Message to Our Employees

FY2010 Budget and Employee Impact

The United States economy is in the midst of a major recession, with predictions that it could last for up to three years before the national economy achieves full recovery. Unfortunately, the City of Durham is not insulated from the effects of the troubles on Wall Street and in the housing markets.

Thanks to your innovation and scrutiny of your budgets, we have cut a projected $5.6 million deficit by $3.2 million. However, more tough decisions will need to be made for the long-term health of our organizations, and ultimately, the community we serve.

To bring in a balanced budget for both this year and next, we're going to carefully review what our citizens and our City Council have stated are their highest priorities, and implement various strategies to meet those needs while bringing in a balanced budget.

Some of strategies we could implement to achieve this goal are:

• Reducing or eliminating low-priority services and programs.
• Selective freezes on hiring new employees.
• Reducing or eliminating pay increases.
• Changing the employee/retiree/employer benefit-sharing ratio.
• Salary freezes for current employees.
• Delaying capital projects.
• Reallocating existing resources.
• Voluntary leave without pay or early retirement options.
• Reductions in force.

As we face a difficult budget year, City employees must work together to manage our budget as cost effectively as possible. We encourage you to give serious thought to how we can perform better as an organization, how we can foster improved stewardship among our employees, and how we can contain costs. We are scheduling budget meetings for employees now and will announce those dates and locations very soon.

In the meantime, please give some thought to how to improve our organization and come prepared to these staff meetings with suggestions, ideas, and questions.

Together we will weather this financial storm and emerge a stronger, stream-lined, and more efficient organization that truly embodies our community's motto that Durham is where great things happen.