AFSCME Privatization Update

Source: Associated Press (PA), 08.29.08, 12:40 PM ET

Prison operator GEO Group Inc. said Friday it is discontinuing its contract managing a county jail in Pennsylvania, citing litigation and poor financial performance.

GEO said it will no longer manage the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County effective Dec. 31. The 1,883-bed facility generates roughly $38 million a year in revenue, the company said, but the contract's discontinuation is not expected have a material impact on GEO's financial performance, it said.

GEO said the facility is the only county jail it manages.

Posted by Info Center at 1:17 PM in Corrections | Permalink
Tags: Pennslyvania

Source: By Fredric N. Tulsky, Mercury News (CA), 08/28/2008 08:00:14 PM PDT

Office Depot has agreed to repay the state of California $2.5 million for overpayments, state officials said Thursday, as they released a state audit concluding that state workers routinely failed to get the best value when buying office supplies the past two years.

The findings renewed concerns about a state contracting initiative that was supposed to save millions of dollars while steering taxpayer dollars to California small businesses. The initiative was the subject of a Mercury News investigation earlier this year.

Posted by Info Center at 1:10 PM in Purchasing | Permalink
Tags: California

Source: By Ron Powell, UNION-TRIBUNE (CA), 4:38 p.m. August 27, 2008

Mayor Jerry Sanders said Wednesday that his voter-approved plan to outsource some city jobs will be delayed by months because a state administrative law judge has ruled the city acted improperly during negotiations with labor unions - something the mayor blamed on bad advice from City Attorney Michael Aguirre.

....... The mayor said he will likely have to reopen negotiations with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 127, the city's blue-collar union, and the Municipal Employees Association, the city's largest union, over the rules for outsourcing.

........ AFSCME Local 127 filed a complaint with the state Public Employee Relations Board in early 2007, alleging that the city had negotiated in bad faith on the outsourcing issue. In the summer of 2007, the MEA joined the legal action.

Posted by Info Center at 1:01 PM in Overview/General | Permalink
Tags: California

Source: Associated Press, August 28, 2008

More than a quarter of the U.S. intelligence agencies' employees are nongovernment contractors, hired to fill in gaps in the military and civilian work force, according to a survey of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. That is roughly on par with last year's number, the first year the national intelligence director's office tried to count the outside help, Ronald Sanders, the intelligence director's personnel policy chief, told reporters Wednesday.

Posted by Info Center at 12:58 PM in Federal | Permalink

Source: By Tim Evans, Indianapolis Star (IN), August 26, 2008

Claiming Indiana's welfare privatization drive is hurting needy Hoosiers, eight LaPorte County residents who receive assistance through the Family and Social Services Administration are asking a judge to halt its rollout in their part of Northwest Indiana.

Posted by Info Center at 12:56 PM in Information Technology | Social Services | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: By JENNY ANDERSON, New York Times, August 27, 2008

Cleaning up road kill and maintaining runways may not sound like cutting-edge investments. But banks and funds with big money seem to think so. Reeling from more exotic investments that imploded during the credit crisis, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the Carlyle Group, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are among the investors who have amassed an estimated $250 billion war chest -- much of it raised in the last two years -- to finance a tidal wave of infrastructure projects in the United States and overseas.

Their strategy is gaining steam in the United States as federal, state and local governments previously wary of private funds struggle under mounting deficits that have curbed their ability to improve crumbling roads, bridges and even airports with taxpayer money.

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

Source: Reuters, Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:53pm EDT

Texas-based funds could invest directly in transportation projects through a new corporation under a plan unveiled on Thursday by the state's legislative leaders and the governor. Texas has the nation's biggest road privatization plan but the legislature, reacting to criticisms that developers were enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers, enacted a two-year moratorium. That has crimped planned road-building projects though investment banks and developers have expressed keen interest in them.

Posted by Info Center at 12:53 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink
Tags: Texas

Source: By Carol Ginsburg and Willem Noorlander, Online, July/August 2008

The question of whether or not to outsource research is hardly new. A hot topic of discussion in the early 1990s, it seemed to be the new direction for large U.S. and global companies. Some companies have been actively involved in various levels of outsourcing or offshoring for more than 10 years. Fifteen years on, you would think that questions around outsourcing would be resolved. However, today we have more questions than answers.

