AFSCME Privatization Update

Source: By Mark Niquette, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 6:23 PM

A state contractor has agreed to paid $300,000 to help defray the estimated $3 million cost related to the theft of a computer-back-up tape containing Social Security numbers and other sensitive information.

Compuware Corp., which worked on the state's new payroll and accounting system, is making the payment in part in response to the theft from a state intern's car and for ongoing support of project, according to an Oct. 18 agreement released today.

Posted by Info Center at 11:13 AM in Horror Stories | Information Technology | Permalink
Tags: Ohio

Source: The Associated Press / The Ann Arbor News (MI), October 31, 2007 07:02AM

....... A compromise was reached on the last sticking point: Turning over more of the state's adoption, foster care and juvenile justice services to private hands. Under the compromise, a medium-security section of the Maxey facility on M-36 would close and 60 youthful offenders would be moved to private facilities.

The more than 130 affected workers would be allowed to transfer elsewhere in the Department of Human Services instead of losing their jobs.

"We are protecting those people who have been public employees for a long time," said House Appropriations Chairman George Cushingberry Jr., D-Detroit. He said private agencies can help lighten the backlog of cases handled by an overburdened and understaffed DHS.

Posted by Info Center at 10:55 AM in Corrections | Social Services | Permalink
Tags: Michigan

Source: By Ken Kusmer, Associated Press (IN), October 29, 2007 4:19 PM

Applying for food stamps or Medicaid was just a telephone call or mouse click away for residents of 12 north central Indiana counties Monday with the state's initial rollout of its closely watched, privatized welfare eligibility system.

. ....... The Democratically controlled Congress also is watching FSSA's progress. A provision in the House version of the federal farm bill would force Indiana and other states to reverse steps they've taken to privatize food stamps and return that work to state employees.

Posted by Info Center at 1:22 PM in Federal | Information Technology | Social Services | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: CUPE, October 29, 2007 02:27 PM

New research shows the Conservative government lowballed the price of federal buildings it recently sold as a P3 scheme.

The Informetrica analysis, commissioned by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, shows the undervaluing of the real estate assets means a $400 million windfall for Larco Investments, the corporation that bought the buildings.

Posted by Info Center at 1:02 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Permalink
Tags: Canada

Source: By TYLER COWEN, New York Times, October 28, 2007

..... The recent comeback of private contracting suggests that central governments have become weaker again, at least relative to the tasks they are undertaking. Alexander Tabarrok, my colleague (and sometimes co-author) at George Mason University, where he is also a professor of economics, traced the history of private contractors in a study, "The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Privateers" (The Independent Review, spring 2007). He showed that public navies and armies began to displace private contractors in the 19th century, as governments became more powerful and better funded.

...... Contractors are a symptom of government weakness, but are not the problem itself. ..... Compared with the military, contractors are not subject to direct scrutiny by Congress and they are not covered by international law with the same clarity. Excessive use of private contractors erodes checks and balances, and it substitutes market transactions, controlled by the executive branch, for traditional political mechanisms of accountability. When it comes to Iraq, we've yet to see the evidence of a large practical gain in return; instead, use of contractors may have helped to make an ill-advised venture possible.

Posted by Info Center at 3:16 PM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By: PATRICK McCARTNEY, California Aggie 10/29/07

Sodexho has agreed to provide its campus food service employees higher wages and better benefits, as the food service company and UC Davis signed a memorandum of understanding Oct. 22 outlining a new agreement. The memorandum finalizes an agreement made between the university and Sodexho over the summer.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2008, Sodexho will improve employee medical benefits by increasing its employer-employee contribution ratio from 60-to-40 percent to 80-to-20 percent. Sodexho career employees will also receive a $100 monthly stipend to offset health care costs, though it may be spent however the employee desires.

Posted by Info Center at 3:10 PM in Food Services | Higher Education | Permalink
Tags: California

Source: By Jeff Christman, The Morning Call (PA), October 29, 2007

A proposal to outsource Pleasant Valley School District transportation and food service probably would result in unreliable bus service, empty promises of savings and more than 140 district employees without jobs, according to a union leader.

Scott Carpenter and Paul Shemansky of the Pennsylvania State Education Association lobbied the school board Thursday to reconsider the ''monumental move'' of contracting with private, profit-driven companies to provide the services.

''Essentially you're firing more than 140 people and offering their jobs to people who will be paid low wages without health benefits,'' Shemansky said.

Posted by Info Center at 3:03 PM in Food Services | School Bus | Schools K-12 | Permalink

Source: BY ZACHARY GORCHOW, Detroit Free Press (MI), October 26, 2007

One-quarter of Detroit's 367 parks could be sold under a proposal designed to help the city shed dozens of its smallest and most worn-down parks in an effort to aid others and position the land for redevelopment.

........ The city already has sold other assets this year -- including Camp Brighton and Rogell Golf Course -- to ease budget problems. But money from selling the parks would be put back into the park system, either by acquiring land for new parks or by rehabilitating others, said Vincent Anwunah, general manager of the Recreation Department's planning, design and construction management division.

