CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Chesapeake City Council voted 9 to 0 to take power away from the long-time City Treasurer Barbara Carraway citing problems in the office and calling the move an emergency action.
News 3 sat down with Carraway on Tuesday before the vote took place. She said she was shocked by the allegations.
The ordinance was sent to the mayor and city council from City Manager Christopher Price’s office, requesting to reassign certain duties and functions of the city treasurer to departments in the purview of the city manager.
It states over the last few years, there’s been a steady decline in service coming from the treasurer’s office.
Carraway told News 3 the allegations against her office are not true.
“We provide first-class service to our citizens. I am not sure what they are alluding to, but I do not feel like our level of service has declined,” said Carraway.
With 33 years of experience as the city treasurer of Chesapeake, Carraway said she was stunned by a proposed ordinance that would reassign some of her duties and functions over to the city manager.
“I’m disappointed that they didn’t have the courtesy to talk to me before the document was written up,” said Carraway. She said no one from city management has come to talk to her about any possible problems. She said she does not like it that they did not address any concerns with her before creating the proposed ordinance.
But during the city council meeting Tuesday the city manager said he spoke to Carraway last week about the ordinance.
The ordinance states there have been issues with her hiring staff to meet the needs of the office. It states the employee count in July 2019 was 35 employees to 21 employees in April 2023, and that over the past year, it has fluctuated between 18 to 21 employees.
Carraway disputes that those are the correct employee numbers but when News 3 asked how many staff members she currently has, she could not answer the question and said she did not know.
The ordinance states, “The situation continues to deteriorate and is untenable.”
News 3 reached out to the city to request information. They sent us the following:
"Over the last few years, the level of service from the City Treasurer’s Office has steadily declined. This is very apparent in the number of citizen concerns being received at the Customer Contact Center and in other departments that hear from citizens. The Treasurer has been unable to effectively perform functions expected of a Department Head, which has contributed to deteriorating performance. Since the City Treasurer does not report to the City Council and is only answerable to voters, there are limits to what Council and the City Manager can do. This agenda item seeks to transfer certain functions currently under the purview of the City Treasurer’s Office and place them under the purview of the City Manager. It is the City’s hope that this action will allow for better oversight of critical financial functions as well as improved customer service."
Carraway strongly disputes these claims.
“Our services have not suffered, we’re a very automated office,” said Carraway and went on to say they are currently hiring more people.
She said they just hired two more people and said there are constraints with how many people they can train at once. She also said she must abide by the city policies for new employees. She said it takes several weeks from the time they are interviewed until the time they are ready to work.
Being a constitutional officer, she is elected by voters. According to state law, voters are the only ones that could remove her from office.
The city treasurer doesn’t report to the city council or city manager, and they are very limited in what measures they can take against her, according to the law.
When asked what kind of boss she is, Carraway said she does not micromanage her employees.
News 3 asked her if there is anything in the office that is problematic with the way it is operating. She said not at all, and they are handling all the work given to them.
A former employee who lost to Carraway in the 2021 election, Corrie Kring, told News 3 that working in the treasurer’s office was a toxic work environment.
Kring said she decided to run against her boss of eight years because she wanted to see change happen.
She said she had mixed feelings on the proposed ordinance.
“Part of me is sad that it’s come to this level. All of us, obviously, none of us want to see the office in this type of decline, but I’m pleased that city council is taking these actions to address it and remedy it,” said Kring.
She went on later to say the taxpayers deserve better.
Carraway said Kring was upset she didn’t get a promotion.
At the time of this interview which happened on Monday afternoon, Carraway said she had only received the proposed ordinances a few hours prior and didn’t have time to read the whole thing before speaking to us about it.
“I’ve enjoyed my work. I think I’ve done a good job,” said Carraway, “What disappoints me is you have city management that doesn’t discuss a concern that they have and find out what the real facts are.”
According to the city website, “The Treasurer's Office is the official collector of the City's receivables. It is responsible for the collection of personal property taxes, real estate taxes, stormwater fees, and solid waste fees. In addition to collecting taxes, the Treasurer collects other delinquent fees such as emergency medical services fees, delinquent terminated water accounts, parking tickets, and miscellaneous invoices. The Treasurer's Office is also responsible for investing the City's money and reconciling City bank accounts.”
Carraway spoke to the council Tuesday night and asked to postpone the vote. A few former employees and citizens spoke out against her including Kring.
City Council voted 9 to 0 to reassign some of the duties of the city treasurer.