Experience has taught us that some of the initial questions were not the right ones and that a number of original assumptions were wrong. The current points of view on this subject are well-depicted in the song "Unwell" by Matchbox 20. The chorus, "But I'm not crazy I'm just a little unwell," followed by, "I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired" sums it up well.

The concept of outsourcing research is not "crazy," it is actually based on several solid business concepts including workflow maximization, operational efficiencies, and cost optimization. In its present format, however, it is definitely "not well" and "impaired" if issues such as quality of work, staffing, attrition levels, cost/benefit analyses, and the required levels of administrative and management time are examined.

Posted by Info Center at 12:49 PM in Offshore | Permalink

Source: By DEBBIE PALINSKY, Star Beacon (OH), August 25, 2008 11:34 pm

Bus delays and problems Monday morning and afternoon for the Madison Local School District with the private bus company Community Bus Services were called "unacceptable" by many furious parents who made many angry calls to the schools and the transportation department.

......... Michelle Popovich said she was willing to give CBS the benefit of doubt and realized that delays are normal for the first day of school, but found the delays on Monday ridiculous.

........ Madison's school board hired CBS to transport students after negotiations broke down with the Ohio Association of Public School Employees Local 238, representing district bus drivers.

Posted by Info Center at 12:46 PM in School Bus | Schools K-12 | Transportation | Permalink
Tags: Ohio

Source: By CRAIG KARMIN, Wall Street Journal (subscription req.), August 26, 2008

Hobbled by the credit crisis, Wall Street firms and many state governments are hoping that a pockmarked strip of Pennsylvania highway could provide a road out. Next month, the Pennsylvania legislature is expected to vote on a $12.8 billion deal struck between the governor and a group of private investors to lease America's oldest major toll road, the 537-mile Pennsylvania Turnpike. If it passes, the deal would be by far the largest ever of its kind in the U.S. Under these arrangements, known as public-private partnerships, investors lease or buy roads, bridges or other infrastructure, operate them independently and collect tolls.

A green light in Pennsylvania could bolster the political will of officials in other states trying to hash out similar deals. That in turn could jump-start projects in waiting, from Florida's Alligator Alley to Chicago's Midway Airport. Last month, New York Gov. David Paterson urged legislators to consider leasing some of his state's roads, bridges and tunnels to help shrink a budget deficit projected at $26.2 billion by 2011.

Posted by Info Center at 12:36 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink
Tags: Pennslyvania

Source: US Dept of Transportation news release, Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The number of public-private partnerships in the U.S. transportation sector has soared to record levels in recent years and continues to climb, according to a new Department study, announced today by U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters.

"This nationwide trend on the part of state and local governments is further proof that innovative approaches to financing and managing transportation are increasingly attractive compared to traditional tax and spend methods," Secretary Peters said. "States and local governments across the country are recognizing public-private partnerships are an effective means to deliver transportation projects."

The new report found that more transportation public-private partnerships were completed over the last three years than in any other compatible time period in history. According to the report, more than 20 major highway and transit projects are currently being conducted in partnership with the private sector at various stages of development in the United States.

Posted by Info Center at 3:28 PM in Transportation | Permalink

"has been providing a forum in the construction industry for those interested in fair, competitive contracting."

Site includes State By State Listing of Responsible Bidder/Prequalification Ordinances and Responsible Bidder/Prequalification Applications and Questionnaires

It also includes a Resources Page

Posted by Info Center at 3:21 PM in Websites/databases | Permalink

Source: By Robert Barkin, American City & County, Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM

With the clock ticking last fall, Centennial, Colo., officials had a tough decision to make. For the first time since it incorporated in 2001, the Denver-area city soon would be responsible for its own public works services, which previously were provided by Arapahoe County. City leaders had to make a choice: go it alone or hire out the operation to a contractor.

