Tag Cloud
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
POLL: Should Sacramento outsource city park maintenance?
by Melissa Corker, published on May 17, 2012 at 6:49 PM
Storyline: Politics
Loading images
With the city poised to slash the parks department budget, park maintenance continues to fall short, and Sacramento Press readers are asking if the city should just outsource park maintenance altogether, while union leaders think it’s a bad ide, and a city park comissioner says its been tried before without success.
“The obvious question here is what is the cost if all park maintenance staff are laid off, and the services (are) outsourced to a non-union private contractor?” asked “Cogmeyer,” a frequent Sacramento Press commenter.
Craig Powell, president of the local political watchdog group Eye on Sacramento, agreed, saying that outsourcing park maintenance “has to be on the table.”
Powell referred to the city’s move to contract out golf course maintenance services last year – for a projected annual savings to the city of $500,000.
“Outsourcing basic park maintenance will save many times that amount,” Powell said in his comment.
Marcia Mooney, a representative for SEIU Local 39, the labor union that represents the city’s park maintenance workers, said outsourcing would be bad for city employees because they would not likely be rehired and, if they were, it would be to lower-paying jobs.
When the city contracted out golf course maintenance, Mooney said, it resulted in a single contract with one large company. For park maintenance, however, multiple smaller companies would be bidding for multiple contracts with the city.
“With multiple small contracts, there’s really no room for negotiating for contracting companies to hire the laid-off city employees as there was with the one contract for golf maintenance,” she said.
Parks Commission Chair Jonathan Rewers also commented on whether contracting out park maintenance is a viable solution.
“We have tried to outsource park maintenance in the past,” he wrote in his comment. “The problem is when you use contractors, you don't get the response time you need to (respond to) community concerns. With crews on dispatch to 311 and our supervisors, we can deal with issues as they come up in our park system – which they do every day.”
Rewers told council members Tuesday that the commission reviewed the proposed parks budget and commissioners felt there were “no options left” with regard to revenue or reductions.
When Parks and Recreation Director Jim Combs outlined the proposed 2012-13 parks budget for the City Council Tuesday, he noted $1.1 million in cuts and the elimination of 19 staff positions. Of that, $119,000 and two positions affect park maintenance.
Outsourcing, or “contracting out,” public services is not uncommon in local government, but it brings opposition from labor unions representing city employees who will be laid off in the process.
Outsourcing golf course maintenance services last year came at a cost of 58 city employee positions and $229,000 to pay for unused sick leave, vacation and overtime – required lump-sum payouts whenever staffers leave city service.
As city revenues have declined over the past four years, volunteer efforts to maintain city parks have fluctuated in various neighborhoods.
One Sacramento Press commenter used New York City as an example and said that volunteers stepping in to care for public parks is nothing new.
“City parks belong to us, the people of Sacramento, and not to some independent and impersonal entity we call 'the city,’ “ wrote “JWS.” “Therefore, we have a responsibility to take care of our parks.”
Sacramento Press contributor Isaac Gonzalez commented that the Tahoe Park Neighborhood Association’s Park Beautification Program that he manages has been successful since it started in 2010.
“I know that Sacramentans are good citizens,” Gonzalez wrote in his comment. “At each event, dozens of people come out to help make sure Tahoe Park remains a safe and clean place for families to come together.”
In Land Park, where one of the oldest and largest city parks is located, the volunteer effort started strong when budget cuts first had an impact, according to Powell. But the effort has dwindled, and continued volunteer work seems tentative.
“In William Land Park, we have seen the park maintenance crew reduced from 19 full-time park workers in 2005 to just three workers today, all of whom are over 60 and nearing retirement,” Powell said. “Despite monthly park cleanups by 50 to 90 volunteers of the Land Park Volunteer Corps, we can barely hold back the tide of mounting neglect.”
Rewers suggested to council members Tuesday that they consider a recent poll gauging public support for a possible tax measure to raise revenue for park maintenance. The council will discuss the results of that poll May 22.
What do you think? Should outsourcing park maintenance be an option for the city before further budget reductions to the parks department? Or are there other solutions that haven’t been discussed yet?
Melissa Corker is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.
