Preparing for an Active Retirement

Dear Blog Visitors:

In the photo above, you see me surrounded by the 36 boxes I packed in preparation for my retirement from Rochester's City Hall on May 6. In actuality, I still have many more boxes to pack for the City's archives, which serves as a reminder of how many documents I have processed as supervisor of the City's accounts payable unit.

My past few years in City Hall have been especially busy, because in addition to my duties as supervisor of the accounts payable operations, I was also responsible for all documents relating to the City's professional service agreements (processing and filing), thus the multitudes of boxes I am packing.

As I went about the process of emptying file drawers, I couldn't help thinking about the many trees that were destroyed to create the paper for the documents I worked on. Therefore, I am delighted that the City of Rochester will be moving toward a paperless process for both payable operations and professional service agreements. The new system should be up and running on July 1 of this year.

Since I was part of the planning process for the City's new multi-million dollar purchase-to-pay system and a new process for professional service agreements, it is understandable that many in City Hall had hoped I would either stay in my job longer or consider working under contract, so that I could assist departments with the technicalities of the new system. However, after spending 23 years in City Hall, with many of those years involving working through my lunch hours and sacrificing vacations, I am more than ready to retire.

What I anticipate is an active retirement, inclusive of doing things I enjoy and proabaly working at a part-time job for extra income. Despite media reports that many government workers receive lucrative pensions, it certainly won't be the case with me, since I was a mid-level Civil Service employee, as opposed to an administrative person with a large salary. With my pension and social security combined, I expect my income to be cut by at least a third. So, part-time work will most likely be a necessity for as long as my health remains in good shape.

Many people have asked me what my plans are for retirement, aside from a part-time job. In brief, I look forward to pursuing my hobbies, such as photography, making videos and free-lance writing, in addition to taking plenty of long walks with my neighbor's Alaskan husky. I also look forward to continuing my ministries as a married priest. The one exception will be a dramatic cut-back in my campaigning to reform the Catholic Church. It will be up to the next generation to either accept the church as it is, or to work for change.

In conclusion, it should be evident that as I move toward retirement on May 6, I look forward to a very active retirement, which will include occasional entries to this blog.

Peace to all,
Ray