So, Public Works Director Dave Zelenok opened his spreadsheet and calculated the options. He could either build his department from scratch, buy all the equipment and hire a staff, or he could outsource the whole operation to a third-party provider. After running the numbers, he and other city leaders decided to outsource. "I was pleasantly surprised," he says. "The outsource option was competitive against the public sector model in a large city."

On July 1, 2008, Englewood, Colo.-based CH2M HILL OMI began conducting all public works functions for the city of 110,000 residents, from water and wastewater system optimization and operation to community development and public works administration.

Posted by Info Center at 3:10 PM in Contract Cities | Public Works | Permalink
Tags: Colorado

Source: By KEN KUSMER , Associated Press (IN), 08.21.08, 11:34 AM ET

Indiana's human services agency is considering further changes in the way it processes food stamps that likely would cost some clients their benefits, agency chief Mitch Roob said after lawmakers questioned him about the proposal. Roob, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, on Wednesday also distributed to lawmakers and reporters a letter from a federal food stamp administrator noting the state had improved its timeliness in processing applications.

........ The new rule, which still must cross several hurdles before being adopted, would require food stamp applicants to submit required documents within 30 days - instead of 60 - or risk having to start the application process all over again from scratch, Roob said.

Posted by Info Center at 3:03 PM in Information Technology | Social Services | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: Reuters, Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:53pm EDT

Texas-based funds could invest directly in transportation projects through a new corporation under a plan unveiled on Thursday by the state's legislative leaders and the governor.

Texas has the nation's biggest road privatization plan but the legislature, reacting to criticisms that developers were enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers, enacted a two-year moratorium.

That has crimped planned road-building projects though investment banks and developers have expressed keen interest in them.

Posted by Info Center at 3:01 PM in Transportation | Permalink
Tags: Texas

Source: By Tim Evans, Indianapolis Star (IN), Posted: August 14, 2008

A plan from Gov. Mitch Daniels to help more Hoosiers get into college was hailed Wednesday by Republican and Democratic leaders, but there could be a fight over how to fund the estimated $50 million annual cost. Daniels, who announced the Hoosier College Promise scholarship program in April, revealed more details and two potential funding sources -- including privatizing the Hoosier Lottery -- during an appearance Wednesday at Terre Haute.

...... A similar proposal to privatize the lottery -- with revenue used for college scholarships, life-science research and police and fire pensions -- died in the Democrat-controlled House in 2007 after narrowly passing in the Senate.

Posted by Info Center at 2:30 PM in Lottery | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: By CLAUDINE SAN NICOLAS, Maui News (HI), August 13, 2008

WAILUKU - Maui Memorial Medical Center executives joined the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. on Monday in calling for a $62 million legislative bailout and a new law giving the public acute-care hospitals new options for governance and planning for the future.

........ In referring to costs of contracts for workers represented by the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the United Public Workers, Driskill said he has no intention of breaking up the unions or their collective bargaining agreements.

........ Lo said connections with HHSC and the state system make it difficult for the Maui Region to negotiate possible revenue-generating alternatives such as public-private partnerships, joint operating agreements and leases with private entities for use of what are considered public facilities.

...... The concept includes a proposal to the legislators to allow the acute-care hospitals in the HHSC system to form a separate corporation while maintaining the new regional boards that allow each region to deal with the community "in their own way," he said.

Posted by Info Center at 2:23 PM in Health | Permalink
Tags: Hawaii

Source: Steve Kuchera, Duluth News Tribune (MN), Thursday, August 14, 2008

The continued survival of the Lake Superior Zoo may depend upon developing a suitable answer to what Lake Superior Zoological Society Executive Director Sam Maida says is a common question: "What's new at the zoo?"

........ It is a challenge thrown into sharp relief by Mayor Don Ness' plan to turn the zoo over to the private, nonprofit zoological society by year's end. It was one of a list of cuts and revenue-generating ideas Ness proposed in June to reduce the city's budget deficit. The zoo posted a $617,368 loss last year.