The city estimates it could get $8.1 million from selling the land, and $5.4 million per year from new tax revenue, while saving $540,000 annually by discontinuing maintenance at those parks.

Posted by Info Center at 10:07 AM in Asset Sale/Lease | Permalink

Source: By Jeremy Walsh, Times Ledger (NY), 10/25/2007

Neighbors of a U.S. Marshals prisoner holding facility in Springfield Gardens marched again last weekend, this time in protest against a rumored 20-year contract in the works.

A group of about 20 residents marched the two blocks from Springfield Park to the nondescript, unmarked building in the warehouse district, chanting "G-E-O must go" and expressing their dissatisfaction with having a prison site so close to their homes.

Related article from the Queens Chronicle: Community Once Again Rallies Against Jail In Their Backyard

Posted by Info Center at 3:40 PM in | Permalink

Source: By Katherine Gregg, Providence Journal (RI), Thursday, October 25, 2007

State court administrators, and the Carcieri administration, are poised to hold first-of-their kind hearings on the "continued need" for more than 600 consultants and contract employees for whom the state is paying anywhere from $11,780 for a part-time job at the Arts Council to $280,000 a year for a project manager at the Division of Motor Vehicles.

Posted by Info Center at 3:33 PM in Overview/General | Permalink

Source: By Natasha Robinson, Crain's Detroit Business (MI), 12:16 pm, October 24, 2007

A Macomb County circuit judge on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order that bars Chief Judge Mary Beth Kelly of Wayne County Circuit Court from privatizing the Friend of the Court. Workers affected are represented by Local 3309 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which requested the restraining order.

Macomb Circuit Judge Matthew Switalski issued the order that restrains Kelly and the Wayne court from executing any contract to perform work currently done by members of the AFSCME bargaining unit.

Posted by Info Center at 3:31 PM in | Permalink

Source: By JOHN M. BRODER and DAVID ROHDE, New York Times, October 24, 2007

Over the past four years, the amount of money the State Department pays to private security and law enforcement contractors has soared to nearly $4 billion a year from $1 billion, administration officials said Tuesday, but they said that the department had added few new officials to oversee the contracts.

It was the first time that the administration had outlined the ballooning scope of the contracts, and it provided a new indication of how the State Department's efforts to monitor private companies had not kept pace. Auditors and outside exerts say the results have been vast cost overruns, poor contract performance and, in some cases, violence that has so far gone unpunished.

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

Source: Council 25 news release, October 24, 2007

Albert Garrett, President of Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, issued the following statement:

"Yesterday, October 23, 2007, Judge Matthew S. Switalski of the Macomb County Circuit Court granted AFSCME's request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) barring Wayne County Circuit Court Chief Judge Mary Beth Kelly from privatizing the Friend of the Court," stated Garrett.

Posted by Info Center at 11:15 AM in | Permalink

Source: By ALAN J. BORSUK, Journal Sentinel (WI), Oct. 24, 2007

A study being released today suggests that school choice isn't a powerful tool for driving educational improvement in Milwaukee Public Schools.

But more surprising than the conclusion is the organization issuing the study: the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank that has supported school choice for almost two decades, when Milwaukee became the nation's premier center for trying the idea. The institute is funded in large part by the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, an advocate of school choice.

Posted by Info Center at 11:14 AM in Schools K-12 | Permalink

Source: Boston Globe, October 22, 2007

IT'S NOT much of a murder mystery because the culprit is always the same: Public libraries get killed by local government budget slashers. Among this year's victims are the 15 libraries of Jackson County, Ore. They were shuttered in April when the county ran out of money.

But this tale has a twist: the libraries will reopen this week because the county has found a for-profit private company to run them: Library Systems and Services of Maryland.

........ The American Library Association has had mixed reactions to privatization. A 2000 report said that when used carefully, "outsourcing has been an effective managerial tool." But in 2001, the association adopted a policy opposing "the shifting of policy-making and management oversight" from the public to the private for-profit sector. The association argues that libraries are an "essential public good" that should remain "directly accountable to the publics they serve."

Indeed, public libraries are vital pipelines. Keeping them public is the best way to keep the public informed.

Posted by Info Center at 11:09 AM in Library | Permalink

Source: By Naomi Klein, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2007

'We didn't want to get stuck with a lemon." That's what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said to a House committee last month. He was referring to the "virtual fence" planned for the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada.

....... But this debacle points to more than faulty technology. It exposes the faulty logic of the Bush administration's vision of a hollowed-out government run everywhere possible by private contractors.

According to this radical vision, contractors treat the state as an ATM, withdrawing massive contracts to perform core functions like securing borders and interrogating prisoners, and making deposits in the form of campaign contributions. As President Bush's former budget director, Mitch Daniels, put it: "The general idea -- that the business of government is not to provide services but to make sure that they are provided -- seems self-evident to me."

The flip side of the Daniels directive is that the public sector is rapidly losing the ability to fulfill its most basic responsibilities -- and nowhere more so than in the Department of Homeland Security, which, as a Bush creation, has followed the ATM model since its inception.

