Dear Ms. Buckner,
Thank you for your email. As the County Manager, one of the measures that I implemented in March 2020 due to the uncertainty of the economic impact of COVID-19 was a hiring freeze of vacant positions to offset a anticipated revenue loss. I continued the hiring freeze in the FY2021-2022 budget to reduce personnel expenditures to avoid layoffs of county positions and limit the tax rate increase. Since the revenue collections over the past year are more positive than anticipated, I have unfrozen a number of positions in the last two weeks including the Library positions that you referred to in your email. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you.
Bonnie B. Hammersley
Orange County Manager
Whitted Building
300 W Tryon Street
P.O. Box 8181
Hillsborough, NC 27278
(O) 919-245-2306
(M) 608-216-4584