AFSCME Privatization Update

Source: By AETNA SMITH, Jackson Sun (TN), September 28, 2006

Several library patrons calling themselves Citizens Against Privatization said Wednesday they'd like to stop the Jackson-Madison County Library Board from outsourcing the library's management. Group leaders also said they hope to dissolve the present board.

...... So far, Doss said he's collected 1,000 signatures from residents against outsourcing, which the committee plans to present to the board and other elected officials.

Posted by Info Center at 11:11 AM in Library | Permalink

Source: News Press (FL), September 28, 2006

The Florida Department of Children & Families owes the public more than a few canned non-answers to questions about what is going on with its contracts for foster care and families in crisis, and with its leadership choices.

The past month has seen DCF and its contractors careening back and forth between seemingly contradictory decisions about how to deal with these key services under the 6-year-old state privatization mandate.

Posted by Info Center at 11:06 AM in Social Services | Permalink

Source: Library Journal online, September 29, 2006

The Jackson-Madison County Library Board, has agreed to negotiate a contract with Library Systems and Services LLC (LSSI) to manage the library, but not everyone at a recent meeting was on board. Library Board Chair Kathryn Swindle asked LSSI president Frank Pezzanite about the benefits package. "In a commercial sense, there are fairly rich benefits," he said, according to the Jackson Sun. "But it falls short in that there is no pension system. But we do have a 401(k) system."

Thomas Aud, who will retire next month as library director, asked Pezzanite about the company's management fee, in either percentage or dollar terms. Pezzanite said that the company, which is private, chooses not to make that public.

Posted by Info Center at 10:56 AM in Library | Permalink

Source: By Jim Ash, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), September 29, 2006

Two South Florida Democratic lawmakers turned up the heat this afternoon on the Florida Department of Corrections, demanding to know why it hasn't imposed fines on a controversial prison health contractor.

Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Sen. Walter ''Skip'' Campbell of Tamarac, who is running for attorney general, released a letter they sent Wednesday to DOC Secretary Jim McDonough demanding to know why Prison Health Services has not faced fines.

Posted by Info Center at 10:50 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source:The Associated Press, Sept. 28, 2006, 11:48AM

LONDON — Britain's National Health Service awarded Computer Sciences Corp. a nine-year contract worth up to $3.73 billion to provide IT services, a project the company will take over from Accenture after delays and cost overruns in upgrading the NHS computer system.

........ Accenture entered into a 10-year agreement with the NHS in 2003. But the deal has been an onus for the company, as delays have caused costs to outpace revenue from the contract.

Posted by Info Center at 3:06 PM in Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By Brian David, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Thursday, September 28, 2006

Barring further legal action, private enterprise will manage the Beaver County Jail beginning Oct. 30. The county issued a letter Tuesday informing jail workers -- who are all Beaver County employees -- that Civigenics Inc. would be taking over jail operations. The Marlborough, Mass., company operates prisons nationwide, including the jail in Columbiana County, Ohio, which borders Beaver.

Posted by Info Center at 3:05 PM in Corrections | Permalink

Office of Governor Edward G. Rendell news release, Sept. 14, 2006


PITTSBURGH — Governor Edward G. Rendell announced today that the commonwealth is taking a new step to ensure that the state is using its resources to support and sustain domestic jobs and promote economic development. The Governor signed an executive order encouraging state contractors to use American workers rather than outsourcing operations overseas.

Posted by Info Center at 2:19 PM in Laws/Legislation | Offshore | Permalink

Source: KEN KUSMER, Associated Press (IN), Tue, Sep. 26, 2006

The union representing workers at the state's social services agency asked lawmakers Tuesday to intervene in the estimated $1 billion plan by Gov. Mitch Daniels' administration to outsource the application process for food stamps, Medicaid and welfare. Council 62 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said in letters sent to members of the General Assembly that the Daniels' administration has not shown how the proposed privatization would save the state money or benefit either the public or the state's about 1 million recipients of benefits.

Posted by Info Center at 2:02 PM in Laws/Legislation | Social Services | Permalink

Source: By DOUG NURSE, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA), 09/27/06

........ Many cities have hired private firms to handle some services, but Sandy Springs has gone much further. And the idea appears to be catching on. …… CH2M Hill is in possession of all city records and, on occasion, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has had difficulty getting access to public information. That means residents could, too. ….. The lack of transparency also could create opportunities for corruption, such as an elected official hinting he'd like his brother-in-law hired as a subcontractor, said Kerry Korpi of the Association of State, County and Municipal Employees. There's no way to tell how much profit the company is making and no way to tell how much more efficiency can be wrung from the company, she said.

