AFSCME Privatization Update

Source: By Rob Delaney, Bloomberg, July 3, 2007

Shares of Waste Management Inc., North America's largest trash hauler, surged as much as 8.9 percent after second-quarter profit beat analysts' estimates.

.......... Expenses related to a worker lockout this month may erode gains from higher prices in the third quarter, O'Donnell said.

``This was a big labor disruption for us, a lot bigger than any we've had before,'' he said, declining to quantify the loss.

Waste Management had to find replacement workers for 481 employees who were locked out of the Alameda County, California, region after contract negotiations broke down on July 6. The employees returned to work on July 26 after reaching an agreement.

Posted by Info Center at 3:49 PM in Waste Management | Permalink

Source: New York City Mayor’s Office of Contract Services

The NYC Vendor Search provides detailed information about vendors that do business with the City of New York and their principals. Vendor and principal information available in this application is obtained through VENDEX questionnaires. For more information on VENDEX, please visit www.nyc.gov/vendex.

Note: New York City Vendor Search, “is a subset of data from the City’s Vendor Information Exchange System (VENDEX) system which is maintained by the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services (MOCS).”

Posted by Info Center at 3:18 PM in Audits/Reporting | Oversight/Contract Management | Permalink

Leadership Update, Volume #28, Issue #22, AFSCME Council 40 (WI), July 27, 2007

The sale of the St.Croix County Health Center was put off track last week when the buyer, lined up by the County, pulled out. The members of Local 2721 have been part of a grassroots effort to convince citizens that keeping the Health Center was in the best interests of everyone concerned. The would-be buyer cited public opposition to privatization as the reason for pulling out. This is good news, but the battle here isn’t over.

Posted by Info Center at 3:15 PM in Health | Victories | Permalink

By Dakarai I. Aarons, Memphis Appeal (TN), July 24, 2007

Memphis City Schools is looking at bringing part of its busing in-house.

......... When the district's more than $20 million a year busing contract with LaidLaw ends in 2009, the cost is likely to go up by more than 20 percent because of the lack of competition, said Michael Goar, the district's chief operating officer.

....... The district has often come under fire for its longstanding contract with Laidlaw, which has been criticized as overpriced.

Posted by Info Center at 3:11 PM in Publicization | Schools K-12 | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Dick Kaukas, The Courier-Journal (KY), Sunday, July 29, 2007

The New Albany City Council took a first step yesterday toward restricting the powers of the city's storm water board, which recently agreed to a $507,000 no-bid contract with a private company to manage the city's drainage system. Technically, the council voted 5-1 at a special meeting to repeal the ordinance that created the board a year ago. But council members, including Beverly Crump and Kevin Zurschmiede, made it clear that what they really want to do is amend the ordinance. They propose to limit the no-bid contracts that the board can enter into and require regular consultation with the council about budget and operations.

…..….. Before yesterday's vote, 10 people addressed the council, including Mickey Thompson, head of Local 1861 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents city workers. He asked the council to "do something about this board."

Posted by Info Center at 3:05 PM in Laws/Legislation | Water & Sewer | Permalink

Source: By JIM PROVANCE, Toledo BLADE (OH), Sunday, July 29, 2007

……. Highly paid contractors outnumber state employees on the ongoing $158 million Ohio Administrative Knowledge System (OAKS) 167-to-119. Of the 167 contractors on the project, 117 work for Accenture, the company that was behind the failed OhioWorks. The OAKS project manager, state employee David White, was being paid about $52 an hour when he resigned on July 20 rather than be fired. That's roughly a quarter of the $200 an hour Ohio taxpayers were paying Compuware Corp. consultant Brian Welch, who was working as his assistant. Mr. Welch's contract has been terminated.

……. Bruce Wyngaard, operations director for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, said progress has been made since 2001 to develop more in-house computer talent and that the Strickland administration has been receptive to continuing that. But he said not enough of that has been done to date with OAKS, a massive centralization of payroll, purchasing, and other accounting functions from various departments and agencies.

Posted by Info Center at 3:03 PM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: By Maureen Groppe and Karen Eschbacher, Indianapolis Star, July 28, 2007

The House passed a farm, nutrition and energy bill Friday that would force Indiana to undo its private contract for screening food stamp applicants. "We feel it is fundamentally unfair," Mitch Roob, secretary of Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration, said of a provision in the bill that would bar states from hiring private contractors to screen food stamp applicants.

……. Lettie Oliver, associate director of Council 62 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Friday's action was a step in the right direction because it would return the running of Indiana's welfare system to state employees. Oliver said privatizing welfare erodes transparency and accountability because a private company doesn't have to answer to the public the way the government does.

Posted by Info Center at 2:59 PM in Federal | Laws/Legislation | Social Services | Permalink

Source: By SOLOMON MOORE, New York Times, July 31, 2007

...... The number of inmates shipped out of Arizona would be even larger, but plans for additional transfers to Indiana had to be called off in April after 500 inmates from Arizona rioted at a privately run prison in New Castle, Ind., in part because of complaints about the long distance. Two correctional officers and five inmates were injured in the two-hour incident. Officials there assigned blame to poorly trained guards, many of whom were hired just days before the transfers.

