MORE CITIES LOOKING TO OUTSOURCE SERVICES

Hoping to protect union jobs, Hollywood commissioners last year rejected a proposal to privatize garbage collection.

But when residents discovered it meant steeper fees and no bulk pickup, their outcry forced commissioners to reverse course. This year, officials are considering outsourcing police, fire, code enforcement, building and engineering services as well.

Pembroke Pines, once one of the nation's fastest-growing cities, may farm out its Building and Zoning Department because permit fees have dried up in the sputtering housing market. In response, union leaders have pleaded to save jobs by allowing the city to cut pay, benefits or work hours.

Sunrise for nearly 37 years operated the municipal Springtree Golf Club, which will be closed for renovations on June 1. But when the 18-hole course reopens in early 2010, a private contractor will likely take over its management.

As governments grapple with sinking revenues and ballooning budget deficits, the idea of outsourcing is gaining steam.

"It's the wave of the future. You will start to see more and more cities contract out," said Russell Benford, city manager of West Park, which depends on contractors for most of its services. "Now that we're in a budget crisis, obviously everyone is working hard to control expenses. . . . Outsourcing allows you to provide services for less money."

Leaders in Weston and Southwest Ranches, who also rely heavily on contractors, extol the benefits. They say because contractors perform tasks as needed, they are cheaper to use than full-time workers. And contractors' benefits are often less generous than those of their counterparts in the public sector, allowing governments to hold down costs.

However, there are drawbacks. For example, contractor John Canada lost his job as town manager of Southwest Ranches in October 2006 amid accusations of nepotism for hiring his wife and daughter as town employees. And Weston in 2007 found it would save $220,000 annually by hiring six senior managers instead of having them on contract.

"There is a tremendous amount of experimentation with privatization," said Mildred Warner, a professor at Cornell University who has done extensive research on the subject. "In some services and some places, it can yield savings."

Still, she cautions, most local markets lack stiff competition, so private companies' prices creep up over time and erode any initial savings. Also, the quality of services may deteriorate.

Public employee unions argue that ceding control of vital public services will mean less accountability to residents. They say contractors may not be as willing to respond to emergencies. And they worry that when the economy recovers, their cities will be understaffed because it can take time to collect bids and approve contracts.

Yet they acknowledge cities need to slice costs.

The union's recent offer in Pembroke Pines "is unprecedented," said Jim Sugg, the city's chief electrical inspector. "What is government here for if we're going to privatize everything?"

Some outsourcing advocates say generous benefits make in-house workers too costly.

"Some things are out of your control, like pensions and health care," Benford said. "And unions have contracts that you have to renegotiate, so you don't know what will increase through those contracts each time."

Some municipalities have turned to their neighbors for services. Fourteen municipalities from Cooper City to Weston contract with the Broward Sheriff's Office for law enforcement. And contractors have long collected trash in many areas. Hollywood treats wastewater from the eastern part of Pembroke Pines, portions of Miramar and southern Broward County, Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Park.

Plantation officials say they will consider shifting more responsibility to outside contractors for park maintenance, road paving and street striping. The city already contracts out legal services and air-conditioning maintenance.

Dania Beach officials may consider contracting out services such as code enforcement and management of the Dania Beach Marina as part of the 2009-10 budget. Lauderhill, which contracts out for trash collection and some engineering and architectural services, might consider privatizing other services as well.

"It could possibly be cost-effective if you only need someone to come in once or twice a week rather than have someone here all the time," said Kennie Hobbs, the city's finance director.

Weston City Manager John Flint said with contractors, the city avoids so-called "bumping," where unionized workers with seniority retain their high salaries by displacing workers who earn less.

"I believe our model works great," Flint said. "Having competition instills a sense of loyalty for the contractor to want to continue to perform."

Nagy's simplicity, while reminicent of a Merrill Wood article, probably isn't practical. I doubt there are municipalities out there that outsource much on a grand scale, otherwise we would have heard or read about them.  And the blanket blame game doesn't really get much action accomplished because he is painting with too broad of a brush.

What do we basically have now an "outsourced" bunch of City employees who live elsewhere, have no financial ties to the community as far as property or business interests, other than a Paycheck and the best benefits around.