
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994                    TAG: 9406290414 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B4    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940629                                 LENGTH: PORTSMOUTH

PORTSMOUTH EXECUTIVES HAD APPROVED LAYOFF PLAN \

{LEAD} Before the City Council saw the layoff plan announced Tuesday, a group of city executives had already approved the cuts.

In a meeting last week, they reviewed an outside consultant's report and cast secret ballots on whether to accept or reject the layoff recommendations.

{REST} H. Timothy Little, the city's director of information technology, said the managers decided that the study was valid, and voted to accept its recommendations.

Despite some employees' accusations that the plan was the city manager's ``hit list,'' Little said that neither City Manager V. Wayne Orton nor Deputy City Manager Roy W. Cherry were involved in the vote on whether to accept the plan.

Little and Chris Zitzow, vice president of David M. Griffith and Associates, the consulting firm that recommended the layoffs, described the review process at Tuesday's press conference announcing the layoffs.

Zitzow said the consultants split into four work groups. They talked to all the city's department heads and many of the assistants to investigate each position and learn how the departments were organized and how they provided services.

The consultants then ranked each of the jobs by its effectiveness. The study took three months.

Zitzow said the consultants looked at five criteria in developing the job cuts: whether the job was mandated by state or federal law, the ``span of control and responsibility of the position,'' whether the position was effective in achieving the department's goals, and whether a similar position duplicated the job.

``This was not about performance,'' Zitzow said. ``Only the positions were looked at. We don't even know the names of the people. They could have been doing an excellent job''

Beyond the 39 positions targeted for elimination, the consultants also recommended that the city privatize several departments, including the city physician's office, the food stamp office, the store room; public affairs and the city's television station.

Orton, however, said he has not decided whether to privatize any services. by CNB