THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407010265
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The Portsmouth Public Library without Bill Brown. Bill Brown without the Portsmouth Public Library. Impossible!
But it happened last week when the city's ``downsizing'' hit.
Bill Brown worked 22 of his 50 years for the city. By my calculation, that adds up to some 44,000 hours - but I bet he's worked twice that much.
I've seldom seen Bill Brown when he wasn't working for city - even if he was off-duty. He's a cheerful man whose enthusiasm for community events cannot be ignored.
His total involvement as assistant librarian makes it painfully obvious that the people of this city will be paying a big price in exchange for the $47,000 salary that is touted as a savings to the taxpayers.
Bill Brown is a good example of a good public employee. He loves his job, loves doing things that make his library and his city a better place. He always has something on his mind that would provide the city with a new attraction.
He always is excited about one upcoming event or another.
He was instrumental in the highly successful Tuesday Forum series that began with a bang last year and promises to be even more interesting this year. He dons costumes to take visitors on night-time Lantern Tours of Olde Towne. He participates in most historical activities.
Bill Brown is a walking history book of Portsmouth. If he doesn't know the answer, he knows where to find it. Since Portsmouth has the most illustrious history around here, it's important to have people who know the answers to visitor questions.
At the time of the announcement of the termination of his job, Brown was leading a group of Girl Scouts on a tour of England. I am writing this column without his knowledge or input although I did speak with Library Director Dean Burgess, who was totally surprised to find his valued assistant on the hit list.
Brown's fellow Kiwanians were quite amazed to learn that the city's ``downsizing'' has caught a man so valuable to the community. Most of them are business people who recognize the importance of cutting budget fat, but they also understand the cost of losing a valuable employee.
That is the tragedy of the city's behavior in this whole matter. In cutting the jobs, the city cut many excellent employees who are just as important to Portsmouth's operation as Bill Brown.
Until recent weeks, the city has used a crazy system to avoid laying off employees. They shuffled people from one job to another - regardless of their qualifications to do the new job.
Now, all of a sudden, the city is cutting the payroll with no thought of the human beings involved or of what they bring to the city. Many of them have labored many years for the city and they certainly deserved the same consideration given those in previous years who have simply been moved to other jobs.
Why didn't the city offer employees with good records the opportunity to transfer rather than put them through the demoralizing process of being terminated? Now they must apply for open positions and compete with outsiders for the jobs. It simply doesn't make much sense to terminate people on one day and start hiring new ones the next day. Why can't we accommodate those with praiseworthy service to the city?
Sometimes, in this whole clumsy process, I have wondered if city management was doing this to save money or to try to polish its own image. Now I'm thinking that last week's events did neither. ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Bill Brown would lead Lantern Tours of Olde Towne.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH CITY EMPLOYEES DOWNSIZING LAYOFF WILLIAM A.
BROWN III by CNB