City Council accepts Wilkinson’s retirement

Yuma City Council accepted the retirement of City Administrator Greg Wilkinson Friday morning during a special council meeting.

“The Mayor and Council have accepted City Administrator Greg Wilkinson’s retirement, effective today. We offer our deepest gratitude for his decades of service to the people of Yuma, including nine years as City Administrator. We wish him continued success. We welcome John ‘Jay’ Simonton as interim City Administrator, effective today. We look forward to working with Jay to continue the growth and advancement of the City of Yuma,” said Mayor Doug Nicholls, after council recessed to executive session.

John ‘Jay’ Siminton will now take over as interim city administrator.

Wilkinson put in for his retirement Thursday. The decision coming less than 24 hours after Deputy Mayor Gary Knight called for a vote on Wilkinson’s retirement during Wednesday’s city council work session.

Wilkinson has been in hot water with Yuma residents after he admitted to making the final call not to award one Yuma Police sergeant the Sworn Supervisor of the Year award.

Sergeant Henry Valenzuela, also known as ‘the guy with a calculator’ was known to question city finances in the past.

Former Chief of Police John Lekan spoke out at ‘call to the public’ during last Wednesday’s city council meeting and claimed Wilkinson not only threatened the pay raises set to hit the police department next fiscal year, but he also said: “no one will survive this.”

Wilkinson denied to News 11 on April 15 that he threatened the pay raises.

Wilkinson claimed he has other job prospects in the works.