Posted on 12/27/2005 9:30:21 AM PST by NormsRevenge
One of the smartest ways to scale back the crushing burden of San Diego's municipal pension plan is to contract out more city services. Outsourcing would shift the workers who provide such services to the private sector, removing them from the enormously expensive municipal retirement system, which currently threatens to bankrupt San Diego.
Potentially, several thousand workers among a total work force of nearly 11,000 could be removed from the city's payroll, causing a dramatic reduction in pension costs. Mayor Jerry Sanders' financial recovery plan includes outsourcing as a key component. He should pursue this strategy aggressively, not only to save on pension expenses but also to improve city services and deliver them more efficiently.
San Diego already contracts out a variety of work. For example, janitorial services in most municipal buildings are provided through contracts with private companies. This saves taxpayers money and results in a higher level of service because the companies that supply the janitors are selected through a competitive bidding process. Robust competition is the reason firms in the private sector are generally much more efficient than government, which operates as a monopoly impervious to healthy competitive pressures.
Many other city services could be enhanced through outsourcing. Consider that, if street repairs were contracted out through a competitive bidding process, taxpayers likely would get much more for their money. Potholes would get filled faster, and more miles of streets would be repaved for the same amount of money, because there are many private companies eager to compete for such work. The most efficient would get the contract, breaking the stultifying monopoly of municipal government and its politically powerful public employee unions.
Among the many other services that should be subject to competitive bidding are park maintenance, secretarial work, trash collection, building maintenance, telecommunications and information technology. When it comes to IT, or computer services, the city could learn a great deal from San Diego County.
In 1999 the county outsourced its information technology services in a $644 million, seven-year contract with Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo. Prior to the contract, the county was plagued by outmoded hardware and software, chronic computer breakdowns, inadequate security from hackers and a multiplicity of conflicting systems, including e-mail systems in different departments that were incapable of communicating with each other. Today, San Diego County boasts one of the most efficient information technology systems to be found anywhere in local government. And the Board of Supervisors is set to choose a new private vendor through a competitive bidding process.
Such privatization of city services faces tremendous hide-bound resistance from public employee unions. But that opposition should not deter Mayor Sanders and the City Council from pursuing the manifold benefits of outsourcing.
Facists!
God forbid anyone do anything about the Unions raping the taxpayers.....
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051216/news_1e16top1.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1541868/posts
When pensions, health coverage and other perks are taken into account, the
average city worker receives a stunning $101,800 a year – far more than is the
norm in San Diego's private sector. Oversized retirement checks account for
most of the costs of the fringe benefits of city workers."
"If you are among those who cling to the politically fashionable view that San
Diego's financial troubles are due to the simple fact that our taxes are too
low, think again. A special watchdog report by Union-Tribune staff writer
Steve Schmidt and research analyst Danielle Cervantes documents a very
different explanation – one that the city's powerful public employee unions
don't want told.
The real truth is, for years San Diego has been run more for the benefit of
its unionized work force than for the benefit of taxpayers."
While I agree with privatizing gvt jobs, you have to admit that this is hilarious:
".. because the companies that supply the janitors are selected through a competitive bidding process."
And here I always though it was kickbacks and patronage... :)
On the one hand, San Diego has bankrupted themselves padding the retirement of the US citizens they employ.
On the other hand, San Diego may well be forced to contract out municipal services to companies who rely chiefly on the savings created by the illegal employment of foreign nationals.
Somewhere in this mix has got to be some sanity. Could California possibly cede San Diego to Baja California?
"Could California possibly cede San Diego to Baja California?"....ONLY San Diego? Cum'on!
You're right. I'd make San Diego a right-to-work city and give Mexico the City/County of San Francisco, except that portion within 1/2 mile of the shoreline.
Oh the shame of it. Willie Brown forced to learn Spanish and Gavin Newsom forced to deal with the dictates of a Mexican Archbishop.
Tis just one more reason that whole lot should be recalled and pilloried.
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