Posted by Info Center at 2:01 PM in Contract Cities | Permalink

Source: By Dana Yates, San Mateo Daily Journal (CA), September 27, 2006

Poor service and years of increased garbage costs has Belmont city officials looking for an early way out of a garbage contract that expires in 2010. The Belmont City Council apologized last night for failing to notify residents about a recent 26 percent hike in garbage rates and it expressed reservations about renewing any contract through the South Bayside Waste Management Authority.

....... The current contract is written in such a way that allows Allied Waste to make adjustments in what the city owes for services, which makes it hard to predict rate increases.

Posted by Info Center at 1:59 PM in Waste Management | Permalink

Source: By Stephen Barr, Washington Post, Friday, September 22, 2006

Ten former mailroom employees at the Internal Revenue Service who lost their jobs because of outsourcing will receive about $4,000 each in back pay as part of a legal settlement, the National Treasury Employees Union has announced.

The settlement ends a lawsuit brought by the union in a dispute over the meaning of an appropriations bill that prohibited the IRS from turning federal work over to a contractor during much of 2004 without first conducting a public-private competition.

...... Colleen M. Kelley , the union president, said lawsuits challenging outsourcing decisions by agencies are difficult to win. "This is the first case of which NTEU is aware in which the government has paid money to employees in settlement of a contracting out lawsuit," Kelley said.

Posted by Info Center at 3:14 PM in Federal | Laws/Legislation | Permalink

Source: By Elizabeth Williamson, Washington Post, Friday, September 22, 2006

An inspector general's report charges that top U.S. housing official Alphonso Jackson urged staff members to favor friends of President Bush when awarding Department of Housing and Urban Development contracts. But investigators so far have found no direct proof that Jackson's staff obeyed.

....... Awarding contracts on the basis of party affiliation violates federal law.

Posted by Info Center at 3:13 PM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By MILT FREUDENHEIM, New York Times, September 22, 2006

For years, private insurers have offered alternatives to the federal Medicare program that are meant to give patients lower-cost options than the government coverage provides. More than 7 million people now subscribe to such plans, out of a total Medicare population of 42.5 million. But suddenly a type of private insurance plan is gaining ground that looks very similar to the basic coverage long available to anyone with a federally issued Medicare card. And the government is paying the private insurance industry a subsidy of 11 percent per patient, on average, to provide it.

.......Critics see the trend as further evidence that the government is paying private industry to take Medicare off its hands.

Posted by Info Center at 3:11 PM in Federal | Health | Permalink

Source: By: Dana Forde, New Egypt Press (NJ), 09/21/2006

A minimum wage battle is brewing between food service workers in Plumsted Township and a newly appointed food service provider. The Philadelphia based Aramark company has replaced Sodexho USA as the school district's food service company. But food service workers, referred to as the "lunch ladies", are unhappy that they may lose their benefits package and see a decrease in pay under the new company.

Posted by Info Center at 10:04 AM in Food Services | Permalink

Source: By Silja J.A. Talvi, In These Times, September 4, 2006

While New Mexico’s landscape may make the state the Land of Enchantment, its rapidly growing rates of incarceration have been utterly disenchanting. What’s worse, New Mexico is at the top of the nation’s list for privatizing prisons; nearly one-half of the state’s prisons and jails are run by corporations.

Posted by Info Center at 2:20 PM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: JON GAMBRELL, THE BELLINGHAM HERALD (WA), September 7, 2006

A Bellingham company under fire for misconduct by guards at its private minimum-security jail has hired a former Whatcom County undersheriff and county deputy administrator to audit its operation. Dave Wareing will review records and interview employees at Security Specialists Plus' Baker Creek Place facility. The company, also known as SSP, houses about 50 county offenders in work-release programs or on county inmate work crews at a time. The county pays about $500,000 annually for the service.

Posted by Info Center at 2:18 PM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By Dan Morain, KTLA. September 11, 2006

Groups with an interest in pending legislation help California's governor raise $26.4 million.

...... However, several donors who gave at the fundraiser do have business here. Geo Group, a Florida firm that operates private prisons, has long sought more business in California. Geo's Sacramento lobbyists worked to shape the governor's prison overhaul package, which failed in the Legislature on the final day of its session. The package might have increased the number of California inmates housed by private firms.