Ms. Schriro said the riot showed how desperate the situation had become. The state’s overcrowding worsened, she said, after two private prisons in Texas now run by the GEO Group, canceled Arizona’s contract and instead signed more lucrative deals with federal corrections agencies.

....... State corrections officials and prison industry executives say that prison companies are an attractive alternative when cash-strapped state governments need additional prison space faster than they can build it. Private prisons can also provide political cover to elected officials seeking to avoid charges of coddling criminals and spending large sums on prison construction.

Posted by Info Center at 2:56 PM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By Elizabeth Newell, GovExec.com, July 30, 2007

Agencies are struggling to make progress on President Bush's initiative to open federal jobs to bids from contractors, according to a new quarterly score card released by the Office of Management and Budget Monday.

The assessment for the third quarter of fiscal 2007, which ended June 30, showed five agencies with with one-level drops in their competitive sourcing grades and a sixth with a two-level downgrade. The score card gives agencies traffic-light-style ratings of red for "unsatisfactory," yellow for "mixed results" and green for "success."

Posted by Info Center at 2:53 PM in Federal | Permalink

Source: Lori Holcomb, The Battle Creek Enquirer (MI), July 28, 2007

....... A new bill before the state Senate that would privatize 20 percent more of Michigan's foster care system has parents like the Tomkys worried that foster kids' well-being will be jeopardized. "I think it's a disaster," Tomky said.

Posted by Info Center at 1:13 PM in Laws/Legislation | Social Services | Permalink

Source: Reuters, Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:22AM EDT

What Wall Street had thought would be a flood of infrastructure deals has turned out to be a trickle.

Last year bankers predicted cash-strapped state and city governments would sell or lease airports, toll roads and other public assets to investors with billions of dollars clamoring for stable, long-term returns.

Instead, public resistance against such sales has caused government officials in many states to hesitate, slowing deal traffic to a crawl.

Posted by Info Center at 12:54 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Permalink

Source: By JENNIFER LaFLEUR, The Dallas Morning News (TX), Sunday, July 29, 2007

Associated Marine Institutes has been cited as a model youth rehabilitation program, but the nonprofit has been hit with more than a dozen lawsuits nationwide and has lost contracts in two states. In Texas, AMI runs two very different programs for TYC.

Its Rio Grande Marine Institute in Los Fresnos in South Texas was designed for troubled youths to receive marine and wilderness training, and perform community service. In 1999, the Texas House of Representatives called AMI's work at the institute "of the utmost importance for the future of the youth of this state."

But the facility, which AMI opened in 1986, had the second highest rate of abuse allegations among private contractors in Texas in 2006. And reviews by TYC monitors from 2000 to early 2007 revealed multiple cases where the institute failed to live up to its promise of "structured and supervised activities" for at least 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

Posted by Info Center at 12:41 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Nonprofits | Permalink

Source: BY LIZ COBBS, Ann Arbor News (MI), Sunday, July 29, 2007

Pinckney school officials weren't trying to lead the way on privatization when they decided to outsource food service in 1976 and bus transportation in 1994. They just wanted to find ways to save money, said Linda Moskalik, assistant superintendent for finance and operations.

......... During a time of budget cuts, declining student enrollment and uncertainty over state funding, many districts have turned to private companies to provide food, janitorial and busing services, and that trend is expected to continue.

Posted by Info Center at 12:33 PM in Custodial | Food Services | Schools K-12 | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By HOLLY BECKA, The Dallas Morning News

The Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, run by the GEO Group Inc., is Texas' largest private juvenile prison and has had the highest rate of alleged abuse among TYC's contractors over the last seven years.

Related article from the Dallas Morning News: Texas' youth jail operators have troubled histories / TYC contractors housing inmates have lost contracts, closed doors elsewhere

Posted by Info Center at 12:31 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By Chris Metinko, Oakland Tribune (CA), 07/28/2007 02:50:33 AM PDT

Waste Management of Alameda County received more good news Friday, a day after the company reached a tentative contract with its 481 locked-out drivers.

Oakland officials said at a City Hall press conference that the city will withdraw both its request for an injunction against the company and a request for penalties for a contempt-of-court charge.

Posted by Info Center at 12:28 PM in Waste Management | Permalink

Source: By Jenna Johnson, Washington Post, Thursday, July 26, 2007

Children at Riverside Hospital in Northwest Washington are at risk from "serious and persistent abuse and neglect," according to a report from an advocacy group, leading city mental health officials to start weekly visits to monitor conditions.

The psychiatric hospital for youths up to age 21 stopped accepting new long-term patients last week.

....... There have been previous allegations of abuse at the private, for-profit hospital, including one into the death in December of a teenage resident. In 1997, federal regulators threatened to cut Riverside, which opened in 1995, from the Medicaid program.

Posted by Info Center at 12:04 PM in Horror Stories | Mental Health | Permalink

Source: Waco Tribune (TX), Thursday, July 26, 2007

Back when Ronald Reagan could get taxpayers frothy over tales of “welfare Cadillacs,” the real scandal they didn’t hear about until too late was corporate welfare.