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

Source: By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID ROHDE, New York Times, October 23, 2007

A pair of new reports have delivered sharply critical judgments about the State Department's performance in overseeing work done by the private companies that the government relies on increasingly in Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out delicate security work and other missions.

A State Department review of its own security practices in Iraq assails the department for poor coordination, communication, oversight and accountability involving armed security companies like Blackwater USA, according to people who have been briefed on the report. In addition to Blackwater, the State Department's two other security contractors in Iraq are DynCorp International and Triple Canopy.

At the same time, a government audit expected to be released Tuesday says that records documenting the work of DynCorp, the State Department's largest contractor, are in such disarray that the department cannot say "specifically what it received" for most of the $1.2 billion it has paid the company since 2004 to train the police officers in Iraq.

Posted by Info Center at 11:07 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press, October 22, 2007

The Democratic chairman of a House watchdog committee said Monday that Blackwater USA violated tax laws and may have defrauded the government of millions of dollars, a charge the embattled security firm said is groundless.

Rep. Henry Waxman, who chairs the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released a March letter from the Internal Revenue Service that states the company's classification of a security guard as an independent contractor, instead of company personnel, was "without merit."

Posted by Info Center at 10:55 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: Daytona Beach News Journal (FL), October 22, 2007

Even as former Gov. Jeb Bush was pushing the state into a massive privatization of Medicaid, advocates were warning: Not so fast.

Bush didn't listen. He wanted sweeping changes, statewide, and he wanted them rapidly. He didn't want to hear that private networks weren't ready to take on a huge influx of patients. He wouldn't listen to those who worried about forcing a medically vulnerable population to choose among health plans to find the one that best meets their needs. He seemed to revel in the attention Florida got from other states for pushing ahead with changes with precious little evidence that they would save the state money.

Fortunately for vulnerable Floridians, lawmakers refused to swoon at Bush's feet. They agreed to a limited privatization plan in two counties -- Broward and Duval -- urbanized areas where the program would have the most likely chance of success. And they included explicit provisions to keep Bush from expanding the program without legislative approval.

A new report (.pdf) by the Agency for Health Care Administration's inspector general, Linda Keen, suggests the legislative caution was well-founded -- and that Gov. Charlie Crist has inherited a mess. Bush's "big hairy audacious" reforms, as he called them, aren't working out too well.

Posted by Info Center at 10:44 AM in Health | Permalink

Source: By Barbara Kiviat, Time, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007

....... For states and cities looking to upgrade or replace aging infrastructure, partnering with private players is the biggest idea to come along since the interstate highway system started ribboning the country with asphalt in the 1950s. The appeal: governments can stop worrying about roads, bridges and tunnels, and companies get lucrative leases that allow them to collect money from drivers for generations. The craze is being driven by investors who crave the steady cash flow of decades' worth of tolls. There are 71 projects worth $104 billion being considered for private development by state and local governments, according to the publication Public Works Financing. The proposals are feeding a new pack of investment funds from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the Carlyle Group--as well as controversy over how roads should be paid for.

....... At the core of the debate is a fundamental issue: Is building roads one of those things, like trade policy, that only the Federal Government should steer, or is there a better way?

Posted by Info Center at 1:42 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Andrea Estes, Boston Globe (MA), October 22, 2007

As Governor Deval Patrick's casino bill is being debated on Beacon Hill, a group of Republican lawmakers is pushing another way for the state to reap a large gambling windfall: privatizing the Massachusetts lottery.

........ Though several states have debated lottery privatization, none has approved it. California and Texas would probably be the first to close a deal, according to investment bankers and others who have pitched proposals around the country. The state would solicit proposals from bidders, who would have to pay $1 million to have their proposal considered, the bill says.

Posted by Info Center at 1:31 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Lottery | Permalink

Source: By Peter Pae, Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2007

Gary Richardson left this boomtown-gone-bust in 1996 for a computer job in Dallas, the big city 60 miles north.

...... Not until this year, when Northrop Grumman Corp. opened an information technology center in town and began recruiting IT specialists and software engineers. In a twist on offshoring that Northrop has dubbed onshoring, the global defense and technology corporation has been shipping computer work to small-town America, shunning India's Bangalore and Mumbai.

Posted by Info Center at 1:30 PM in Offshore | Permalink

Source: By Karen Kane, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), Sunday, October 21, 2007

Butler County's sheriff's deputies are now officially in a union, earning more money per hour than they used to earn.

But, language that was included in an arbitrator's agreement and was approved last week by county commissioners gives the county the right to privatize some of the deputies' functions.

....... The focus is on the front doors of the courthouse, where visitors are required to pass through a metal detector. If it sounds, a sheriff's deputy uses a metal detector wand for a closer scanning of the individual.

Posted by Info Center at 1:27 PM in Law Enforcement | Permalink

Source: By Bill Cotterell, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), Oct 15, 2007

There were little pre-teen beauty queens and balloons and lots of smiling faces among the local officeholders on hand when they cut the ribbon last month to open Florida's biggest privately operated state prison, a modern, 1,500-bed institution over in Graceville.

