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Source: By Rachael Jackson, The News Journal (DE), January 30, 2007
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Milton Town Council violated the Freedom of Information Act during its effort to privatize the town's wastewater treatment system and enter into contract negotiations with a utility provider, the Attorney General's Office concluded. The ruling means the council will have to vote again on two measures that led to the privatization.
Source: by Brian Spegele, Indiana Daily Student (IN), Monday, January 29, 2007
Signs that read, "What would Herman Do?" abounded outside Assembly Hall on Saturday as union workers and their supporters rallied against outsourcing University services by invoking the name of former IU President Herman B Wells. About 50 protestors braved the cold and collected signatures for a petition calling on the IU board of trustees to "end all efforts to outsource IU jobs," according to the petition's text. Several trustees have said during the past few weeks that although nothing is certain yet, they believe contracting some University services could help cut nonacademic costs. Dave Warrick, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 62, disagrees with the trustees' entire premise that contracting will save money.
Source: By Amy Fagan, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, January 30, 2007
Some National School Boards Association (NSBA) members yesterday booed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings when she mentioned the administration's proposal to help students in chronically failing public schools attend private ones instead. Sandra Nichols, a member of the Pajaro Valley Unified School Board in Watsonville, Calif., asked Mrs. Spellings to respond to critics who think the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) already is "an effort to privatize our school system" by setting tough standards and then deeming public schools as failing.
Source: The Associated Press (FL), January 27, 2007
More than $4.5 million in questionable payments to two companies that run five private prisons resulted from the state's contract concessions, not overcharges by the firms, a top state official said Friday. After a Florida Senate leader asked for an investigation of her agency's settlement with one of the companies, Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South blamed the concessions on the state's now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission.
Source: By Dennis Welch, East Valley Tribune (AZ), January 29, 2007
Arizona needs more prisons to keep up with its growing inmate population, which already exceeds the intended capacity by an estimated 4,500 bodies. But who will build them? Lawmakers are divided on the issue of allowing for-profit companies to construct more prison walls, the latest chapter in a long-standing debate over the merits of a privately run prison system.
Source: Ryan Lengerich, Bradenton Herald (IN), Thu, Jan. 25, 2007
Liberty of Indiana Corp., the private company contracted to operate the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center, officially notified the state it will lay off 540 employees through June 30 when the state closes the center. ....... The state turned over the developmental center operation to Liberty in January 2006 for an 18-month period, so the layoffs do not come as a surprise to employees.
Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), January 24, 2007
The state has reached a $402,000 agreement with one of the two companies that run private prisons in Florida. Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South said Tuesday night she was satisfied with the settlement with The GEO Group Inc., which operates prisons in South Bay and Moore Haven. GEO also has a contract for the Graceville prison opening in September.
Source: Associated Press (WI), Thursday, January 25, 2007
The state Department of Transportation has agreed to pay a $500 forfeiture as part of a settlement for not complying with an open records request for a report comparing the cost of using state workers and contractors. The department agreed to plead guilty to allegations it “arbitrarily and capriciously” denied or delayed its response to a request for the report under the deal with the state Justice Department filed Wednesday. …… Former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, a Democrat, sued the department and its secretary, Frank Busalacchi, in June of last year. She alleged agency employees had completed the report (.pdf) in April 2004 and that Tim Hanley, then the president of the State Engineering Association, filed a request for the report in August 2004. But the agency refused to turn it over to the association, a union representing state engineers, until November 2004.
Source: By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (IN), January 25, 2007
Some among the dozens of people who lost their Indiana Toll Road jobs last week are not happy about their assignments to new state jobs. The private company that took over running the toll road last year terminated about 95 employees, who were eligible to be placed into other state government positions. …….. Hackler said the workers were given six months to find another state job on their own, but those who could not were placed in jobs, with his office trying to place people in positions that matched their skills.
Source: By CHARLES DUHIGG and JENNY ANDERSON, New York Times, January 23, 2007
The state of Illinois yesterday took the first steps in selling its state lottery system, hoping to attract as much as $10 billion from investors who, in return, would own a monopoly that could turn out to be the biggest jackpot yet. The sale, which may occur as early as the spring, would not be the first privatization of public property — both Chicago and Indiana have recently earned billions of dollars by signing long-term leases with private companies to run toll roads. But the proposed lottery sale is almost certain be one of the largest privatizations of a state-run program, and it raises concerns that states, some of them critically short of cash, are selling valuable assets that could otherwise provide consistent streams of revenue.
Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), January 19, 2007
A special investigation of Florida state employee personnel data that a computer subcontractor shipped to India found ''significant discrepancies'' in security Thursday, but no evidence that personal information has leaked out of the People First system. Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South called ex-Gov. Jeb Bush's most ambitious privatization project ''an ugly pig'' that she will have to make the most of, since there is no prospect of returning state personnel services back to government. ….. South conceded, though, that subcontractors in India had such lax hiring practices and security standards, it is all but impossible to know if someone nabbed for identity theft once worked for one of those firms. ''Security protocols of the companies that this was outsourced to are dismal,'' she said in an interview
Source: By TERRY GANEY, Columbia Tribune (MO), Tuesday, January 16, 2007
University of Missouri Health Care would help a private company deliver medical care through an electronic network to thousands of state prison inmates under a bid being considered by state officials. The health-care system has partnered with Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources Inc. for a Department of Corrections contract that could generate more than $100 million a year in gross revenue.
Source: By Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow Jr., Washington Post, Friday, January 19, 2007
The chief of the U.S. General Services Administration attempted to give a no-bid contract to a company founded and operated by a longtime friend, sidestepping federal laws and regulations, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post. Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan, a former government contractor appointed by President Bush, personally signed the deal to pay a division of her friend's public relations firm $20,000 for a 24-page report promoting the GSA's use of minority- and woman-owned businesses, the documents show.
Source: Indiana University news release, Jan. 23, 2007
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A study of nearly 500 city and county governments demonstrates that private sector contracting results in lower full-time public employment and higher numbers of part-time government workers. The study was led by Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs Professor Sergio Fernandez, with co-authors Craig Smith and Jeffrey Wenger of the University of Georgia, and was published this month in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
Source: By Ken Kusmer, Associated Press (IN), Fri, Jan. 12, 2007
The state’s human services chief told lawmakers Wednesday that his agency offered ample opportunity for public input before awarding a $1.16 billion contract to privatize parts of the state’s food stamp, Medicaid and welfare programs, a deal that is aimed at improving an outdated benefits sys- tem.
Facing persistent questioning from members of the House Ways and Means Committee, Secretary Mitch Roob of the Family and Social Services Administration held firm to his contention that the state’s methods of determining eligibility for benefits are sorely outdated and can be best fixed by outsourcing portions of the work to an IBM Corp.-led team of vendors.
Source: By Gerald W. McEntee, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), January 13, 2007
A recent Pentagon report revealed that we have spent more than $1 billion trying unsuccessfully to create an effective police force in Afghanistan. According to the report, the force is in shambles, and program managers are unable to locate hundreds of trucks or thousands of weapons purchased at U.S. taxpayer expense. Don't blame the military. Uncle Sam farmed out the job of training the Afghani police to a private contractor in Virginia.
........... Under President Bush, privatization has been the governing gospel. His rationale is that, if private companies compete for public work, they will do it more cheaply and efficiently than public agencies. Of course, that theory presumes contractors are actually competing.
....... Here in Florida, Jeb Bush came to office bragging about his desire to privatize 25 percent of state government - and left with a string of scandal-plagued outsourcing deals widely considered to represent his administration's greatest failure.
Source: By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET, St Petersburg Times (FL), January 15, 2007
Privatization could put an end to the turmoil at the county's animal shelter, according to several Citrus officials. On Friday, Assistant County Administrator Tom Dick and director of Public Safety Charles Poliseno met with representatives from the Humanitarians of Florida to discuss the idea. They plan to research privatization further before making a recommendation to county commissioners, Poliseno said Friday.
Source: By STEVE TERRELL, The New Mexican (NM), January 13, 2007
New Mexico's use of jails run by companies is the highest in the country -- and rising -- but do they live up to their promises? New Mexico leads the nation on another list: We're No. 1 in using private prisons to house inmates. The latest U.S. Justice Department statistics, published in a study called Prisons in 2005, showed 43 percent of New Mexico prisoners were in private lockups. That's well ahead of the 6 percent national rate for privately held state prison inmates.
...... While New Mexico leads the pack, it's not alone in the prison privatization trend. Nationwide in 2005, the percentage of inmates in private facilities rose by 8.8 percent.
Source: Council 13, Public Employee Press, Vol. 35 no. 6, November/December 2006
When the Altoona Area School District announced plans to privatize its transportation services over the summer, the members of Local 2952 feared the worst. But good contract language, solid labor-management skills, and tough negotiations saved the jobs and preserved most benefits of more than 40 members.
"It's a major accomplishment," said Staff Representative Ted Manna. The five-year contract with Student Transportation of America, which members approved in a 39-to-2 vote on July 17th, provides the same base pay as the previous contract, plus annual increases.
Nearly all of the workers' previous benefits were maintained. In addition, members of 2952 will receive a new longevity pay benefit.
Source: BY PATRICK GUINANE, Northwest Indiana Times, Monday, January 8, 2007
State Democrats made a lot of noise last year but could do little to derail the billion dollar ideas of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels. ….. But Democrats now have control of the Indiana House and could try to use their new power to block the GOP governor. One measure, for instance, could put the brakes on a pair of privately financed tollways Daniels wants to build -- the Illiana Expressway in Northwest Indiana and the Indiana Commerce Connector south of Indianapolis. House Bill 1062 also could nix a Hoosier Lottery lease -- another Daniels proposal promising a $1 billion bounty.