……. In Texas, lawmakers went to great lengths this session to make sure working-poor families don’t con Texas by exceeding income limits for the doctors’ visits and flu shots made possible by the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Fire up your ire, boys. Where was the umbrage four years ago when, with thousands of children being dropped from CHIP, auditors found that the state had overpaid a vendor $20 million for administering the program, including millions for individual consultants? But, you see, that’s just the cost of privatizing government.

Posted by Info Center at 12:00 PM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette (PA), Thursday, July 26, 2007

Gov. Ed Rendell assailed two Republican congressmen for trying to block the state's plans to place tolls on Interstate 80, saying their actions leave him no choice but to revive his unpopular plan to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private operator.

Posted by Info Center at 11:58 AM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Harold Meyerson, Washington Post, Thursday, July 26, 2007

……. Over the past six years, the Bush administration has contracted out government whenever possible. The government spent $219 billion on private contracts in 2000; for the past two years, its annual spending on private contractors has topped $400 billion. Much of that is going to the contractors providing services to our forces in Iraq, but the privatization extends well beyond the war. The Energy Department, Friedman testified, has 15,000 federal employees and pays for roughly 100,000 contract employees.

Posted by Info Center at 11:57 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: OMB Watch, July 24, 2007

Both the House and Senate have taken important steps toward ending the wasteful and risky Internal Revenue Service (IRS) private tax collection program. The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill (H.R. 3056) that would repeal the program, and the Senate Appropriations Committee cleared a bill (H.R. 2829) that would tightly limit the funding available at the IRS to administer the program.

Posted by Info Center at 11:55 AM in Federal | Tax Collection | Permalink

Source: By KEITH ROYSDON, Muncie Star Press (IN), July 27, 2007

MUNCIE -- Hundreds of jobs at a planned IBM call center in Daleville could be lost if Congress passes the 2007 farm bill with language to limit the privatization of state welfare functions, Rep. Mike Pence said Thursday.

The farm bill -- which could come to a House vote before noon today -- has a provision that prohibits states from entering into contracts to privatize some welfare programs, Pence said.

....... The bill's provisions would "mandate that only state employees deal with food-stamp applicants and determine their eligibility," Gannett News Service reported. "It would also prevent states from using federal funds to cancel the private contracts they'd no longer be able to have."

Posted by Info Center at 11:50 AM in Federal | Social Services | Permalink

Source: By Jim McElhatton, Washington Times, July 24, 2007

The Reston-based Maximus consulting company agreed yesterday to pay $30.5 million to resolve a criminal investigation into whether it falsified tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid claims prepared for the D.C. government.

The overall settlement, announced by the Justice Department, also includes more than $12 million that federal authorities said they recovered from the D.C. government in connection with the investigation.

....... The District hired Maximus, one of the country's largest government consulting companies, to help recoup Medicaid funds for services that the agency provided to foster children.

However, Mr. Turner's lawsuit charged the company's work was "grounded in fraud."

Posted by Info Center at 11:46 AM in Federal | Health | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: BY NASEEM SOWTI, Ocala STAR-BANNER (FL), July 27, 2007

The private company that provides medical care at the Marion County Jail is refusing to renegotiate the third year of its contract because the Sheriff's Office isn't offering enough money.

"So we will probably end up terminating that contract," Sheriff Ed Dean said on Wednesday.

The contract for Tennessee-based Prison Health Services will end on Oct. 1. Dean would have to find another way to provide medical care for inmates. On Wednesday, he floated one possibility: creating a community nonprofit group to handle the job.

Posted by Info Center at 11:42 AM in Corrections Health | Permalink

Source: Edited by Don Loving, Council 75 Public Affairs Director OREGON AFSCME, e-lert #23, July 25, 2007

Despite efforts to privatize our animal control functions to the Humane Society we were able to beat back the “PETA With a Badge” advocates one more time. This bill would have passed if it had not been for the activities of member leaders concerned over the possible compromised security at the Primate Center of OHSU.

Posted by Info Center at 10:23 AM in Victories | Permalink

Source: Reason Foundation news release, July 26, 2007

Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report (.pdf) finds states are increasingly partnering with the private sector to build roads and reduce traffic jams that have become one of the biggest complaints among taxpayers living in nearly every mid- to large-sized city in the country. The report analyzes the latest developments in privatization and government reform in the areas of transportation, aviation, education, local government services, telecommunications, and eminent domain.

Posted by Info Center at 10:20 AM in Overview/General | Permalink

Source: Democracy Now, Thursday, July 26th, 2007

Author R.J. Hillhouse caused a stir in Washington last month when she revealed more than 50 percent of the National Clandestine Service has been outsourced to private firms. Now Hillhouse has exposed private companies are heavily involved in the nation's most important and most sensitive national security document – the President's Daily Brief. And there appears to be few safeguards from preventing corporations from inserting items favorable to itself or its clients into the President's Daily Brief in order to influence the country's national security agenda.