Posted by Info Center at 2:15 PM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: KAREN VOYLES, Gainesville Sun, September 20, 2006

....... Sixty percent opposed private companies running state prisons - a few state prisons are currently run by private companies - and 73 percent favored allowing inmates to vote after completing their sentences, a process that is not automatic in Florida and can be convoluted for former felons.

Survey: 2006 Public Opinion Survey of Florida Citizens Concerning the Florida Department of Corrections (.pdf)

Posted by Info Center at 2:11 PM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By KAREN VOYLES, Gainesville Sun (FL), September 19, 2006

Back in January, the Department of Corrections thought it had health care for a quarter of all state inmates taken care of for a decade. Prison officials signed a nearly $69 million-a-year contract with Prison Health Services to provide health care for inmates in 13 South Florida prisons for the next 10 years. Instead of 10 years, however, the contract will end up lasting just over 10 months.

Officials at Prison Health Services, owned by the publicly traded American Service Group, said they based their winning low bid for the contract on faulty numbers from the state. They also blamed rising health care costs for needing to bail out of a contract that they said "underperformed financially."

Related article from the Sun Sentinel: Tennessee firm backs out of $792 million deal to provide health care to Fla. inmates

Posted by Info Center at 2:02 PM in Corrections Health | Permalink

Source: John MacCormack, Express-News (TX), Web Posted: 09/21/2006 12:36 AM CDT

Gregorio De La Rosa was only four days from completing his sentence at a private prison in Raymondville when he was beaten to death in the prison yard on April 26, 2001. Late Friday, a Willacy County jury returned a $47.5 million verdict, the largest verdict in county history, in a negligence suit filed by his family against the Wackenhut Corrections Corp., which ran the prison, and the prison warden.

...... Calls to defense lawyer Bruce Garcia in Austin were referred by his office to the Geo Group, a Florida company that spun off from Wackenhut after the incident and operates the facility.

Posted by Info Center at 1:53 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Privatization of Pittsburgh's repair garage hasn't saved much money or improved service, acting city Controller Tony Pokora said yesterday. Because the city underestimated the costs of vehicle repair, it must pay $1 million more than budgeted this year, and $3.5 million more than anticipated over the following two years, he said upon release of an audit of the garage. The privatization effort, launched by former Mayor Tom Murphy, "is a failure if we look at the numbers across the board," he said. "We're seeing problems consistent with when the city operated" the garage.

...... First Vehicle Services of Cincinnati, which took over the garage from the city in February 2005, issued a 35-page rebuttal.

Posted by Info Center at 3:07 PM in Horror Stories | Maintenance | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Gail Russell Chaddock. The Christian Science Monitor, September 14, 2006

Coming soon to a laptop near you: how government is spending your federal tax dollars - contracts, grants, and special projects sought by lawmakers. From wartime contracts for Halliburton to earmarks for the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center (think "famous groundhog") in Pennsylvania, all will be listed on a searchable database. It's the least controversial of all the reforms Congress has considered since last year's bribery and corruption scandals, and its passage will provide an effective new tool for anyone wanting to look over lawmakers' shoulders soon after they clear spending bills.

Bill S.2590 - Title: A bill to require full disclosure of all entities and organizations receiving Federal funds.

Posted by Info Center at 10:12 AM in Federal | Oversight/Contract Management | Permalink

Source: By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY, Updated 9/14/2006 11:14 PM ET

Newly formed cities are giving the keys to city hall to private companies that say they can run a government better than bureaucrats. Mayors in "contract cities" say they get better services for less money; more flexibility, because private employees can be hired and fired more easily than workers under civil service rules; and lower debt, because they can own fewer buildings and less equipment. Sandy Springs, a new Atlanta suburb, hired CH2M Hill to staff all of its departments except police and fire for about $30 million a year. The city of almost 100,000 has only four employees besides police officers and firefighters.

....... Kerry Korpi of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees says giving a company control of city hall is giving away control of the city. "Contractors aren't subject to the same kind of open-records and open-meetings laws as public employees are," she says. "You end up with a shadow government."

