N.C. court officials are seeking a voluntary reduction in their workforce as a result of a $3.7 billion-dollar deficit confronting the General Assembly.
John Smith, director of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts in Raleigh, notified court officials about the plan in a Jan. 31 letter. He said employees who agree to the voluntary separation will get a severance package.
“Having concluded that this voluntary reduction in force plan is the best course, I am asking that our senior resident and chief judges, elected clerks, and district attorneys look carefully at the situation and determine if any positions in your office or under your supervision could be vacated voluntarily and held as a cushion against the likelihood of cuts which may otherwise require the involuntary elimination of filled positions,” Smith wrote.
Smith said court officials are looking for voluntary separations which will result in a savings, and will consider any reasonable plan to accomplish that.
“If you believe your staff is already so thin that no further cuts can be sustained, or that any program is so important it cannot be compromised, we will support your decision at this time,” he wrote. “However, it is because we cannot assure anyone that future cuts will not be so severe that the positions may be lost anyway that this decision was made.”
Smith said the court system’s budget is 90 percent compensation, and that the only place left to look for recurring cuts is in personnel.
“It is only by managing this process now, while we can pay for it, that we can position ourselves to survive the likely cuts necessary for a balanced budget,” he wrote.
Smith wrote that he recognizes the needs of the court system, and that the services provided to the citizens of the state need protection.
“But it would be irresponsible not to prepare for the possibility, which now seems more likely than not, that our current strategies will be inadequate to meet the projected deficit,” Smith wrote.
Mecklenburg Chief District Judge Lisa Bell said employees at the courthouse, including clerks and court administrators, had to request severance package estimates this week. They would have to leave their jobs by Feb. 28, she said.
Bell said five employees asked for the severance package estimates, but declined to accept the voluntary separation after learning what the compensation would be.
“There are very difficult decisions that will have to be made on all levels of the court system,” Bell said. “The courts are feeling the economic pinch just like the private sector.”
By Gary L. Wright
gwright@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Saturday, Feb. 05, 2011