Posted by Info Center at 10:17 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: Simon Chesterman, New York University School of Law & Chia Lehnardt, New York University - School of La, eds., Oxford University Press, 2007

Download the Paper (PDF format) - July 20, 2007

Frequently characterized as either mercenaries in modern guise or the market's response to security gaps, private military companies - commercial firms offering military services ranging from combat and military training and advice to logistical support - play an increasingly important role in armed conflicts, UN peace operations, and providing security in unstable states. Executive Outcomes turned around an orphaned conflict in Sierra Leone in the mid-1990s; Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) was instrumental in shifting the balance of power in the Balkans, enabling the Croatian military to defeat Serb forces and clear the way for the Dayton negotiations; in Iraq, estimates of the number of private contractors on the ground are in the tens of thousands. As they assume more responsibilities in conflict and post-conflict settings, their growing significance raises fundamental questions about their nature, their role in different regions and contexts, and their regulation. This volume examines these issues with a focus on governance, in particular the interaction between regulation and market forces. It analyzes the current legal framework and the needs and possibilities for regulation in the years ahead. The book as a whole is organized around four sets of questions, which reflect the four parts of the book. First, why and how is regulation of PMCs now a challenging issue? Secondly, how have problems leading to a call for regulation manifested in different regions and contexts? Third, what regulatory norms and institutions currently exist and how effective are they? And, fourth, what role has the market to play in regulation?

Posted by Info Center at 1:17 PM in Federal | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By AMY DOOLITTLE, Federal Times, July 23, 2007

House Democrats intend to make it harder for unethical and poor-performing contractors to win federal business.

“Right now, there is nothing stopping a fraudulent contractor from bouncing from federal agency to federal agency, fleecing U.S. taxpayers the whole way,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said July 18 at a House hearing to review the matter.

She and Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., introduced this month a bill that would create a new extensive database on every federal contractor that has done work for the government in the last five years.

Posted by Info Center at 1:07 PM in Audits/Reporting | Federal | Oversight/Contract Management | Permalink

Source: NBC6.com, 4:55 pm EDT July 24, 2007

Protesters in downtown Miami on Tuesday demanded that Miami-Dade County commissioners ban the Wackenhut security company from any county contracts.

The protesters from the Service Employees International Union protested outside the county government building as commissioners were meeting inside.

The protest came after an NBC 6 investigation into a preliminary county audit of Wackenhut's contract. The investigation showed millions of dollars paid by county taxpayers to Wackenhut were unaccounted for.

Posted by Info Center at 1:05 PM in Horror Stories | Public Safety | Permalink

Source: By Jeffrey Leib, Denver Post, 06/01/2007

A team of companies from Portugal and Brazil has agreed to lease the financially distressed Northwest Parkway toll road for 99 years in a deal valued at $603 million.

The transaction buys out the roughly $503 million in bond debt carried by the toll highway and includes an additional $60 million that the companies will contribute for the extension of the road to Colorado 128, near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (formerly Jefferson County Airport), said parkway executive director Steve Hogan.

Posted by Info Center at 1:52 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Steve Brandt, Star Tribune (MN), July 20, 2007

Minneapolis will shed eight of the 24 parking ramps it operates under an $88.2 million deal approved over the objections of some union representatives.

The City Council approved the privatization deal 11-0, adding some job dislocation help for the undetermined number of largely immigrant workers who lose jobs.

....... The sale allows the city to retire about one-third of the debt on its parking facilities, and strengthen its cash flow on the remaining ramps, according to projections. The privately held ramps would generate an estimated $3.4 million in property taxes annually.

Posted by Info Center at 11:22 AM in Public Works | Transportation | Permalink

Source: Chris O’Malley, Indiana Business Journal, Sat. July 21 - 2007

The Indianapolis Airport Authority, which has assumed management of the city’s airports from BAA, said it paid the British firm $21 million over nearly a dozen years to bring brand-name stores and restaurants to a terminal where concessionaires long had gouged passengers.

The BAA contract unceremoniously expired on July 15, and authority officials now taking the helm for the first time since 1995 say they’re confident the millions of dollars in tuition schooled them to continue to innovate as they prepare to open a new terminal.

But those now running what was the first airport in the nation to be privately managed will have to be diligent to boost revenue, to resist the kind of government patronage alleged by BAA’s former Indianapolis director—and to stay current with peers, observers say.

........ If anything, Kish sees advantages to returning to municipal management. Besides saving an average of $1.75 million a year by not having to pay BAA management fees, municipal management removes the need for BAA oversight by the airport authority.

Posted by Info Center at 11:17 AM in Publicization | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Yolanda Woodlee, Washington Post, Friday, July 20, 2007

The District wasted nearly $100 million over the past five years overpaying health care contractors for services that many Medicaid patients did not receive, a situation that puts the city in danger of losing federal funding, the D.C. Office of the Inspector General said (.pdf) yesterday.

Auditors found that three contractors -- Amerigroup Maryland, D.C. Chartered Health Plan and Health Right -- that coordinate medical services for about 90,000 low-income residents received a total of $96.6 million in "excess payments."

