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As Beaufort County continues to struggle with a year-end budget short run, Beaufort County Administrator Gary Kubic has announced that most county employees will take a five-day furlough between May 30 and June 30.
To accomplish this, all standard "general fund" employees will still get Memorial Day off, but not as a paid holiday, and the remainder of the five days will be taken as one unpaid day off per week.
The measure will likely reduce the county's deficit by a third.
The Island Packet also has a report with some added discussion and comments; read that here.
Here's a full copy of the notice from Beaufort County Administrator Gary Kubic:
EMPLOYEE FURLOUGH NOTICE
Five-day General Fund Furlough Notice (May 30 to June 30, 2011)
Due to continuing decline in revenues and predicted year-end budget shortfall, I have made the difficult decision to implement five-day staggered furlough program, which will affect General Fund employees who are part of my Administration.
Elected and state officials of the General Fund who manage all other General Fund employees will independently decide whether they will join County Administration and participate in thiseffort to reduce general fund salary expenditures.
The Plan:
The first provision of this program will change Memorial Day from paid to non-paid holiday for all employees who are not required to work on this day. As result, this MemorialDay (May 30,2011) will count as the first of five furlough days.
This furlough day will not include any official who is elected or appointed by the state, nor will it include any public safety employees who are required to work that day.
With the exception of public safety personnel, County Administration employees will be required to take four (4) additional days off without pay. Department Directors will schedule personnel to be off one day per week for four weeks following Memorial Day week.
Full-time employees should work four days (32 hours) per week, and part-time employees should be scheduled for 10% fewer hours than they normally work each week.
Department Directors will insure that scheduled days off will be assigned to minimize disruption of services. All services and units will maintain a five-day work week.
I am encouraging elected and state officials to join us in our efforts to balance the FY2011 budget by instituting this furlough program.
Any questions regarding this program should be directed to Suzanne Gregory in Employee Services at 255-2982 (suz_anneg@bcgov.nct).
I sincerely appreciate the hard work and sacrifices being made by the employees of Beaufort County as we navigate through this difficult economic downturn. I look forward to working with you in the coming fiscal year to overcome the challenges that we face in providing the services our citizens desire within the constraints created by the ongoing economic decline.
