Panel to study ways to streamline city government
Source: By Gary Washburn, Chicago Tribune (IL), August 24, 2007
A blue-ribbon panel will spend the next year studying strategies to streamline city government and find ways to stretch the public dollars needed to run it, Mayor Richard Daley announced Thursday. The formation of the 21st Century Commission comes at a time when the city is confronted with a projected $217 million funding shortfall for 2008 and, beyond that, long-term financial challenges.
...... Daley refused to say whether increased privatization of public services could be in the mix. But Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation and one of the commission's 22 members, said he is convinced hiring private companies to perform some of the work now handled by city employees could bring new efficiencies and savings.
....... Only one union leader is on the commission: Thomas Villanova, president of the Chicago & Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council.