FAIRHOPE, Alabama—Eddie Boyett’s return from retirement last fall to a Fairhope municipal job that was motivated by his affection, he said then, for the recreation department he once headed, was trumped by a financial analysis that led to his recent resignation, Mayor Tim Kant said Wednesday.

“I have received a letter from him stating that it would be in his best interests to resign from the position,” Kant said. “He said he added up the numbers and saw he could make more money in retirement than working for the city.”

His resignation will be effective the end of this month, Kant said.

Boyett was the sole person who applied for the job when hired by Kant last November for an annual salary of $55,000. He retired in November 2009 at $81,000 annually, according to records.

Having worked for the city since 1993, his retirement benefits were suspended upon his return to work for the city, Boyett said last December.

“I don’t even know my title,” Boyett told The Fairhope Courier in December shortly after he started work, reportedly on Nov. 21. “I’ve never been interested in things like that.”

In documents obtained by The Courier last year, Boyett’s title was listed as “recreation center supervisor,” but at an annual salary $15,000 higher than that of Elizabeth Chandler, who resigned from that position suddenly and without explanation in September.  The Courier’s efforts to contact Chandler have been unsuccessful.

The new job description did add additional duties to the position. One significant difference between the job descriptions is that Chandler reported to Tom Kuhl, who replaced Boyett two years ago as parks and recreation director. But the new description has Boyett reporting to James Gillespie, the city’s general superintendent.

When Boyett retired in 2009, Kuhl moved into the former director’s corner office. But Kuhl was displaced from there last year by Boyett when he returned from retirement. Kuhl, who earns $65,000 annually, according to records, moved into the smaller office next door, previously occupied by Chandler whom he supervised.

That hiring of Boyett with the new hierarchy created a department without a top director. His employment also followed a reorganization of the department by the City Council last fall with little prior discussion before its Nov. 14 vote.

Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said she “did not feel real comfortable with the vote,” which resulted in the department’s reorganization just prior to Boyett’s hiring. “It was basically because the mayor asked us.”

Boyett’s re-employment also followed a hiring moratorium resolution passed by the council in September, which did allow selective hiring that it authorized, such as it did in Boyett’s case.

“Basically we created two departments: an inside recreation and an outside recreation,” Kant said last year, in explaining the reorganization at the department. “It wasn’t against anything Tom’s done or not done. I thought it would be better management to have someone focus their management in the two different areas.”

Other unusual aspects of Boyett’s hiring were revealed in other documents obtained by The Courier last year. They included the following: his application for the job is dated a day before the position was publicly announced; he was hired for a position he did not specify on his application; and his apparent start date, according to a statement by Boyett to The Courier last year, began before the normal one-week period ran for posting the announcement.

Boyett’s application is dated Nov. 14 in two places—on the application itself and under his signature on a form stating the application is true and complete. But the job was not announced until Nov. 15, according to those records.

“On that particular job, we just put that up on the bulletin board at the rec center because we were going to let the ones that were already involved with recreation out there apply,” Kant said last year. “And Eddie had asked to be considered. So we just let the in-house people, plus Eddie, apply for the job.”

It’s unclear at this time whether a replacement will be sought for Boyett, who did not respond to a phone call this week seeking comment for this article.

“This place has always been near and dear to me,” Boyett said last December about why he returned to city employment after two years of retirement