Michigan district to privatize school bus service

Source: Kelly Roher, School Bus Fleet, May 8, 2013

Bus service for Walled Lake Consolidated School District (WLCSD) will be provided by contractor Dean Transportation starting with the upcoming school year. In a letter to district parents and staff last week, Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Gutman wrote that the district has been in negotiations with the Walled Lake Transportation Association since last August and has conducted 13 sessions. Gutman said that “good faith bargaining” with the association did not result in an agreement, but every facet of the transportation budget was “thoroughly researched,” and the district’s administration recommended Dean Transportation to provide transportation services beginning with the 2013-14 school year. The district’s board of education voted 7-0 to accept the recommendation and to begin the transition process….
Related:
Walled Lake may privatize school bus service, drivers concerned
Source: Megan Semeraz, Oakland Press, April 16, 2013

With a projected $10 million deficit for next year, administrators at Walled Lake Schools are considering privatization of the school bus services. … Ridge said that three years ago, the district looked at privatizing transportation, but ultimately threw out the idea after the department agreed to take a $5 million cut over a three-year period. In the agreement, some of the cuts the 120 transportation employees took included a 10 percent pay cut, loss of six holiday and vacation days, paying 20 percent more in insurance premiums and paying 100 percent of insurance increases over the three-year period. The drivers are not full-time employees and, Ridge says, the district has said they will never be — no matter how many hours they work. Ridge said the average bus driver makes $18,000 a year, but some make around $11,000….

…The district has already privatized the school custodial services and, Ridge said, the school board just approved a 2 percent pay raise for those private custodial workers….

…The company would charge $800,000 per year for new school buses, meaning taxpayer money would be used to purchase buses for a private company….

…Private bus companies, such as Durham School Services, have faced criticism for incidents that could have been potentially dangerous for students. Last September, a contracted Durham employee for Rochester Community Schools was arrested for retail fraud after attempting to steal $543 in clothing from Parisian at The Village of Rochester Hills. The driver, who parked the school bus outside the store, had previously been arrested on a similar charge. On Friday, WXYZ-TV Channel 7 reported that a driver dropped off a group of Northville middle school students at an undesignated stop — the side of Six Mile Road — after trying to get some of the students to sit down. Northville Public Schools privatized its transportation in July 2011….

County plans privatized recycling deal / Service will expand to accept glass, all plastics

Source: Joe Williams, Newark Advocate, May 15, 2013

By contracting with a private company, the county can expand its recycling efforts to include accepting glass and all plastics, officials say. Licking County plans to contract with Rumpke of Ohio Inc., of Columbus, to pick up recycling materials from drop-off sites countywide. On Tuesday, the county commissioners voted unanimously to award the bid to Rumpke. Voting on a separate resolution to contract with the firm should follow, according to Commissioners’ Clerk Beverly Adzic. Rumpke bid $8,313 monthly to provide single-stream recycling drop-off services at 23 sites throughout Licking County…
Related:
Licking County considers privatizing drop-off recycling service / Officials ponder sole bid from Rumpke
Source: Joe Williams, Newark Advocate, April 26, 2013

Rumpke of Ohio Inc., of Columbus, has proposed charging $8,313 monthly for providing “single-stream” recycling drop-off services throughout Licking County. The firm submitted the only bid for that work, which would pick up recyclables from 23 sites throughout the county now served by the Licking County Recycling department. The Licking County Board of Commissioners opened that bid Thursday morning, but took no action while awaiting a review of the bid and recommendation from Lindsey Grimm, director of Licking County Recycling….

Comptroller enters nursing home fray

Source: Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, Times Union, May 13, 2013

County Comptroller Michael Conners, long a staunch defender of the county-run nursing home, on Monday urged lawmakers to follow the lead of Saratoga County and hand control of the facility over to a local development corporation. But if the development corporation, working with a private management firm and the facility’s unions, cannot reduce the annual red ink within a year or two, he said, the facility should be sold….Conners devoted nearly his entire speech to the legislature to the issue, breaking his long public silence on County Executive Dan McCoy’s plan to privatize the 250-bed Colonie facility with a 10-year lease. Conners, who battled former County Executive Michael Breslin’s attempts to close it, acknowledged that he never thought he would entertain the idea of selling it….
Related:
Inside Politics: Another nursing home battle
Source: Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, Times Union, May 12, 2013

Council tackles privatization issues

Source: Kelly Ducote, Observer, May 10, 2013

City council approves exploring privatizing maintenance of Veteran’s Memorial Pool. A motion was moved and seconded Wednesday night to eliminate the city’s parks and recreation department. Councilor John Lackey moved the motion that also called for eliminating the parks and recreation director and recreation coordinator positions. It failed when it came to a vote. The discussion stemmed from recommendations from City Manager Robert Strope on how to save money within the parks and recreation department. Of four recommendations submitted to the council, only one was accepted: to charge the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission with exploring alternatives for the aquatics division — which could include privatization. …After accepting Strope’s recommendation about aquatics privatization, Miesner moved a motion to pursue looking into privatization of other park functions. Strope then explained that it had been explored and that it would take quite a bit of time and resources to truly discover what savings could be derived from privatization. She then withdrew her motion….

