News Room

News Release

CHESAPEAKE TO UNDERGO REDUCTION-IN-FORCE

CHESAPEAKE – Today City Manager William E. Harrell announced that the City of Chesapeake must undergo a reduction-in-force in order to overcome a $2 million shortage embedded in this year’s approved budget. Notices of Separation, effective immediately, will be distributed today to the 23 affected employees by their respective department directors.

“The decision to issue the reduction-in-force order is one of the most difficult decisions an administrator must make,” Harrell said. “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.”

Compounding the budget crunch is a reduction in local revenues, particularly from real estate taxes and sales tax. Other factors, such as SPSA increasing its tipping fees and the state reducing local aid to the City by more than $3.2 million, represent significant challenges for the City to overcome.

“During the planning of this year’s budget, City Council made some hard choices that have thankfully lessened the impact of more layoffs and reductions in City services,” said Harrell. “At this time, no other layoffs are planned, but we are monitoring the City’s economic conditions very closely.”

Earlier this year, the City implemented a retirement incentive program hoping to minimize the number of staff reductions required. As a result, 64 of about 200 eligible employees volunteered for the program. Also, more than 90 vacant positions were removed from the City’s complement, and a hiring freeze, first instituted in February 2008, remains in effect. From these actions, the City projects a savings of more than $1.9 million in salaries and benefits.

The process for identifying persons to be separated from the City is governed by the City’s Reduction-In-Force Policy. This policy states that employees who have received “Improvement Required” or “Unsatisfactory Performance” on their most recent overall performance evaluation are classified as Group I employees. All affected employees by staff reduction fall into this category.