Posted by Info Center at 10:27 AM in Federal | Health | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By PATRICK MARLEY, Journal Sentinel (WI), July 20, 2007

Madison - A major overhaul of the state's Medicaid computer system will cost at least $9.3 million - or 28.8% - more than originally planned, largely because of changes to state and federal laws and rules, officials said.

……. Hayden said the state has an airtight contract with EDS Corp. of Plano, Texas, to finish the job. "We don't pay EDS until they do their work," he said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:24 AM in Federal | Health | Permalink

Source: Associated Press (IN), Friday, Jul 20, 2007

A provision in the federal farm bill moving through Congress would force Indiana to cancel its $1.16 billion deal to privatize parts of its welfare system and force rollbacks of some of the child protection gains the state has made, top aides to Gov. Mitch Daniels said Thursday.

……. The provision also would affect food stamp operations that have been privatized to varying degrees in 21 other states, plus five other states where such contracts are being considered, according to the National Governors Association, which is lobbying to defeat the provision. However, a coalition of unions, anti-hunger groups and social services agencies have aligned themselves behind the language, saying in a letter to members of Congress that it's aimed at guarding the integrity of the food stamp program “and ensure and fair and equal access and treatment for all applicants.”

Related article from the Indianapolis Star: State welfare revamp at risk

Posted by Info Center at 10:22 AM in Federal | Social Services | Permalink

Source: BY GARRY LENTON, The Patriot-News (PA), Thursday, July 19, 2007

Overtime hours worked by security officers at Three Mile Island for much of last year were mostly within limits imposed by federal regulators, an investigation by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission concluded.

....... The officers, who are employed by Wackenhut Nuclear Services, also said that a manpower shortage was disrupting training schedules and that fatigued staff were reluctant to report themselves unfit for duty for fear of losing their jobs.

......But the NRC, relying on an internal investigation carried out by Exelon Nuclear, the parent company of plant operator AmerGen Energy, concluded that the hours worked were allowable under agency rules. Those rules allow individuals to work up to 72 hours a week. The rule also permits plant operators to average the hours worked by several employees, allowing some, but not all, to spend longer hours on the job.

The probe found two exceptions where a security officer worked more than the allowed hours. The finding was characterized as a minor violation that didn't require an enforcement action, according to the NRC's report.

...... Though the NRC's work-hour rules were met, the agency is poised to adopt new rules that would make it harder for plant operators to work employees more than 48 hours a week. The new rules, expected to go into effect this year, would eliminate group averaging.

The change would force most plant owners to hire more officers, industry officials said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:20 AM in | Permalink

Source: By Rachael Joyner, South Florida Sun-Sentinel (FL), July 20, 2007

Palm Beach Gardens A former security guard claims he was harassed by a co-worker because of his religion, and then fired for complaining about it.

...... "This is a case of religious discrimination because [the co-worker] used words like 'terrorist' and 'Guantanamo,'" said Altaf Ali, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national group that defends the civil rights of Muslims in America.

........ The council held a news conference Thursday to present Amar's case against his former employer, Wackenhut Corp., a private security and investigation business. Amar asked the company for a formal apology and a full investigation of his harassment complaints but got neither, he said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:18 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: Pat Schneider, Capital Times (WI), 7/19/2007

Tomas Contreras, a Madison businessman held for 81 days earlier this year when he tried to re-enter the United States, is working to expose the cruelties, including a two-week stay in an isolation chamber, that he said he was subjected to at privately run detention centers in Texas.

...... At the Laredo Processing Center in Laredo, run by Tennessee-based Corrections Corp. of America, a national prison services giant, Contreras said he was placed in a large dormitory with 80 or more men from around the world.

Posted by Info Center at 10:15 AM in Corrections | Federal | Permalink

Source: By David Siders, The Record (CA), July 18, 2007

The City Council abandoned the city's landmark, $600 million water privatization deal late Tuesday, dropping its appeal of a court's ruling that the deal was illegal and promising to retake control of water and sewer facilities by March 1.

The decision, reached 5-0 in a private meeting, cheered the Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton, which has sought to dismantle the 20-year deal with water giant OMI-Thames Water since the council approved it in 2003.

......... In a separate agreement with OMI-Thames, the two sides struck a partial settlement in which the company will finish upgrading the city's sewer plant and will pay the city about $2.1 million to settle outstanding issues before leaving Stockton next year, officials said.

Related article from Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE): Stockton California water stays public

Posted by Info Center at 10:54 AM in Laws/Legislation | Publicization | Water & Sewer | Permalink

Source: GAO Report GAO-07-1111T, July 18, 2007

The federal government is the largest single buyer in the world, obligating over $400 billion in fiscal year 2006 for a wide variety of goods and services. Because contracting is so important to how many agencies accomplish their missions, it is critical that agencies focus on buying the right things the right way. This includes ensuring that contracts are awarded only to responsible contractors, and that contractors are held accountable for their performance. Use of contractor performance information is a key factor in doing so. This testimony covers three main areas concerning the use of contractor performance information: (1) the various ways in which a contractor's performance may be considered in the contracting process; (2) how information on past performance is to be used in selecting contractors, as well as the various mechanisms for how that occurs; and (3) some of the key issues that have arisen in considering past performance in source selection, as seen through the prism of GAO's bid protest decisions. GAO has previously made recommendations for improving the use of contractor performance information, but is not making any new recommendations in this testimony.