Flag Article As:
Conversation Express your views,
debate, and be heard with those in your area closest
to the issue.
Leave a Comment
Jonathon Rewers' statement on prior experience with park maintenance outsourcing involves, I believe, a single park in N. Natomas, a case in which city managers failed to put in place a competent system of contract oversight. and management.. Successful outsourcing of park maintenance requires a city commitment to conscientious contract administration.
Private contractors can be easily placed on a 311 call list to respond to park maintenance emergencies in the parks that are assigned to them. If they fail to respond on a timely basis, they can be quickly replaced for poor performance, an option that is not available when grossly understaffed city maintenance crews fail to respond to maintenance needs as is the case today.
As far as cost, William, City Budget Director Leyne Milstein has consistently estimated that the city would save 50% of its current park maintenance budget (around $9 million) if it outsourced park maintenance to private firms.
And all this high-priced staff would do is move paper so that the people who do the work can get paid. So while it is entirely possible that the City could save 50% on Maintenance by contracting out, it is also possible that the City will more than "make up" that money in admin costs.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not opposed to the idea but before we go into it, we need to see a cost comparison that includes All the costs.
NPR did a report about this in Colorado Spring, Co the people who actually do the work, lose out. and the city of Colorado Springs did NOT saving the public any money.
To think that we cannot allow government jobs to be swayed by competitive wage rates, that is just silly.
While walking a friends dog during my visit with them in France, I scooped the poop and was promptly scolded and lectured that if everyone picked up after themselves, the street cleaners would be fired. How far away from that are we?
Privatizing public services may or may not save the city money in the long run and it certainly does not guarantee that the quality of the service will be any better. My tolerance for the dogmatic and uncompromising ideologue has worn very thin.
For services that require higher skills or complex collaboration between private contractor and government, outsourcing is usually not a major cost-savings solution. That's because salaries and benefits of city workers with higher skills are not substantially out-of-line with comparable workers in the private sector, providing less opportunity to realize cost savings from outsourcing.
The NPR show on the experience of Colorado Springs showed that outsourcing in that city was very much a mized bag. I suspect that the City of Sacramento's labor costs are higher than Colorado Springs' costs and that Sacramento, with higher unemployment than Colorado, probably has somewhat lower market labor rates for those low/moderate skill workers, resulting in a larger differential in public vs. private sector labor costs in Sacramento than in Colorado Springs. It's worth taking a closer look at the facts. It's time to have the consersation.
Gibson Ranch Park’s operation has been contracted out to Doug Ose’s forprofit organization for about a year now and is doing very well; see our blog post with his reply to an erroneous Sacramento Bee article about his management, at http://riverparkwayblog.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/trouble-at-gibson-ranch/
David H. Lukenbill, Senior Policy Director
American River Parkway Preservation Society
As an aside, I was in Land park on Saturday and a boy having a seizure was attended to by an ambulance AND a fire truck. Five "fire fighters" stood by with nothing to do but watch.
How do some of the smaller cities in our region, like Elk Grove and the Citrus Heights, handle park maintenance? I believe they contract out most services like this and that has been key to their weathering this economy.
Of course outsourcing would not serve the existing employees well, and I do sympathize with them. However, our mayor and city council are supposed to represent city residents. That is to whom they are ultimately accountable. If it's a loss for the employees but an overall win for the citizens of our city, then it would an abandonment of their fiduciary duty NOT to consider outsourcing.
Touching on the last part of your comment; why do you use "firefighters" in quotes? If that was your child would you be upset that there were five firefighters assisting him?
Although you might think they were just "standing around," every firefighter on a call has a specific role. Most often, they are on standby in case a situation escalates.
I would encourage you to ride along with a local fire department (these are open to the public) so you understand why a certain amount of units and personnel are dispatched to each call. You would probably be surprised...and certainly more informed.
I too thought it was ridiculous before doing a ride-along myself:
http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/12395/A_day_in_the_boots_of_Sacramentos_heroes_Oak_Parks_Station_6
In full disclosure, my boyfriend is a firefighter, so I also have a better understanding of why so many trucks and personnel are present on calls.
This doesn't make Sacramento firefighters bad people. But it does leave a lot of room for improvement.