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