Posted by Info Center at 10:52 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By ROBERT T. GARRETT, The Dallas Morning News (TX), Thursday, July 19, 2007

Texas' efforts to hand off social services duties to private companies have enriched lobbyists while hurting poor people and wasting tax dollars, a watchdog group said Wednesday. Over the past decade, 13 companies ultimately hired by the state after four big pushes toward privatization paid 102 lobbyists between $4.5 million and $11.3 million, according to a report by Texans for Public Justice.

Posted by Info Center at 10:49 AM in Social Services | Permalink

Source: Associated Press (IN), July 19, 2007

Federal official says Indiana broke the law by failing to interview all those who applied Indiana's rollout of its privatized welfare program has broken federal food stamp rules in some cases by bypassing state employees, and a key official on Wednesday ordered steps including more training for state workers.

……… Indiana risks losing millions of dollars in federal money if it does not fix the problem. The letter from Ollice Holden, regional administrator for the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service, gave FSSA 15 days to submit a plan to fix it.

Posted by Info Center at 10:47 AM in Federal | Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: BY Matthew Weigelt, Federal Computer Week, July 17, 2007

The definition of an inherently governmental function needs a re-examination because public employees and private-sector contractors are almost indistinguishable, U.S. Comptroller General David Walker told a Senate committee today.

……. Moreover, they need to spot the reasons prompting agencies to use contractors when the proper choice might be civil servants or military personnel. Walker listed possible factors including inadequate workforce structure, outdated hiring policies, classification and compensation approaches, and inadequate numbers of full-time equivalent slots.

Posted by Info Center at 10:38 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By Mark Niquette, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH (OH), Thursday, July 19, 2007 3:51 AM

E-mail exchanges among state officials about the theft of a computer backup tape containing sensitive personal information are clear: That material was not supposed to be on the tape.

....... State leaders are looking to a report by Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles, expected Friday, to address lingering questions about the incident affecting more than 1.2 million Ohio individuals, businesses and other groups with Social Security numbers or other information on the tape.

........ Meanwhile, Strickland confirmed yesterday that his office has discussed trying to hold financially accountable outside contractors who worked on the new system if it is proven they were significantly responsible for not securing the data.

........ Sylvester said the state has paid $63.8 million of the $158 million cost of the new system to outside contractors since 2001, with $48.6 million going to Accenture.

Accenture corporate spokesman Peter Soh said company officials "regret that the whole incident happened and any negative impact it could have on the citizens of Ohio."

Posted by Info Center at 10:34 AM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: Jody Lawrence-Turner, Spokesman Review (WA), July 19, 2007

Spokane representatives involved in selecting a company to run cameras that catch red-light runners will travel to Baltimore soon to inspect and inquire about how that city’s operation is working.

Affiliated Computer Services and Nestor Traffic Services contracted with the East Coast city about 2 ½ years ago, officials said.

Despite concerns raised regarding ACS’ involvement in an ongoing bribery case in Edmonton, Alberta, the city of Spokane’s nine-member selection committee voted 5-to-4 to go with the jointly-operated company.

Posted by Info Center at 10:32 AM in Information Technology | Permalink

Source: Project On Government Oversight (POGO), July 18, 2007

POGO announced today that it is releasing an improved and more user-friendly "Federal Contractor Misconduct Database" (FCMD) (www.contractormisconduct.org). For years, POGO has been scouring public sources to compile instances of misconduct involving the top 50 federal contractors to highlight how risky contractors continue to receive taxpayer funds. The new database, which covers instances of misconduct from 1995 to the present, includes the source documents for each instance, drawing primarily from government documents. While the database is not exhaustive, POGO hopes that contracting officials will use it as a resource when awarding contracts to assure that taxpayer dollars are only being directed to responsible contractors.

Posted by Info Center at 1:17 PM in Federal | Oversight/Contract Management | Websites/databases | Permalink

Source: By Brad Knickerbocker, The Christian Science Monitor, July 18, 2007 edition

There are two coalition armies in Iraq: the official one, which fights the war, and the private one, which supports it.

This latter group of civilians drives dangerous truck convoys, cooks soldiers' meals, and guards facilities and important officials. They rival in size the US military force there, and thousands have become casualties of the conflict. If this experience is any indication, they may change the makeup of US military forces in future wars.

Posted by Info Center at 11:22 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By Kevin Daytonm, Honolulu Advertiser (HI), Wednesday, July 18, 2007

For the second time in two years, improper actions by a corrections worker caused cell doors to unexpectedly open in a Mainland prison where Hawai'i inmates were supposed to be kept separated, triggering violence that injured a Hawai'i convict, prison officials said.