Related article from USA Today: Company dives in to handle Ga. city's troubles

Posted by Info Center at 9:54 AM in Contract Cities | Permalink

Source: By JAY MILLER, Crain's Cleveland Business, 3:01 pm, September 13, 2006

Ken Blackwell, the Republican candidate for governor, has been talking about privatizing the Ohio Turnpike on the campaign trail, and now a nonprofit organization has been created to jump on the bandwagon. Road to Work Ohio will meet with legislators, community leaders and others to promote selling or leasing the 51-year-old highway.

Posted by Info Center at 10:16 AM in Nonprofits | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By LISA SANDBERG, Houston Chronicle, September 14, 2006

....... It's one of a handful of operations in which an estimated 500 state inmates in three prisons make products such as windows and air-conditioning parts for the private sector. The program, in both public and private detention facilities, is part of the federal Prison Industry Enhancement (PIE) initiative. It has long rankled labor leaders, who've complained quietly that it could slowly but surely displace better-paid workers outside prison. That opposition is getting noisier as the state appears ready to add two new PIE operations to the four it now has.

...... The issue pits those anguished by the erosion of middle-class jobs, many of which have gone overseas, against those trying to rehabilitate inmates and enhance prison security. "This is not meant to displace workers in the free world, it is meant to reduce recidivism," said Randa Taylor, spokeswoman for the Geo Group, which operates the minimum-security Lockhart Unit, site of the largest PIE operations in the state.

Posted by Info Center at 10:11 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By JAMES DREW and STEVE EDER, Toledo Blade (OH), Friday, September 8, 2006

CLEVELAND — In the decade since the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation turned over the management of claims of injured workers to private companies, several politically connected firms have collected millions of dollars from the agency while pouring money into the campaign coffers of the state’s political leaders.

...... Brian Rothenberg, a former press secretary to Democratic Cleveland Mayor Michael White, said the GOP-controlled state government in 1997 under Gov. George Voinovich set up a new political ATM when it certified managed-care organizations to handle claims. “The pay-to-play atmosphere really began with the Voinovich administration. Privatization and the creation of MCOs were a product of that culture,’’ he said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:13 AM in Health | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: Associated Press (KY), September 7, 2006

Governor Bredesen has signed an executive order to move up enforcement of a new state law that calls for state inspectors to monitor the hiring practices of private firms working under state contracts. The order lays out steps to make sure state contractors follow a law passed in the most recent legislative session to bar state contractors from hiring illegal immigrants.

Posted by Info Center at 2:34 PM in Laws/Legislation | Permalink

Source: By ANNE GEGGIS, Daytona Beach News Journal (FL), September 07, 2006

A private company took over health care for Volusia County's jail last year, promising to save the county $2.2 million through 2008. But today the County Council will be asked to increase its spending on jail medical services by $1 million so Prison Health Services can complete this year's contract, which ends in three weeks.

Posted by Info Center at 2:28 PM in Corrections Health | Permalink

Source: By Scott Mobley, Record Searchlight (CA), September 7, 2006

Top brass for Library Services and Systems LLC (LSSI) met with Shasta County Library employees Wednesday morning, less than 12 hours after the Redding City Council agreed to take ownership of the system and turn over its management to the private, Maryland-based firm.

........ LSSI must grant current employees job interviews and automatically give them 5 preference points out of 100 possible, under the agreement transferring library system ownership from Shasta County to Redding. Library employees not wanting to work for LSSI are guaranteed other jobs with the county -- although likely at lower pay.

Posted by Info Center at 2:26 PM in Library | Permalink

Source: PETER WONG, Statesman Journal (OR), September 7, 2006

A state audit (.pdf) has criticized how the 12 largest data-processing centers of state agencies were merged into a single State Data Center in Salem last year.

The audit faulted the Department of Administrative Services for having to hire almost as many people for the consolidated center as were working in the 12 agencies, even though the total was supposed to shrink from 155 to 93 by mid-2007. The revised level is 149, "postponing or negating much of the promised project savings," said the audit released by the secretary of state.

The audit also questioned spending of $3.4 million of the $7.7 million that the state paid between January 2005 and February of this year to Accenture, a management consulting and technology services firm that helped the state plan and implement the single data center.

Posted by Info Center at 10:32 AM in Audits/Reporting | Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By AETNA SMITH, Jackson Sun (TN), September 7, 2006

Library Board votes to enter contract negotiations with Maryland-based bidder. About a dozen audience members stared in disbelief as the Jackson-Madison County Library Board decided Wednesday to enter contract negotiations for library management with private bidder Library Systems and Services LLC. The vote surprised those at the meeting because board members recently had said they would not take action toward privatizing library management until after a court has heard an appeal by Madison County.