....... The union, city and zoological society have been meeting to discuss the zoo's future since Ness's announcement. "Obviously we're concerned about protection of the workers there," said Alan Netland, president of AFSCME Local 66, which represents city employees at the zoo. "And we want both the city and the society to be realistic about what it takes to run an accredited zoo.

Posted by Info Center at 2:19 PM in Zoos | Permalink
Tags: Minnesota

Source: BY SCOTT ANDRON, Miami Herald (FL), Wed, Aug. 13, 2008

The state is taking over direct management of nurse's aides and food workers at three veterans' nursing homes, including one in Pembroke Pines. The 208 employees now work for a contractor, North Carolina-based PhyAmerica Government Services. But as of Aug. 29, PhyAmerica is laying them off, according to a notice filed Tuesday with the state labor department.

...... The PhyAmerica employees can apply for the new state jobs, said Courtney Heidelberg, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs.

....... ''It's more cost effective, it's better quality of care for our residents, and our employees get better benefits,'' she said.

Posted by Info Center at 2:16 PM in Food Services | Health | Publicization | Veterans | Permalink
Tags: Florida

Source: By Francesca Jarosz, Heather Gillers, Tim Evans and Bill Ruthhart, Indianapolis Star (IN), July 31, 2008

.......... Byrd and other needy Hoosiers are being forced to wait too long for food stamp applications to be processed by a private contractor, according to federal officials who have ordered the state to stop the rollout of its welfare modernization project. The federal action represents a major blow to the controversial privatization effort that is one of the keystones of Gov. Mitch Daniels' first term. A similar privatization project in Texas was canceled last year, two years into the five-year project, amid similar problems.

Posted by Info Center at 2:56 PM in Social Services | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: by Jeff May, The Star-Ledger, Tuesday August 12, 2008, 1:47 PM

Correctional Medical Services said it plans to lay off 949 workers in New Jersey next month, after losing its $85 million contract for prison health care services in the state to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

CMS, a private St. Louis firm, notified the state it would begin the layoffs on Sept. 30, a day before UMDNJ begins providing service to New Jersey Department of Corrections inmates. A majority of the workers facing layoffs are expected to be offered jobs with the university, UMDNJ spokesman Gerald Carey said.

Posted by Info Center at 2:52 PM in Corrections Health | Permalink
Tags: New Jersey

Source: By Arthur Foulkes, The Tribune-Star (IN), August 12, 2008

....... Opponents of Indiana's new intake system, which uses a private company, IBM, to handle the telephone and Internet client contacts, have organized a number of meetings around the state. Such a meeting took place last month in Terre Haute, where around 150 people attended, many speaking strongly against the system.

Complaints about the new system range from long wait times on the telephone to lost client paperwork and needless delays. Critics also say that many welfare recipients are unable to use the telephone or Internet application system.

Posted by Info Center at 2:27 PM in Social Services | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: By LEE WILLIAMS and ESTEBAN PARRA, The News Journal (DE) July 30, 2008

Continued poor performance by the Department of Correction's medical vendor is harming the department's efforts to get out from under supervision by the U.S. Justice Department, according to the third report by the independent monitor overseeing the state prison system.

Correctional Medical Services, a private company Delaware is paying $39 million this year to provide medical care to inmates, suffers from a "lack of stable and effective leadership," independent monitor Joshua W. Martin III wrote in a 221-page report released Tuesday.

Posted by Info Center at 2:21 PM in Corrections Health | Horror Stories | Permalink
Tags: Delaware

Source: BY BILL ENGLE, Palladium Item (IN), August 6, 2008

The state's effort to privatize the Richmond State Hospital might not be dead after all.

Mitch Roob, secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Service Administration, said Tuesday that he would like to "revisit" the effort in 2009.

"We'd like to take another look at it," Roob said. "I do think that at the hospital they do a terrific job and over time they can expand their role into something much more vital outside our umbrella."

Posted by Info Center at 2:18 PM in Health | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: BY FRAN SPIELMAN, Chicago Sun Times (IL), August 8, 2008

The Daley administration is negotiating with a private contractor to take over random drug and alcohol testing of city employees with commercial driver's licenses after the city's in-house program inadvertently excluded more than 800 truck drivers.

