayers thought she had already retired. The details were not made public until OpenTheBooks obtained Sargent’s separation agreement through an open records request.

Key facts: Sargent’s separation agreement says she was “relieved of all duties” of her job except being “reasonably available” to “assist with work.” Her office was taken away, and her LinkedIn page says she retired in April 2023.

Yet she kept earning her salary for eight more months. That matches the amount of severance Sargent could have earned if she was fired instead of resigning, according to her contract.

OpenTheBooks asked the city how many hours Sargent worked in her consultant role, but officials said nobody kept track.

“It is not unusual for the City to request assistance – IF needed – as a consultant to help transition a pivotal leadership role to a new leader. But, again, that is on an as-needed basis and isn’t something that is quantified,” a city spokesperson said.

Only Spencer Cronk, who was fired as city manager in February 2023, outearned Sargent last year — mostly due to severance. That means Austin’s two most highly compensated employees had already left the city before the first quarter even ended.

Trying to scrub the books?

Police officer Jovita Lopez was the highest-paid active employee with $360,000 in earnings, according to city payroll records.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.

Background: OpenTheBooks obtained the City of Austin’s payroll records this February in an open records request, but Sargent’s name was nowhere to be found.

OpenTheBooks didn’t notice the omission until our investigators obtained Sargent’s separation agreement in a different request.

Once our organizations asked the city why a top-paid employee’s name was missing, the records office apologized for the error and sent an updated payroll with Sargent’s name included.

Sargent earned just under $3.5 million in her time with Austin Energy from 2016 to 2023, according to payroll records.

Her replacement, and new Austin Energy General Manager, Bob Kahn is earning a base salary of $475,000 with 49 paid holidays and sick days per year.

Summary: Usually, retirement means an employee stops working and stops earning a salary. The country’s top-paid bureaucrats should still follow that simple rule.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.