Source: By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek, Dec 22, 2006 11:00 AM
Government systems integrator Maximus Inc. said Thursday that it has initiated an arbitration process to resolve disputes arising under a subcontract with outsourcer Accenture for work on a Texas Health and Human Services Commission program that has come under fire from state lawmakers.
Maximus claims that Accenture unilaterally redefined the scope of the work on a contract to automate welfare eligibility assessment and enrollment services in the state, and that it's no longer profitable for Maximus to continue working on the deal.
Source: The News Journal (DE), Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at 4:23 pm
For six months in 2005, The News Journal examined conditions of care within the state's prisons. In late September 2005, the newspaper published a series of stories highlighting AIDS-related inmate deaths and suicides over the past four years; allegations by inmates of poor medical treatment for cancer, meningitis and hepatitis; and a no-bid $25.9 million contract awarded to St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services to manage health care in the state's prisons.
Source: By Angela Woodall, InsideBayArea.com (CA), 01/05/2007 03:09:38 AM PST
Alameda County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker is probing accusations that severe understaffing of medical personnel at two Alameda County jails is endangering their safety and inmates' health.
The inquiry by Lai-Bitker, the board's Health Committee chairwoman, came in response to complaints by Prison Health Services workers that staffing was 30 to 50 percent below contract requirements from August to December.
Source: By LAURIE FOX, The Dallas Morning News (TX), Monday, January 8, 2007
After a divisive tax rollback closed the Bedford city library almost two years ago, the facility is back in the political crosshairs. The City Council is expected on Tuesday to consider extending a request for proposals that could lead to outsourcing library operations to a private company.
Source: By Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, Tuesday, January 2, 2007
....... With the sleeve patch on his black shirt, the 9mm gun on his hip and the blue light on his patrol car, he looked like an ordinary police officer as he stopped the car on a Friday night last month. Watt works, though, for a business called Capitol Special Police. It is one of dozens of private security companies given police powers by the state of North Carolina -- and part of a pattern across the United States in which public safety is shifting into private hands.
Private firms with outright police powers have been proliferating in some places -- and trying to expand their terrain. The "company police agencies," as businesses such as Capitol Special Police are called here, are lobbying the state legislature to broaden their jurisdiction, currently limited to the private property of those who hire them, to adjacent streets. Elsewhere -- including wealthy gated communities in South Florida and the Tri-Rail commuter trains between Miami and West Palm Beach -- private security patrols without police authority carry weapons, sometimes dress like SWAT teams and make citizen's arrests.
Source: Tina Chau, kgmb9.com, December 29,2006 08:59 PM
Kahuku Hospital's Board signed a memorandum of understanding with the State today that could make the hospital a part of the State's hospital system by July.
Plagued with piles of debt, an under-utilized facility and rising healthcare costs, Kahuku Hospital officials announced in November the hospital was to close by New Year's Eve. Support came from the public and then the State, providing hope for the hospital. And today, the administrator says, the hospital got the $500,000 as promised by the State and will be able to stay open until at least February. This also buys the hospital officials more time to figure out what to do next.
Source: Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service News Agency, December 14, 2006
MAHALA EL-KOBRA, Egypt, (IPS) - More than 20,000 Egyptian textile workers have scored a rare win over plans to privatise their publicly-owned company, with a massive strike that forced the company's management and the pro-free market government to back down. Union leaders say the triumph has breathed life into the country's ailing labour movement, weakened by repeated hits from the government of President Hosni Mubarak. The last strike in this city was in 1988.
Source: by Daniel Schulman with James Ridgeway, Mother Jones, January/February 2007 Issue
........ Fifty years to the day after Ike put his pen to the Highway Act, another Republican signed off on another historic highway project. On June 29, 2006, Mitch Daniels, the former Bush administration official turned governor of Indiana, was greeted with a round of applause as he stepped into a conference room packed with reporters and state lawmakers. The last of eight wire transfers had landed in the state's account, making it official: Indiana had received $3.8 billion from a foreign consortium made up of the Spanish construction firm Cintra and the Macquarie Infrastructure Group (mig) of Australia, and in exchange the state would hand over operation of the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road for the next 75 years. ....... The one thing everyone agreed on was that the Indiana deal was just a prelude to a host of such efforts to come. Across the nation, there is now talk of privatizing everything from the New York Thruway to the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey turnpikes, as well as of inviting the private sector to build and operate highways and bridges from Alabama to Alaska. More than 20 states have enacted legislation allowing public-private partnerships, or P3s, to run highways. Robert Poole, the founder of the libertarian Reason Foundation and a longtime privatization advocate, estimates that some $25 billion in public-private highway deals are in the works; a remarkable figure given that as of 1991, the total cost of the interstate highway system was estimated at $128.9 billion.