......... But just three days after the grand opening - but shouldn't they call it a "grand closing" when it's a prison? - the Department of Management Services sent out a couple of little letters that show the down side of privatization in general, and prison privatization in particular. The department fined both GEO and Corrections Corp. of America nearly $300,000 for excessive use of overtime in two other institutions.

......... GEO and Corrections Corp. of America didn't return calls asking for comment late last week. But in privatization generally - and prisons in particular - one sure way to do a job cheaper than the government can do it is to hire fewer people. If that means working them longer hours, it's probably cheaper to pay overtime than to hire more people and incur the expenses of Social Security, insurance coverage, vacation time, holidays, pensions and whatever other benefits employees of the private companies may receive.

Posted by Info Center at 1:22 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By Ken Kusmer, Associated Press (IN), October 19, 2007

The state's human services agency decided Thursday to postpone the initial rollout of its automated welfare eligibility system by at least a week to Oct. 29 because of software problems.

The Family and Social Services Administration had been anticipating a Monday launch of the automated system for a 12-county area of Northern Indiana centered around Marion. However, software problems prompted the decision to push back the launch by a week, FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob told The Associated Press.

Posted by Info Center at 1:20 PM in Information Technology | Social Services | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: by Jonas Prager and John Flint, ICMA Public Management, October 2007 (subscription req.)

City and county managers often manage contracts, but managers rarely devote most of their waking hours (and occasionally sleepless nights) to contract management. But the job of the city manager of Weston, Florida, a city with only three municipal employees and about 400 contract employees, is to be the contract manager of Weston for service delivery and finance.

In Weston in 2007 the three employees who are on the city payroll are the city manager, the assistant city manager/chief financial officer (ACM/CFO), and the city clerk. The 400 others are employed by contractors who perform the services that are typical of a community of more than 60,000 residents. This article describes the nature of contracting in Weston, the functions of the manager, and some of the challenges and solutions that have characterized local government management in Weston.

Posted by Info Center at 1:51 PM in Contract Cities | Permalink

Source: By STEVE SCHULTZE, Journal Sentinel (WI), Oct. 16, 2007

A Milwaukee County Board committee on Tuesday rejected a plan by Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. to privatize inmate transport services with a company in Nashville, Tenn.

....... The finance committee voted 6-0 to reject the $1.5 million privatization plan, after the Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs' Association presented information critical of TransCor America. The material included news accounts of escapes of prisoners being transported by TransCor, which bills itself as the largest inmate transport company in the United States.

...... The company, a subsidiary of private prison operator Corrections Corp. of America, would have trained and armed personnel driving the prisoner vans, Clarke said.

Posted by Info Center at 1:48 PM in | Permalink

Source: by JEREMY SCAHILL, The Nation, October 10, 2005

......... As business leaders and government officials talk openly of changing the demographics of what was one of the most culturally vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government projects and institutions.

...... Blackwater's success in procuring federal contracts could well be explained by major-league contributions and family connections to the GOP. According to election records, Blackwater's CEO and co-founder, billionaire Erik Prince, has given tens of thousands to Republicans, including more than $80,000 to the Republican National Committee the month before Bush's victory in 2000.

Posted by Info Center at 1:45 PM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: Diane Carman, The Denver Post (CO), 10/16/2007

...... Here in Colorado, private firms supply everything, even bus drivers and prisons. Former Gov. Bill Owens was a believer in the 11th commandment, so contracts for public services during his terms exploded.

Unfortunately, oversight of those contracts didn't keep pace.

The most glaring example of the mess created by overconfidence in private contractors was the Owens administration's bumbling attempt to modernize state government through random, uncoordinated - and very expensive - information-technology systems.

Eight years and nearly $300 million later, Owens moved on, leaving his successor with a bunch of pricey computer systems that couldn't compute.

Among them:

Posted by Info Center at 1:40 PM in Horror Stories | Oversight/Contract Management | Permalink

Source: By Simon Shifrin, Times Herald-Record (NY)m October 12, 2007

They're tired of riding three to a seat. Some sit in the aisle with seat belts wrapped across their bodies because they don't fit on the packed seats. So yesterday, some of these Pine Bush High School students took a stand.

"C'mon. C'mon. C'mon," one girl yelled. "C'mon let's go. Let's get off the bus!"

A group of students who attend afternoon classes at Orange-Ulster BOCES filed off their two, typically packed buses in protest.

....... That's why, Stark said, administrators put in a request back on Sept. 12 with the district's bus company, First Student Inc., for an additional vehicle at noon. But she said the bus company had been unable to hire an additional driver.

Posted by Info Center at 11:37 AM in School Bus | Schools K-12 | Permalink

Source: CUPE (Canada), October 12, 2007 11:26 AM

A private contractor in BC is having a hard time recruiting and retaining people to do the most dangerous, and dirty health care jobs for $12.59 an hour. Imagine that.

To HEU, the solution is simple.

"The provincial government should require health care contractors to provide living wages to their workers," says HEU Secretary-Business Manager Judy Darcy.

But Compass, a British multinational that posted $1 billion in profits last year, apparently really likes the low wage. So they're proposing hiring temporary foreign workers to clean operating rooms and feed patients in Vancouver Island hospitals.

