Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Her boss, Larry Hincker, is the university's chief spokesman.
Come May 1, Hincker's executive secretary may no longer be there to answer the phone. Sutphin is one of 300 rank-and-file workers at Tech who've taken the state up on its buyout offer through the Workforce Transition Act.
"I'm getting close to 62 anyway," said Sutphin, who will earn the same retirement benefits under the buyout as she would have earned by waiting until she turns 65.
She's looking forward to giving her house a good cleaning. She wants to spend more time working on her ceramics.
She's leaving behind the sinking morale at the university, where state workers are tired of being depicted as a "lazy and overpaid" lot, she said.
"I'm like everybody else around here," said Sutphin, who earns just over $22,000 a year. "I think it's getting to everybody."
Eight percent of Tech's classified workers - who don't include faculty members - may be leaving, although they have until Friday to change their minds. At Radford University, 59 people, nearly 10 percent of eligible workers, have asked to go.
Elsewhere in the region, almost 18 percent of the workers at Catawba Hospital in Roanoke County are ready to go - 62 out of 350. Administrator Michael Marsh says the departures won't lead to a lower standard of care.
"The governor said we will have adequate staff to take care of patients," he said.
And the Christiansburg office of the Virginia Department of Transportation may lose 20 people, 14 percent of its workers.
Those Western Virginia workers will join more than 7,500 statewide who have opted for early retirement packages or up to nine months' salary, rather than risk being caught in statewide layoffs. The Allen administration's Blue Ribbon Strike force wants to cut up to 16,000 state jobs by 1998.
At most universities, where restructuring plans already have been approved by the state, a hiring freeze has left administrators scrambling to see if they can fill any of the departing workers' jobs. At Tech, department heads have until noon today to explain to the university administration how a particular job assists the plans.
The state's head of planning and budget said the restructuring plans leave the colleges and universities "a step ahead" of other state agencies, since they already have a blueprint for change.
"The purpose of this program is to allow agencies to reorganize to operate more efficiently," said Robert Lauterberg, head of the Department of Planning and Budget. "You can do that by eliminating layers within the organization, consolidating functions."
But Lauterberg also acknowledged that state workers "have been caught in the middle in some ways."
The state leadership "has allowed the bureaucracy to grow twice [as fast] as the federal government ... over the past decade. The governor believes there are too many people employed within state government. That's not really the fault of most rank-and-file state employees," he said.
The more people who take the buyout, the less likely the state will need layoffs, he said.
"We hope to accept most of the voluntary applications for separation," he said.
Agency costs for the buyouts are still unknown.
"We are running the spreadsheets on that right now to determine total financial liability," said Ann Spencer, Tech's associate vice president for personnel and administrative services. "It will be a lot, though, if all 300 were to be approved. We're talking millions of dollars - not hundreds of thousands."
Under the program:
Workers with less than two years' service earn four weeks' salary. Others earn two weeks' salary, up to 36 weeks, per year of service.
Employees can receive up to $5,000 if they don't sign up for unemployment benefits, as well as a years' worth of benefits.
Workers age 50 with ten or more years of service can retire at reduced benefits.
Workers have until the end of the week to change their minds about leaving. The agencies, meantime, must tell the state whether or not they support a worker's departure. If colleges and universities can tie the job to restructuring, they may be able to retain the position. The offers are final April 17.
But at Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which has just finished a grueling legislative fight to save more than $12 million for Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Research programs, the buyout may still leave gaping holes.
More than 100 employees in the college have asked to leave, and about half of them are extension agents around the state, said the college's dean, Andy Swiger. If they all go, and the college pays for their packages, that means there's no money to re-hire for a year.
"Obviously, when 104 people stop working, some things have to cease," he said.
In the short-term, "that creates some real budget problems," said college spokesman Charlie Stott.
But it's also a long-term problem.
"We're going to lose a lot of good people, and it's going to affect this university to its core for many years. We're not talking about a year or two. This is the sixth year of significant budget cuts," Stott said.
Which means what to morale?
"Take a guess," he said.
Staff writer Ann Donahue contributed to this story.
by CNB