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Petersburg City Council votes to reduce personnel costs by 20 percent

Posted at 10:57 PM, Jul 05, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-05 23:14:04-04

PETERSBURG, Va. -- In an effort to improve their financial situation, Petersburg City Council voted to reduce personnel costs by 20 percent at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

To do that, City Council discussed temporarily furloughing city employees and reducing their hours.

Petersburg Mayor Howard Myers tells CBS 6 reporter Melissa Hipolit layoffs to city employees would not be considered.

The motion takes effect Saturday, July 9.

Council also voted to increase the rates on public utilities for other localities that use Petersburg’s services. Those other entities still need to approve the increases.

Petersburg water bill update

Earlier Tuesday, Petersburg’s Department of Utilities announced that customers will receive water bills on the week of June 27th.

The department says the utility bill will have the actual reading of resident’s water consumption because crews successfully checked almost 12,500 water meters throughout the city with its "Boots on the Ground" campaign.

The bill will cover the billing period of May 6 to June 6.

This is all in response to the findings of a CBS 6 investigation that discovered some Petersburg residents were not receiving water bills for months at a time, and when some residents did receive bills they were higher than usual due to meter issues.

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