In the first incident at a Mississippi prison in 2005, Hawai'i convict Ronnie Lonoaea, 34, was beaten so severely that he suffered brain damage and is now confined to a wheelchair. Lonoaea's family sued the Hawai'i prison system and Corrections Corp. of America last week in connection with the case.

Posted by Info Center at 11:20 AM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: The Associated Press (CA), Tue, Jul. 17, 2007

A judge weighed in Tuesday on a labor dispute that has left piles of trash on Oakland's streets and ordered a refuse company that locked out its unionized drivers to pick up the rotting garbage.

Responding to a request from city lawyers, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller issued a temporary restraining order saying Waste Management of Alameda County must fulfill the terms of its municipal contract.

Posted by Info Center at 11:19 AM in Waste Management | Permalink

Source: BY SHARLONDA L. WATERHOUSE, Post-Tribune (IN), July 18, 2007

GARY -- After 20 years with Gary School Corp., Laidlaw is being given the heave-ho.

The company raised its rates, was dogged by accusations of chronic tardiness, and now has been outbid by Cincinnati, Ohio's One Button Services for the lucrative $6.8 million bus contract.

Posted by Info Center at 10:44 AM in Schools K-12 | Transportation | Permalink

Source: Lynn Peisner, American City and County, November 2006, Vol. 121 no. 12

On June 22, 2005 leaders of Atlanta’s Sandy Springs community had a seemingly insurmountable task before them. Sandy Springs would be incorporated within the year, marking the end of a 30-year struggle between residents and Fulton County, but it had fewer than six months to implement the kind of government residents had been demanding. By December, volunteers with very little political experience would create one of the first “contract cities” in the United States, hiring one company to operate and manage all city services except fire, police, and 911. The five-year contract costs the city and average of $27 million per year for the first two years, and by many accounts has delivered on promises of more responsive government.

Posted by Info Center at 10:40 AM in Contract Cities | Permalink

Source: Sergio Fernandez and Craig R. Smith, Review of Public Personnel Administration, December 2006, Vol. 26 no. 4

Contemporary public administration encompasses a wide variety of service delivery options. During the past two decades, privatization has become an increasingly utilized and legitimized approach. The perception that privatization poses a threat to public employment is seemingly widespread. Indeed, public sector unions often challenge the adoption of privatization programs. There is little evidence that individual rank-and-file public employees oppose privatization, however. In this study, the authors develop a multivariate model of support for privatization. Using a large-size public opinion data set from Georgia, the authors test the model and find that an individual’s employment in the public sector is a predictor of opposition to privatization. The authors then discuss the practical implications of public employee opposition to privatization. The authors conclude with a discussion of ways for reducing such opposition.

Posted by Info Center at 10:39 AM in Overview/General | Permalink

Source: Christopher Swope, Governing, January 2007, Vol. 20 no. 4

Cities and states are privatizing major pieces of infrastructure. Are they getting a sweet deal or selling out?

Posted by Info Center at 10:37 AM in Asset Sale/Lease | Overview/General | Permalink

Source: Crystal Collins-Camargo, State News, January 2007, Vol. 50 no. 1

The National Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services (QIC PWC) will be administering research grants in January or February 2007 to test innovative strategies for implementing performance-based contracting and quality improvement systems in the private sector.

Posted by Info Center at 10:36 AM in Social Services | Permalink

Source: Ellen Perlman, Governing, Vol. 20 no. 5, February 2007

Instead of the time-tested purchasing process, commonwealth officials are experimenting with a different business model — one the legislature introduced a decade ago but limited to transportation and school construction projects: letting the private sector become a partner. With that limit lifted in 2002, IT officials have been freed to tap private companies for their technical expertise and their deep pockets. Company representatives can be invited in the front door — before a project takes shape — to make suggestions about how the state could best improve a system. In return, the company whose suggestion wins is not only awarded the contract, it also gains the opportunity to reap revenue rewards in exchange for risking its own money on the success of the project.

Posted by Info Center at 10:34 AM in Information Technology | Permalink

Source: Alix Stuart, CFO, Vol. 23 no. 1, February 2007

When most CFOs think about liquidity, they're calculating how fast they can turn assets into cash. But Aqua America finance chief David Smeltzer is just as likely to be concerned about how smoothly water is flowing through the 10,000 miles of pipes his company owns. As the largest among a handful of publicly traded companies in America that are in the business of purifying and delivering tap water, Aqua America has operations in 13 states from Maine to Texas. Having kept up a steady pace of acquisitions — 25 to 30 per year for the past five years — Smeltzer says his company will continue its aggressive expansion. "There are unlimited targets out there," he says.
….Cash-strapped municipalities need help in updating and operating their aging waterworks, and deep-pocketed companies like Aqua America are offering their services. Most of the pipes and other infrastructure in this country are in dire need of replacement, requiring an investment of around $500 billion from 2000 through 2019, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates….

