Former City of Las Cruces employee may be reinstated

In April, Jeffrey E. Honeycutt was arrested and charged with 26 felony charges related to alleged kickbacks. He was one of four employees arrested for their involvement in the kickback scheme.

The City of Las Cruces held a personnel hearing this week and the hearing officer recommended the city reinstate Honeycutt.

Honeycutt was a former supervisor for the city’s streets and traffic division.

Court documents allege Honeycutt allowed three other employees to kickback hundreds of dollars of overtime they didn’t actually earn.

Those employees were also arrested and charged, and no longer work for the City of Las Cruces.

Honeycutt still faces criminal charges.

The decision whether or not to do that rests with City Manager Robert Garza, who says he needs to review the entire record to understand why that recommendation was made.

“Anytime we deal with personnel issues in the city if there are legal issues that are taking place in that arena, they really have nothing to do with the personnel issues. So there is no bearing one on the other as far as I’m concerned,” Garza said.

According to the district attorney’s office, Honeycutt’s criminal case is under review.