PORTSMOUTH
The consulting firm that is studying how to streamline the city's government has arrived.
Staffers for the Matrix Consulting Group met with department heads last week, Matrix senior manager Mark Carpenter told the City Council on Tuesday night.
"This is the beginning of that process," Carpenter said.
City Manager Kenneth Chandler stressed that the study would identify 205 positions, not people.
The city commissioned the study to achieve $7.1 million in salary savings that would be required to balance the upcoming budget if the city reduces its residential real estate tax rate by 5 cents, as Chandler has proposed.
The current rate is $1.26 per $100 of assessed value.
By the end of June, the consultants plan to have and evaluate the responses to an anonymous survey from as many as 2,500 city employees at all levels.
Among the questions are:
- Is the city operating as efficiently as possible?
- Is Portsmouth organized and managed effectively?
- Does the fee structure make sense?
Portsmouth has budgeted $100,000 for the project, Chandler said. The contract specifies that the project will not exceed that amount, Carpenter said.
The company has completed more than 50 studies in Virginia, including in Chesapeake and Richmond, Carpenter said.
Council members also heard a proposal that would slow the renovation of the Children's Museum of Virginia.
Construction would still begin in July 2009, but the project could be completed in phases. That would delay the project three years. Under the plan, it would open in 2013. It also would increase its cost from about $10 million to $13 million.
The proposal arose after council members asked Chandler for options. The project was delayed by five years in Chandler's proposed five-year capital plan.
Jen McCaffery, (757) 446-2627, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com
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Congratulations Mr. Chandler....
Congratulations Mr. Chandler, you are no better than the City Assessor-City Council by hiring CONSULTANTS to do your work! He keeps telling local homeowners that residential real estate tax should be reduced but that depends upon whether he & city council will agree upon MCG’s recommendations to reduce a bloated budget just to get a 5 cents tax reduction! It’s also nice to read how MCG is gets paid to ask CITY EMPLOYEES for their input instead of HOMEOWNERS who pay for their benefits. At the polls, ask yourself:(a)How much outsourcing will it take to help city elected officials do their jobs?(b)How much mismanaged tax dollars will it take to correct their mistakes? (c)And how many times will the Mayor keep allowing this to happen under their watch too? Or is he too busy at defensive driving school …? PORTSMOUTH HOMEOWNERS SHOULD WAKE UP THIS MAY ELECTION BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!
Stop using consultants !!!!!!!
A hundred thousand here, a hundred thousand there. Why do we pay anybody in the City of Portsmouth (staff) people to do a job. All the work seems to be farmed out to consultants. The City accessor spent $100,000 to hire consultants to increase our property taxes. Now the city manager (Chandler) needs to hire a consultant at $100,000 to do his job. I think that money ought to come out of his salary. If he can't do his job, then why is he getting almost $240,000 with benefits per year. Still Portsmouth can find money to throw away daily.
More info please
"The company has completed more than 50 studies in Virginia, including in Chesapeake and Richmond, Carpenter said."
And, the results of those studies was how many dollars saved and how many efficiencies identified?