Posted by Info Center at 11:35 AM in Custodial | Permalink

Source: U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 10/17/07 10:30 AM

Member Statements
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman [View PDF]

Today we will examine the extent to which the Department of Homeland Security relies on contractors to carry out its crucial mission to secure our home land from terrorism and natural disaster. Plainly put, we will ask who is in charge at the Department of Homeland Security - its public managers and workers, or its private contractors.

Today this Committee is releasing the Government Accountability Office's report, which we requested, in which GAO calls on DHS to improve its oversight of contractors and to better manage the risks associated with relying on contractors. GAO examined 117 statements of work for DHS service contracts and found that over half of those contracts were for services that closely support inherently governmental functions. GAO then examined 9 of these contracts in detail.

Senator Susan M. Collins [View PDF]

Witnesses Testimony: Panel 1

• John Hutton [View PDF] , Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management , Government Accountability Office


• Elaine C. Duke [View PDF] , Chief Procurement Officer , U.S. Department of Homeland Security


• Steven L. Schooner [View PDF] , Co-Director , Government Procurement Law Program, The George Washington University

Posted by Info Center at 11:26 AM in Federal | Oversight/Contract Management | Permalink

Source: By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), Wednesday, October 17, 2007

State officials have accomplished the first two steps toward converting Interstate 80 into a toll road, starting with signing a 50-year lease agreement between the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Posted by Info Center at 11:23 AM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post, Wednesday, October 17, 2007

At the Department of Homeland Security, contract employees help write job descriptions for new headquarters workers. Private contractors also sign letters that officially offer employment. And they meet new government hires on their first day on the job. About the only thing they do not do, a critical new congressional audit concludes, is swear in DHS employees.

....... Independent analysts have increasingly warned in recent years that the government's growing reliance on private firms threatens to undermine agencies' decision-making, a risk the audit found was heightened in DHS's case by its complex 2003 start-up and the rapid expansion of its workload.

Posted by Info Center at 11:20 AM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By MICHAEL MELIA, Associated Press (Puerto Rico), October 13, 2007

Elvia Tirado Polanco says she reluctantly handed over her black- and white-spotted mutt to animal control workers after they threatened that she would be evicted from her housing project for keeping a pet there.

........ Days later, however, Tirado was horrified to learn that dozens of pets seized this week in Barceloneta on Puerto Rico's north coast were instead thrown to their deaths from a bridge.

.... Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez said the town ordered the removal of the pets, but he blamed the massacre on a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter.

Posted by Info Center at 11:05 AM in Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: By DAVE LIEBER, Star-Telegram (TX), October 14, 2007

.... The ringing phones are fallout from a major experiment in state government that nearly everyone involved calls a disaster. Texas tried to become the first state to outsource to private companies the administration of its top assistance programs such as food stamps, Medicaid and cash assistance for needy families.

The state hired a group of companies, led by technology consulting firm Accenture, for $899 million for five years to run call centers, update the department's technology systems and perform other duties. But the company's debut in several Central Texas call centers was such a disaster that state officials called the project off. By then, though, many longtime state employees had left, thinking their jobs were gone.

Posted by Info Center at 11:01 AM in Horror Stories | Social Services | Permalink

Source: NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and RON NIXON, New York Times, Sunday, October 14, 2007

.... Like shoppers at convenience stores who can't resist placing bets when lotto jackpots get big enough, government officials in at least a dozen states are considering lottery privatizations -- what would collectively amount to the biggest privatization of a government enterprise in American history.

Wall Street, positioned to play an important role in orchestrating these deals, is looking at some very big prizes itself. If privatization plans now being considered in four large states -- California, Illinois, Texas and Florida -- were to go through, Wall Street could conservatively reap a minimum of $250 million in fees alone.

Posted by Info Center at 10:58 AM in Asset Sale/Lease | Lottery | Permalink

Source: Maryland General Assembly, Department of Legislative Services (.pdf), Office of Policy Analysis

Beginning with the construction of the highway interstate network, highways and transit have typically been funded by federal and state aid derived from the motor fuel tax. However, given the national reluctance to increase the motor fuel tax coupled with more fuel efficient automobiles, motor fuel tax revenue growth has not kept pace with construction costs. In addition, there has been an increasing demand for transportation system preservation and new projects to meet the increasing demands of congestion. To address the needs of residents and the relative static growth in the motor fuel tax, a new national trend appears to be developing in financing transportation projects.

Specifically, a growing national interest is developing in partnering with the private sector to access cash and equity that might not otherwise be available for transportation projects. The relationship between the public and private sector is commonly known as a public-private partnership (P3). The partnership can take several forms, including the State leasing an existing revenue generating State asset to a private entity for operation in exchange for a lump sum payment. Alternatively, the private sector can construct a transportation infrastructure project, generally a toll road, for the right to collect future revenues.

....... In considering P3s and the role of private finance in transportation infrastructure, there are a number of issues for the State to consider, including the role of the legislature, the legal framework for such an agreement, and how the State should engage the private sector.