Posted by Info Center at 10:32 AM in Water & Sewer | Permalink

Source: Whyeda Gill-McLure, Labor Studies Journal, Vol. 32 no. 1, March 2007 (subscription required)

As public-service unions and workers struggle against privatization, they must emphasize that their labor is distinctive because it produces use-values composed of concrete, unquantifiable labor. Use-value production responds to social needs and permits the development of a "public service ethos." Market mechanisms are continually eroding public-service labor and welfare services in an effort to reduce their value to that of a commodity. Case study evidence presented here shows that such marketization causes job loss, casualization, intensification, and loss of worker morale. Workers and unions have fought hard to overcome the worst effects of contracting out by cooperating with other unions, with sympathetic managers, and with the local community. To keep their service from deteriorating, they can argue that municipal labor is distinctive. The article relates the findings and arguments to municipal manual labor in the United States.

Posted by Info Center at 10:29 AM in Overview/General | Permalink

Source: Dave Mann, The Texas Observer, Vol. 99 no. 7, April 6, 2007

In a misguided, poorly executed effort to let the private sector bring “efficiency” to Texas government, the state has squandered at least $100 million, cheated hundreds of thousands of needy Texans out of benefits, and now risks millions of dollars in federal fines for botching things up so badly.

Posted by Info Center at 10:28 AM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: Ed Brock and Brian Sedlak, American City & County, Vol. 122 no. 4, April 1, 2007

By selling public assets, local and state governments are raising funds and paying down debts without increasing taxes. The strategy was first applied to toll roads, and now parking garages and state lotteries are up for sale or lease to private investors. Asset concessions are used to bridge budget gaps while increasing or maintaining revenue from unprofitable assets.

Posted by Info Center at 3:48 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Lottery | Overview/General | Transportation | Permalink

Source: Sharon Dolovich, Outsourcing the U.S., Harvard University Press (via SSRN), 2007

Debates over contracting out government functions to private, for-profit entities often play out within a deliberative framework that can be thought of as “comparative efficiency.” From this perspective, the decision whether to privatize any given government function turns on which sector, public or private, would perform the relevant function more efficiently. Comparative efficiency thus has two defining features: it views the motivating question as a choice between public and private, and it treats efficiency as the sole value guiding the analysis. That comparative efficiency is the appropriate way to approach the issue of privatization tends to be taken for granted. Its value neutrality is also assumed. In this essay, I challenge these assumptions.

Using the example of private prisons, I argue that comparative efficiency operates instead as a rhetorical device that keeps the debate within particular bounds, excluding some concerns altogether and reframing others in ways consistent with its own priorities. I then consider the interests and values served by the ways comparative efficiency structures the private prisons debate, and argue that it is the project of privatization itself that is the beneficiary.

Posted by Info Center at 3:45 PM in Corrections | Overview/General | Permalink

Source: Centre for Education and Communication, Communication Workers of America, Jobs with Justice, New Trade Union Initiative, and Young Professionals Collective, October 2006

Background Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or outsourcing of business processes to external service providers has become a global phenomenon. Companies in developed countries outsource low skilled service jobs to developing countries. An educated labour force, high unemployment and relatively low wage levels make developing countries attractive for outsourcing back office service work. India has become one of the top back office service provider countries since it started to provide business services to developed countries like the US, the UK and Australia in the late 1990s. The resultant boom in the service sector in India has been accompanied by emerging global debates on the loss of service sector jobs in these developed countries.

Posted by Info Center at 3:42 PM in Offshore | Permalink

Source: A.T. Kearney, Inc, POD ATK307011

One thing about offshoring is certain: If an issue arises offshore, you can bet it will get five to 10 times more negative attention than if it had occurred onshore. The mainstream media deliver offshoring headlines through a very large megaphone. Nevertheless, companies continue to aggressively pursue offshoring—moving selected functions or processes to places in the world where they can be conducted at lower cost, either by third parties (outsourcing) or by their own, newly built (captive) capabilities. Why? Because their leaders know the wider realities of offshoring. They know that although it may be a risky game, offshoring also offers potentially great rewards: It helps companies compete in a global age, creates value for their shareholders, and improves their operational performance.

Posted by Info Center at 3:41 PM in Offshore | Permalink

Source: Devashish Mitra, Priya Ranjan, Institute for the Study of Labor, IZA Discussion Papers, no. 2805, May 2007

In this paper, in order to study the impact of offshoring on sectoral and economywide rates of unemployment, we construct a two sector general equilibrium model in which labor is mobile across the two sectors, and unemployment is caused by search frictions. We find that, contrary to general perception, wage increases and sectoral unemployment decreases due to offshoring. This result can be understood to arise from the productivity enhancing (cost reducing) effect of offshoring. If the search cost is identical in the two sectors, or even if the search cost is higher in the sector which experiences offshoring, the economywide rate of unemployment decreases. We also find multiple equilibrium outcomes in the extent of offshoring and therefore, in the unemployment rate. Furthermore, a firm can increase its domestic employment through offshoring. Also, such a firm’s domestic employment can be higher than a firm that chooses to remain fully domestic. When we modify the model to disallow intersectoral labor mobility, the negative relative price effect on the sector in which firms offshore some of their activity becomes stronger. In such a case, it is possible for this effect to offset the positive productivity effect, and result in a rise in unemployment in that sector. In the other