The Virginian-Pilot
©
CHESAPEAKE
City Manager William Harrell first mentioned the possibility of layoffs in mid-March.
More than six months later, 23 city employees lost their jobs Friday in Chesapeake’s first round of layoffs since the early 1980s.
The layoffs were spread across about a dozen city departments based on the last performance evaluations. Most of the employees were laborers, inspectors, and other front-line workers with salaries ranging from $20,000 to $40,000.
City officials say the layoffs will put a $400,000 dent in a budget shortfall of about $2 million while also combatting falling revenues and rising trash disposal fees.
“The decision to issue the reduction-in-force order is one of the most difficult decisions an administrator must make,” Harrell said in a news release. “However, it is imperative that we reduce the size of government in order to be more efficient in our delivery of core services to Chesapeake residents.”
The layoffs came Friday because top administrators needed time to figure out the financial impact of a retirement incentive program offered earlier this year . The retirement program had 64 takers, saving the city about $1.2 million and reducing the number of planned layoffs , officials said.
“We’re not anticipating having to do more (layoffs) at this time,” Deputy City Manager Betty J. Meyer said. “We have to sort of watch the economy and the budget and take necessary actions if we have to.”
Chesapeake is the only South Hampton Roads city to lay off general wage workers this year. Six state employees in the Chesapeake Clerk of Court also lost their jobs this month due to state-mandated cuts.
“These things are never simple,” said Councilman C.E. “Cliff” Hayes Jr. “I support him on it.”
“It’s pretty much quiet right now,” Melvin Wiggins, the general supervisor at City Hall, said Friday morning. Wiggins typically broadcasts a motivational speech to employees on Friday. “Everybody’s trying to find out what’s going on.”
“We’ve certainly said it was coming,” Meyer said. “It was so far past July 1 that some people thought it wasn’t going to really happen.”
The departments that took the biggest hits were public works with five, followed by four in the Development and Permits department and three public utilities workers.
Others affected were two Community Services Board clinicians, a librarian, a children’s counselor and a conference center banquet worker.
The highest paid employee to be laid off appears to have been a construction inspector supervisor with a salary of more than $60,000.
Wiggins still gave his speech Friday, asking employees to stay motivated.
“I’m trying to keep the hope up,” he said. “Those who are here, they’ve got to come back on Monday.”
Staff writers Deirdre Fernandes, Dave Forster, Louis Hansen, Jen McCaffery and Harry Minium contributed to this report.
Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com
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My bad......
The city conducted interviews to fill up to 11 new positions in Stormwater. Those positions will not be filled. Typical waste of manpower to interview for jobs they couldn't afford to fill.
This was a "house cleaning"....
disguised as a reduction in force. A number of employees released probably scored unsatisfactory evaluations and should have been suspended and then terminated as a legal employee action. I can't understand how they were able to justify the release of 5 lower wage employees out of Stormwater Management when those positions are normally paid out of funds collected by the Stormwater Utility Fee and not out of the general budget. Especially when you take into consideration Stormwater just filled at least 11 new positions. While I do not doubt some of these employees may have been a burden to the system for some time they were allowed to remain employees due to inept supervision by the incompetent that were promoted to supervise them. I know... as a retired employee I've seen it all... There is no "dead wood" at Chesapeake.... It's one big petrified forest!
mapatty, you don't get it do
mapatty, you don't get it do you? You can call us whiners if that makes you feel better. We're expressig our opinions. It's still a free country last I checked. Those of us questioning the city of Chesapeake's employee cuts are probably the biggest supporters of the military and appreciate their sacrifice. I know I do! I personally am questioning why we are cutting the lowest paid workers? Why not the do nothing administrators? probably because they contributed heavilly to some councilman/women's campaign.
because
after conducting employee evaluations they determined who were deadbeat shovel leaners (see comments on vdot)and decided to clear out a few
it's called making government more efficient
layoffs
more people on unemployment, why didnt they lay off the white collar workers or the politicians not the folks that work for a living, why dont we just take away the salary for the elected officials, most of them run their own buisness or are actully well off , where they dont need a salary
Whine, Whine, Whine
This all you wingnuts do is whine all day. You whine about everything and everybody.Its like you sit in front of the computer all day just waiting for the VP to post anything so you can jump on it and whine. You whine so much you have me on here whinning about you whinning. This country will always have problems because we have whinners and no solutions. Go spend a week in Iraq, Packistan or Afghanistan and if you're lucky to come back I'm sure you will realize that even with our problems we're still the best country on earth.
Shame-you missed the point
This is not about people "whining" about what's wrong with the country. I'm sure that most everyone who has commented on this article appreciates our troups & the fact that we do live in the best country in the world. This article is about our friends & neighbors in Chesapeake whose families will now face the hardship of no income in an already tough economic time because of what is going on in our own back yard/the City of Chesapeake offices. The selfishness, mis-management of taxpayer dollars by the prosecution of unfounded charges in the local judicial system, the long term "housing" of people in the City jail who shouldn't be there, social programs, etc. I for one would much rather see no parties in Chesapeake for a while rather than see a family go without lifes necessities. Bottom line-people are losing their jobs in Chesapeake & it wouldn't have happened if the unnecessary spending in Chesapeake was addressed & stopped.
"Go spend a week in Iraq, Packistan or Afghanistan,
and if you're lucky to come back I'm sure you will realize that even with our problems we're still the best country on earth."
I personally will not go to Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan, because I don't belong there. Neither do our Armed Forces. It's time to bring our Fighting Men and Women home, to protect our borders in case of real threats from other nations. It's time to stop asking them to chase ghosts and boogie men, who have no means of harming us. At least no significant means that could be stopped by traditional fighting forces.
We owe our Brave Troops better than to drop them off in sandboxes overseas, where we tell them to fight with one of their arms tied behind their backs. Yes, we are the best Country on earth, but I wish our rulers would learn to be as careful with a dollar as the average citizen, so our grandkids won't be required to learn Chinese as a first language some day.
Lies!
Lies, lies, and more lies!
The American public is being lied to and there is NOTHING we can do about it!
This is DIRECTLY from the Associated Press!
"Even in its limited review, the AP found job counts that were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of paid positions; jobs credited to the stimulus program that were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs that were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.
A Texas contractor whose business kept 22 employees to handle stimulus contracts saw its job count inflated to 88 because the same workers were counted four times.
Those errors were included in an early progress report on the stimulus released two weeks ago that featured numerous mistakes, including a claim that the stimulus at a Colorado business created more than 4,200 jobs. In fact, the actual count was less than 1,000."
well
This is another piece of proof of how the city manager sits in his office and eats all day.
This is the same city that was going to have everyone go on the same pay schedule at the end of the year (currently, some get paid every 2 weeks and some every week). What they did not tell the employees was that they were doing a mandatory 1 percent paycut across the board. Only when the fire and police departments complained did the city stop the plan to change the system.
And one of those deadbeat departments? Neighborhood services. What exactly are they? And what do they do? Also, I wonder how many people had to loose their jobs because of excess spending on retirement parties, city promotional items like pens and mugs, and multiple lawsuits against the police department.
The city manager should be laid off.