Fort Worth’s water task force delving deeper into privatization, outsourcing

Source: Scott Nishimura, Star-telegram, May 10, 2013

Fort Worth’s volunteer Water Utility Task Force, charged with determining whether any of the aspects of the city’s water department should be privatized or outsourced, has decided to pursue four different business models in sending out a request for information to interested vendors later this Spring. The task force ruled out a complete sale of the water department. The four other models it’s pursuing are leasing the utility to a public-private partnership, contracting out management of the bulk of the department, outsourcing specific services, and seeking ideas for new revenue streams or businesses. In the case of a full lease, the vendor would typically make an upfront payment to the city and annual lease payments….

Jeannette weighs privatizing trash pickup

Source: Richard Gazarik, Trib Total Media, May 9, 2013

The City of Jeannette is considering hiring a private firm to collect garbage but faces a legal roadblock with the union that represents its six sanitation workers. Council has been barraged with complaints from residents who now must use garbage bags they purchase from the city if they want their trash collected each week. The sale of bags has earned the city more than $32,000 so far this year, according to a budget report. … Two years ago, a state consultant recommended the city hire a private company, but council rejected the recommendation. The city’s precarious financial position is forcing council to reconsider. Avolio said a private company could hire some or all of the city’s employees, whose city jobs would be eliminated. Employees who are not hired by the contracted company could be transferred to the public works department to work on the road crew. Garbage collection has been an important source of revenue for Jeannette.

Landfill privatization could mean millions immediately

Source: David Lombardo, Daily Gazette, Around Saratoga blog, May 9, 2013

Saratoga County would get an up-front payment of $6 million if it sold its unused landfill to the highest bidder. A landfill privatization report, which is available in its entirety below, outlines the three proposal to take over the landfill on Kobor Road in Northumberland. The highest bid was from Finch Paper, which proposed a $39 million package with an up-front payment of $6 million and an annual payment of $33 million. Capital Region Landfills proposed a higher up-front payment, $7.5 million, but all told was second highest, coming in at $37,426,350. New England Waste Services was the third and lowest bidder, offering a total package of $9,558,008….

Landfill Privatization Report

Hurlburt Field to privatize housing

Source: Staff Sgt. John Bainter, nwfdailynews.com, May 9, 2013

Corvias Military Living is part of the Residential Communities Initiative program. Under the program, Corvias is slated to build, renovate, maintain and manage community base-housing. “Privatization is expected to take effect sometime in August or September, “said Lt. Col. David Novy, the commander of 1st Special Operations Civil Engineering Squadron.Construction on new housing already began with the first available house ready in late 2014. In total, 404 new units will be constructed on Hurlburt and residents in the path of demolition will take priorityto be moved into the new homes.The newly built homes will be metered and residents will be responsible for usage going over the average consumption of energy services, but will receive credit for being energy conscious….

County judge and sheriff tour state-of-the-art jail in Burnet

Source: Casey Stinnett, Your Houston News, May 9, 2013

Liberty County officials hope a tour of another Texas county jail will help them decide whether the county should continue with private contractors to run the county jail or if the sheriff’s office should take over its management….Burnet’s jail is operated by a private company, LaSalle Southwest Corrections, that currently charges that county $42 per inmate, per day. This rate is well below the state average, and Klaeger recognizes this to have been an exceptionally good deal for her county. It is also well below the rate now being paid by Liberty County to its contractor, Community Education Centers, Inc. (CEC), which is sometimes charging the county over $72 per day for each inmate….

Pulling the Parent Trigger: The Push to Privatize Public Schools

Source: Yasha Levine, Truthout, May 10, 2013

…The parents told me that a Los Angeles-based group calling itself Parent Revolution organized a local campaign to harass and trick them into signing petitions that they thought were meant for simple school improvements. In fact those petitions turned out to be part of a sophisticated campaign to convert their children’s public school into a privately-run charter — something a majority of parents opposed. At times, locals say, the Parent Revolution volunteers’ tactics were so heavy-handed in gathering signatures that they crossed the line into harassment and intimidation….

…According to a recent investigation by FryingPanNews, Parent Revolution has received $14.8 million since its founding in 2009. Almost half of that — $6.3 million — came from the Walton Family Foundation, which has long bankrolled the war on unions and public education. The rest of Parent Revolution’s cash came from more liberal sources, including The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Broad Foundation, each of which has given about $1.5 million to the group.

As reported in Dissent, these three foundations — Gates, Walton and Broad — spend roughly $4 billion a year to hand public K-12 education to the private sector, giving them increasing leverage over a sector that’s worth $500 billion per year….