Posted on 06/13/2013 8:10:05 AM PDT by MichCapCon
When Sandy Springs, Ga., became the "city that outsourced everything" in 2005, it did it out of necessity.
Today, the town of about 100,000 residents has great roads, a state of the art traffic system, award-winning parks, and has funded major capital improvements every year without once raising taxes.
Oliver Porter served as the interim city manager for Sandy Springs and spoke about his experience in that role at a Mackinac Center for Public Policy “Issues and Ideas” forum in Lansing on Wednesday.
"I judge [city] success on two factors: efficiency and response to the public," Porter said. "Based on that, we've been a success."
Before Porter got there, the city was a part of Fulton County, paying high taxes for few services. For decades, Sandy Springs had petitioned the Georgia Legislature to allow it to form its own government. In 2005, the state finally allowed it, contingent on a vote of the people.
The residents voted in June 2005, to form their own city and 92 percent approved. But the city had to be up-and-running on Dec. 1 of the same year.
"I don't know what you would do if you had to have public services in six months, but [shopping around with private vendors] is what I did," Porter said.
For a city about the size of Lansing, he bid out 12 main services to groups that often outsourced to smaller vendors. When certain guarantees could not be met, Sandy Springs chose someone else, which is why most of the time the city found it wasn't prudent to use the lowest bid.
In the contracts, the companies providing the services also had to pledge to have a live person answer phone calls and emails 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They also had to commit to respond to a problem within 48 hours.
"The key is writing the contracts well," Porter said. "But there is incentive for the companies because if they screw up, we can use someone else. That doesn't happen in government."
City taxpayers outsource everything with the exception of public safety, which was explored, determined not to be a good option. However, police officers and firefighters are on 401(k), defined contribution retirement plans, not pension programs.
The city owns no buildings — not even city hall — and little equipment, which means it doesn't have to worry about depreciation on property or assets.
"Sandy Springs has no long-term liabilities," Porter said.
Residents are happy, re-electing every incumbent. For the incumbents who ran for re-election, the lowest vote-getter received 84 percent of the tally. And Porter said the morale of city workers is "sky high" because the companies actually care about their ideas to improve; efficiency is the name of the game in the private-sector.
Porter did emphasize that it is essential that a cost-benefit analysis is done with each contract.
In the past few years, five other cities in Georgia have followed the Sandy Springs model. Porter said he thinks existing cities can do the same, but the biggest obstacle is politics because local elected officials a "are not willing to consider alternative models because they were elected under one system and are afraid to stick their necks out, even if another model is more efficient."
However, increasingly burdensome health care and pension obligations have pushed many cities to the brink, and politicians are forced to take a look at what Sandy Springs has done.
"I tell every city official I meet: Your main job is not to supply jobs — it's to serve taxpayers," Porter said.
“I tell every city official I meet: Your main job is not to supply jobs — it’s to serve taxpayers,” Porter said.”
Practically every politician has exactly the opposite opinion. You NEVER hear of a county, state, or federal employee getting laid off, no matter how little work there is for them
I can’t believe that this guy hasn’t been disappeared or Arkanasied yet!
I wonder what Obama has in store for those people. Between the IRS, the NSA, the BATFE, the EPA and a hundred other agencies, I’m sure he can bring some kind of hurt down upon them. For their own good, of course.
Sort of reminds me of the Bangkok "public" bus system. While the city does own a bus line there are also privately owned bus systems. I missed one bus to a particular destination within the city but no worries, another bus was a few minutes behind the public one going to the same destination for about the same rate. Very convenient.
I
And when you do it, don’t allow any revenues to go elsewhere, and don’t allow crooks access. Mayor Daley spent 40 years of meter/parking contract money in just two years in Chicago.
The Detroit bus company has a good as needed business model. They don’t have regular routes but a phone app tells you were the closest bus will be so you can meet it or even call for it to come to you.
And best of all, they advertize that drinking alcohol is allowed on their buses which clinches the deal and proves that they don’t get taxpayer dollars.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3024622/posts
this is the model of the future, the question is what has to happen before things collapse to the point where it is considered. People banded together and formed communities and agree to pay taxes to support common needs, but that model badly needs to be re-invented. Police and Fire protection are the core public services that in my mind should not be outsourced (even though they could be). Everything else can be put out for competitive bids, and let the market determine what it costs and is worth.
Why is it that any form of government “services” immediately, unilaterally and irrevocably means union, sky high benefits, inefficiency, waste, fraud, abuse and low or no value to the taxpayer?
I live immediately next door and have watch things improve nicely over time since Sandy Springs’ incorporation.
Sandy Springs’s first mayor, Eva Galambos, is a class act who gets it and who set things off in the right direction, and they don’t seem to have strayed far from her path.
Here in Dunwoody, we’re having some issues with elected officials who don’t gets it. We’re working on changing that.
That is more like utopia than anything I have seen in recent times. Looks to me like a case of old age and wisdom trumping youth and enthusiasm.
I wish a fast growing little town like Magnolia, Texas, laced with ignorance and probably corruption but with a huge tax base could get a clue.
I’m going to ping the GA list to this, since it’s a nice article about Sandy Springs and the success of a small, limited local government in general.
Just another of the seemingly non-stop outbursts of racial hatred from Republicans toward the Black Man in the White House(TM).
Being a new city they also didn’t have any legacy costs for pensions of former government workers. That would be a big factor for some cities to overcome when making a change.
But there is incentive for the companies because if they screw up, we can use someone else. That doesn’t happen in government.”
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Exactly.
The unions will not want to hear about such a successful plan.
All public employee unions should be outlawed—at the local, state and federal levels.
Wave of the future—Unions have killed City Jobs with their greed.
Dang, you noticed. I thought we'd had it well-disguised this time.
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