Posted by Info Center at 10:30 AM in Library | Permalink

Source: Associated Press (TX), Fri, Aug. 25, 2006

DALLAS - Search teams scanned the Mineral Wells area Friday after an inmate escaped from a privately run pre-parole transfer center near Lake Mineral Wells State Park. ...... The prison is operated for the TDCJ by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America. Mineral Wells is about 45 miles west of Fort Worth.

Posted by Info Center at 10:28 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: JON GAMBRELL, THE BELLINGHAM HERALD (WA), August 26, 2006

At a private alternative jail for Whatcom County criminals, one guard has been convicted for possession of marijuana and another for theft - while on the job. A Security Specialists Plus guard carried marijuana into its Baker Creek Place facility; another stole money from an inmate. One had multiple felony convictions, while another sexually harassed inmates, Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:27 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By FERNANDO DEL VALLE, Valley Morning Star (TX), Sept. 1, 2006

RAYMONDVILLE - Testimony continued Thursday in the civil trial of a private prison company accused of negligence in the beating death of a Laredo prisoner. The family of Gregorio De La Rosa alleges Wackenhut Corrections Corp. failed to supervise two prisoners who used socks filled with padlocks to beat him on April 26, 2001.

Posted by Info Center at 10:24 AM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By MARGARET BAKER, Sun Herald (FL), Fri, Sep. 01, 2006

HATTIESBURG — The search ended has ended for a prisoner who escaped from the custody of a private prison transport service that had stopped at the Mississippi Welcome Center on its way to Texas from Indiana earlier in the week. Kevin Alva, 49, escaped custody after the private transport service group made a stop at the Mississippi Welcome Center on Interstate 10 just past the Mississippi-Alabama state line Monday.

Posted by Info Center at 10:23 AM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune (UT), 09/06/2006

An investigation into possible corruption at a Salt Lake City corrections center for federal inmates has resulted in an indictment against two employees there. William Lynn Appawora, 37, and Larry Lee Jensen, both of Salt Lake City, were indicted Friday on one count each of destruction, alteration or falsification of a record in a federal investigation. The two, who are accused of tampering with records of urine tests, face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, if convicted. The probe targeted Cornell Community Corrections Center, a private corporation that contracts to house inmates after they are released from federal prisons outside of Utah.

Posted by Info Center at 10:21 AM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By Dan Frosch, Santa Fe Reporter, August 30, 2006

A Santa Fe dentist and his assistant say they quit their jobs at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in 2004 because of concerns that state inmates were not receiving adequate dental care. Dr. Norton Bicoll and Sharon Daily left their employment at Wexford Health Sources, which handles health care in nine New Mexico correctional facilities, because the company ordered them to cut their hours for inmates in half, they say.

Posted by Info Center at 10:19 AM in Corrections Health | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By Neil Gonzales, Mercury News (CA), Wed, Sep. 06, 2006

Menlo Park will hold off on any decision to privatize its city-run child-care program, after the for-profit group Building Kidz pulled out from the bidding process because of community opposition. But child-care privatization will probably remain a hot election topic and could become reality, as Councilwoman Lee Duboc plans to reopen the process if she retains her seat in November.

Posted by Info Center at 2:22 PM in Child Care | Permalink

Source: By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY, September 6, 2006

The Transportation Security Administration is warning 1,195 of its former employees that a contractor may have mailed their Social Security numbers and birth dates to the wrong addresses and left them open to identity fraud. The error, acknowledged in letters the TSA mailed in late August to each of the former employees, is the latest in a series of data breaches that may have exposed workers in both private and government jobs to identity thieves. ....... Accenture, a contractor that handles TSA personnel, sent 1,195 documents to the wrong former employees during a recent mailing, according to a letter signed by Richard Whitford, TSA assistant administrator for human capital.

Posted by Info Center at 2:18 PM in Federal | Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY, September 5, 2006

Beginning this week, thousands of Americans who owe taxes to the federal government will start getting phone calls to pay up — from private collection agencies, not the IRS. Despite congressional opposition and criticism from a federal employee union and a taxpayer advisory panel, the IRS is giving three collection agencies information on 12,500 taxpayers who owe less than $25,000 and have not disputed the debt.

Posted by Info Center at 3:17 PM in Federal | Tax Collection | Permalink