Posted by Info Center at 3:19 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By Paul Wood, News Gazette (IL), Thursday, October 11, 2007 10:54 AM

Taxpayers will have at least another month to hear more about a plan to hire a consulting firm for the new $24 million county nursing home. The county board met in a three-hour study session Wednesday with mostly Democrats, most of whom are skeptical about the idea, in attendance, as well as AFSCME officials opposed to the plan.

....... AFSCME Local 900 leader Kent Beauchamp said the proposals constitute "radical change" at a time when nursing home operations are improving.

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

Source: Norman Sinclair, The Detroit News (MI), Thursday, October 11, 2007

A controversial proposal to privatize the Wayne County Friend of the Court drew dozens of union pickets outside the court in downtown Detroit today calling for the dismissal of Wayne County Circuit Court Chief Judge Mary Beth Kelly, one of the architects of the reform. Court employees who are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) took turns carrying signs during their lunch hour to protest the move, which is now the subject of an unfair labor practice complaint lodged with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

...... Al Garrett, president of AFSCME Council 25, said Kelly is pushing privatization because she owes her position to the state Supreme Court who he said are the architects of the bid to privatize the court.

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

Source: By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), Friday, October 12, 2007

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials are to formally sign a landmark lease no later than Monday to convert Interstate 80 into a toll road.

The 50-year agreement is designed to create what they call a unique "public-public partnership" to generate a total of $116 billion.

Posted by Info Center at 3:10 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By MONICA DAVEY, New York Times, October 12, 2007

...... But the span, the Ambassador Bridge, is owned not by either country, not by the cities of Detroit or Windsor, Detroit's Canadian neighbor, and not by some public bridge authority. It is owned by one man and his privately held company. In a remarkable arrangement for a crossing so major, Manuel J. Moroun, a reclusive billionaire from Detroit's suburbs who oversees a trucking empire, owns the bridge, one of only two privately owned bridges along the United States' entire northern border and by far the most economically significant privately owned bridge in the nation. ........ In a confluence of concerns over national border security, safety of the nation's stock of bridges and an economic crisis in Michigan, the unusual arrangement here has prompted a simple question: Who should own a bridge?.

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

Source: By Stephen Barr, Washington Post, Thursday, October 11, 2007

The House voted yesterday to kill an Internal Revenue Service program that uses private companies to track down delinquent taxpayers and lets the companies keep a percentage of the taxes they collect. The vote, generally on party lines, was 232 to 173.

....... Meanwhile, the White House yesterday threatened a veto, saying that the private collectors bring in taxes "that are otherwise not likely to be collected by the IRS."

Posted by Info Center at 3:37 PM in Federal | Tax Collection | Permalink

Source: Associated Press, October 10, 2007 6:03 PM ET

The Associated Press has learned the U.S. State Department may phase out or limit the use of private security guards in Iraq. That could mean that the State Department may cancel the contract for Blackwater USA or award it to another firm.

Posted by Info Center at 3:35 PM in Federal | Permalink

Source: BY ZACHARY GORCHOW, Detroit FREE PRESS (MI), October 9, 2007

Union leaders and some residents of southwest Detroit denounced Monday a proposal to build a privately run facility that would reprocess into fertilizer the sludge that's left after the water is wrung from sewage. But at a Detroit City Council hearing on the issue, a number of residents also said they support the proposal because it would bring jobs, save taxpayer money and reduce pollution.

...... The proposal angers union leaders fearing displacement of city workers -- even though the contract calls for such workers to be retrained for other duties in the department. John Riehl, president of AFSCME Local 207, which represents water and sewerage workers, said he doubts the city's commitment to retrain.

Posted by Info Center at 3:28 PM in Water & Sewer | Permalink

Source: By ELISE CASTELLI, Federal Times, October 09, 2007

Congress is pressing the Defense Department to transfer possibly billions of dollars worth of contracted work in house.

The Senate last week passed a Defense authorization bill that would direct the Pentagon to transfer its contracted professional services work to its own employees or else renegotiate those contracts to promote better performance and less cost. If Defense can't do that, it must cancel the work, according to the bill.

The bill also would require the department to let employees compete for new and existing work that would typically go directly to contractors.

Posted by Info Center at 1:53 PM in Federal | Publicization | Permalink

Source: By S.V. DATE, Palm Beach Post (FL), Monday, October 08, 2007

Even as House Speaker Marco Rubio's House cut $5,000 from the Florida Supreme Court chief justice's discretionary fund and $1,828 to Nova Southeastern University to help balance the state's budget, he continues to pay a well-connected GOP consultant $10,000 a month, even though she produced no written work in the month of September.

Donna Arduin, once former Gov. Jeb Bush's budget chief, was rehired by Rubio, R-West Miami, starting Sept. 1.

........ This time her job is to provide "consulting services" on the budget cut bill that passed the House Friday. But she has provided no written reports, analyses or recommendations since her contract was renewed, according to Rubio's office.

....... Before working for Bush, Arduin served in similar roles for Republican governors in Michigan and New York. And she recently was named to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's new 12-member Fiscal Discipline Policy Advisory Group.

Posted by Info Center at 1:47 PM in | Permalink

Source: GAO Report, GAO-08-6 October 5, 2007

Over the last 10 years, the cost to confine federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) inmates in non-BOP facilities has nearly tripled from about $250 million in fiscal year 1996 to about $700 million in fiscal year 2006. Proponents of using contractors to operate prisons claim it can save money; others question whether contracting is a cost-effective alternative. In response to Conference Report 109-272, accompanying Pub. L. No. 109-108 (2005), this report discusses the feasibility and implications of comparing the costs for confining federal inmates in low and minimum security BOP facilities with those managed by private firms for BOP. GAO reviewed available data on a selection of 34 low and minimum security facilities; related laws, regulations, and documents; and interviewed BOP and contract officials.

Posted by Info Center at 11:19 AM in Corrections | Federal | Permalink

Source: By FINN BULLERS, The Kansas City Star (MO), Mon, Oct. 08, 2007 10:15 PM

Forget housing inmates in private jails, Johnson County Sheriff Frank Denning says. He thinks he can house an inmate for $30 less a day.

In May, county commissioners met with a spokesman from one of the nation's largest private penal firms to consider the county's growing jail needs and how to avoid building more cells.

Denning has called private jails a "train wreck" that would compromise public safety and drive up costs.

Posted by Info Center at 11:16 AM in Corrections | Permalink

Source: By George Diepenbrock, Journal News, October 2, 2007

Lawrence's yellow school buses will soon get a name change with the announcement of a multi-billion-dollar acquisition today by a Scottish bus and rail operating company.

Lawrence's yellow school buses will soon get a name change with the announcement of a multi-billion-dollar acquisition today by a Scottish bus and rail operating company. Watch

Yellow school buses in Lawrence and across the nation will soon have a new name on the side, but company and school district leaders expect no major changes.

First Group PLC of the United Kingdom on Monday announced completion of its $3.4 billion acquisition of Laidlaw International Inc., which includes Laidlaw Education Services and Greyhound Lines. The Lawrence school district has a contract for transportation services through 2011 with Laidlaw, which is now called First Student.

Posted by Info Center at 3:22 PM in School Bus | Schools K-12 | Transportation | Permalink

Source: Associated Press, October 05, 2007: 01:55 PM EST

Shares of Geo Group Inc. dropped Friday on concerns that it may lose more contracts in Texas, while shares of other private prison operators rose.

The Texas Youth Commission canceled a contract with Geo Group Tuesday, following an audit that said conditions at the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center were unsafe and unsanitary. The center was the largest private juvenile prison in Texas, and brought Geo Group about $2 million in revenue per quarter.

On Friday, AvondalePartners analyst Kevin Campbell said Texas state legislators are considering a review of Geo's other contracts in the state.

Posted by Info Center at 3:20 PM in Corrections | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: Michael Gochfeld, MD, PhD and Sandra Mohr, MD, MPH, American Journal of Public Health, September 2007, Vol 97, No. 91607-1613

ABSTRACT

Increased reliance on subcontractors in all economic sectors is a serious occupational health and safety challenge. Short-term cost savings are offset by long-term liability. Hiring subcontractors brings specialized knowledge but also young, inexperienced, inadequately trained workers onto industrial and hazardous waste sites, which leads to increased rates of accidents and injuries.

Reliable data on subcontractor occupational health and safety programs and performance are sparse. The US Department of Energy has an excellent safety culture on paper, but procurement practices and contract language deliver a mixed message--including some safety disincentives.

Its biphasic safety outcome data are consistent with underreporting by some subcontractors and underachievement by others. These observations are relevant to the private and public sectors. Occupational health and safety should be viewed as an asset, not merely a cost.

Posted by Info Center at 2:46 PM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By: Jean DerGurahian, Modern Healthcare, October 2, 2007

...... The increase represents a behavioral change as the healthcare industry turns to IT to improve communications, transparency, patient flow and data management, said John Lovelock, analyst and director of healthcare research at Gartner.

...... That perception shift has led more companies to turn to outsourced IT functions, according to results from Modern Healthcare's annual Outsourcing Survey. In its 29th year, the survey is a nonscientific look at healthcare outsourcing trends as reported by companies that provide on-site management to hospital departments, long-term-care facilities and alternate sites such as clinics and physician group practices. Fifty-five companies responded to this year's survey, up from 37 last year, and the number of clients increased across a range of services.

Information systems, which saw a 13% increase in the number of healthcare facilities served over last year on the survey, moved to 10th from 13th in the ranking of department categories.

Hospitals are increasingly relying on their contractors to provide even higher levels of service that help facilities comply with quality standards, especially as the healthcare environment opens to greater scrutiny by consumers and regulators. In many cases, that comes in the form of outsourced information technology, Lovelock said.

Posted by Info Center at 2:37 PM in Health | Information Technology | Permalink

Source: District Council 37 Public Employee Press, October 2007

Earlier this year, professionals at the Dept. of Environmental Protection were concerned about reports that the city would farm out the design work for a major section of its $6 billion water tunnel project.

...... Local 375 demanded a meeting with management to press the department to keep the work in-house. At the July 2 session with 1st Deputy Commissioner Steven Lawitts, Fort was accompanied by Chapter 13 President Vincent Moorehead, Chapter 8 President Steve Awad and Business Rep Karl Toth.

Fort underscored the local's position that the in-house staff would bring in the project at a lower cost than consultants, thanks to their expertise and institutional knowledge. He pointed out that in-house design work on the Manhattan section, including thousands of drawings and other documentation, had saved at least $40 million and was competed two years ahead of schedule.

The local estimates that keeping the Kensico work in-house will save the city $57.2 million in design costs alone. The design, construction and construction management budget for the project is $1.3 billion.

Posted by Info Center at 2:31 PM in Victories | Water & Sewer | Permalink

Source: By DAVID STOUT, New York Times, October 4, 2007

Amid the fallout over the shooting of Iraqis by private American security guards, the House today overwhelmingly passed a bill to make all private contractors working in Iraq subject to prosecution in United States civilian courts.

The vote was 389 to 30, with all of the "no" votes cast by Republicans. Voting for the bill were 225 Democrats and 164 Republicans.

Posted by Info Center at 2:26 PM in Federal | Laws/Legislation | Permalink

Source: By Susan Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), Wed, Sep. 26, 2007

The Philadelphia School District will end its contract with Aramark to run full-service cafeterias in 115 of the district's 267 schools, officials announced yesterday.

As of Oct. 1, the school district will take back the operations and run the cafeterias, which Aramark has run for the last two years.

District officials said earlier this month that they were unhappy that the company had not helped the district erase a long-standing deficit in its full-service cafeteria operations and were considering terminating the five-year contract - renewable annually - after the first two full years.

Posted by Info Center at 2:15 PM in Food Services | Schools K-12 | Permalink

Source: US PRIG, 10/3/2007

Companies with immediate past histories of shoddy work and fraudulent practices are being rewarded with billions of dollars in federal contracts. The data suggest that the process by which the federal government currently spends $422 billion per year in taxpayer funds is insufficient to ensure that the American people receive good quality for goods and services purchased for the American people.

The rapid increase of federally contracted dollars--100 percent since 2000--makes outsourcing the fastest growing component of discretionary spending. The government's preference for using outside contractors to provide goods and services makes careful scrutiny of the process and the decisions more important than in the past. At present, loose rules, lack of competition, and limited accountability permit so-called 'bad actors' to receive contracts that put taxpayers and our money at risk.

For this report, we reviewed hundreds of records and found numerous cases of contractors with questionable performance or responsibility records receiving contracts without competition or sufficient time to determine the extent of the problems identified. While the report outlines specific contractor practices, it is as much an indictment of the flawed contracting process as it is about any single company.

The profiles included in this report illustrate how little consideration is given to past performance and contractor responsibility. None of the companies faced suspension or debarment from receiving contracts for the incidents detailed in this report. The range of contracts shows the breadth of the problem and a sampling of the companies involved. A few examples include:

Posted by Info Center at 2:12 PM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: Posted by James T. Mulder, Post Standard (NY), October 01, 2007 4:53PM

The state has backed away from a plan that would have forced a takeover of Onondaga County's Van Duyn Home & Hospital by Community General Hospital. Instead, the state has given its blessing to an alternate plan that will allow the neighboring Onondaga Hill institutions to remain separate, but set up a new nonprofit corporation to do joint planning for the nursing home and hospital.

...... A state panel known as the Berger Commission recommended late last year the private hospital take over the deficit-ridden Van Duyn, a 526-bed nursing home. The commission said a takeover could reduce duplication of services at the facilities, cut Van Duyn's operating costs and save money for county taxpayers.

Both the county and the Civil Service Employees Association union, which represents VanDuyn workers, sued the state to block the takeover.

Posted by Info Center at 10:44 AM in Health | Victories | Permalink

Source: By DAVID STOUT and JOHN M. BRODER, New York Times, October 1, 2007

Guards working in Iraq for Blackwater USA have shot innocent Iraqi civilians and have sought to cover up the incidents, sometimes with the help of the State Department, a report to a Congressional committee said today.

The report, based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents, depicts the security contractor as being staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober and did not always stop to see who or what was hit by their bullets. In one incident, the State Department and Blackwater agreed to pay $15,000 to the family of a man killed by "a drunken Blackwater contractor," the report said.

Posted by Info Center at 10:42 AM in Federal | Horror Stories | Permalink

Source: ICMA, October 2007

When a contract changes hands, the contract administration team is likely to face two problems. The first problem is deterioration of the current contractor's performance as the current contract term comes to an end, extending in some cases even to sabotage. The second problem is uneven performance by the new contractor at the beginning of the new contract term.

Here are strategies for dealing with the first problem--deterioration of the current contractor's performance--excerpted from Service Contracting: A Local Government Guide, Second Edition.

Posted by Info Center at 10:31 AM in Oversight/Contract Management | Permalink

Source: New York Times, October 1, 2007

There is, conveniently, no official count. But there are an estimated 160,000 private contractors working in Iraq, and some 50,000 of them are "private security" operatives -- that is, fighters. The