Posted by Info Center at 2:12 PM in Licensing | Transportation | Permalink
Tags: Illinois

Source: By MELISSA WALKER, Des Moines Register (IA), August 9, 2008

Des Moines officials hope a move to privatize two more municipal golf courses will pull revenue out of the rough.

Combined, the Waveland and Grandview courses were in the red almost $400,000 for the budget year that ended June 30. Officials had projected a $208,000 loss "at a time when our budget is extraordinarily stressed," City Manager Rick Clark said.

Posted by Info Center at 2:11 PM in Parks & Recreation | Permalink
Tags: Iowa

Source: By Brendan O'Shaughnessy, Indianapolis Star (IN), August 10, 2008

Mayor Greg Ballard has taken the first step toward privatizing the Mayor's Action Center. The MAC hotline is the call center that takes complaints and requests for city services such as filling potholes, mowing weeds and catching stray dogs.

....... David Patterson, a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, echoed that criticism. He said past privatization efforts have proved that city workers provide quality service when given the right tools.

Posted by Info Center at 2:04 PM in Call Centers | Permalink
Tags: Indiana

Source: By Charles Piller and Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times (CA), August 10, 2008

A 2006 law intended to crack down on sex offenders has proved a bonanza for a small group of private psychologists and psychiatrists, 14 of whom billed California taxpayers last year for a half a million dollars or more each, a Times investigation found. Among the 79 contractors hired by the state to evaluate sex offenders, the top earner was Robert Owen, a Central Coast psychologist who pulled in more than $1.5 million in 2007, according to state records reviewed by The Times.

........ The vast cost of the evaluations and the system's reliance on contractors have prompted concerns by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents state psychologists. "There is going to have to be some kind of adjustment in what the contractors are making if [the state] is going to recruit" staff psychologists, udi Herman, who chairs the union's psychologist committee, said in an interview.

Posted by Info Center at 2:00 PM in Mental Health | Permalink
Tags: California

Source: Reason Foundation press release, August 7, 2008

The federal government's competitive sourcing efforts saved taxpayers $7.2 billion over the last five years, according to Reason Foundation's 22nd Annual Privatization Report.

Competitive sourcing allows the private sector to compete for jobs and contracts that are currently performed by the government. Federal employees actually won 83 percent of the job competitions from fiscal 2003 through fiscal 2007. But taxpayers are the real winners: the Annual Privatization Report shows taxpayers save $25,000 for every job that is put up for competition because even when the government keeps the job it significantly improves efficiency and reduces costs.

Posted by Info Center at 1:55 PM in Audits/Reporting | Federal | Permalink

Source: Gerry Braun, San Diego Union Tribune (CA), August 6, 2008

......... The function of dead animal removal is being groomed for outsourcing to a private contractor. The council's limited role last week was to review what is called a "Statement of Work," a description of the services performed by Richeson, who said he makes about $19 an hour, and his fellow roadkill warriors. It was a rare public sighting of the process known around City Hall as "managed competition," under which Mayor Jerry Sanders has proposed that 16 city functions - an eclectic mix that ranges from graphic design to street sweeping - be placed on the auction block. ......... The Statement of Work, it turns out, is a stalking-horse in the power struggle between employee unions and managed-competition proponents. The simpler it is, the more attractive the contract will be to a private company. The more complex it becomes, the more money those companies will seek, increasing the odds that city employees keep their jobs. ........ The council was told, for example, that city workers will often return dead pets to their owners for burial, rather than tossing them in the landfill. And that while dead animals on private property are referred to a private contractor, city employees, in special cases, do help homeowners who are disabled or elderly.

........ These additional service standards were helpfully provided to the city by Damian Tryon, business manager for the union that represents Richeson.

....... Would the contractor's logs be available to the public? If they use city trucks, who pays for the insurance? If they break the law, who's accountable?

Posted by Info Center at 1:51 PM in Animal Control | Permalink
Tags: California

Source: By Daniel C. Vock, Stateline.org, Tuesday, August 12, 2008

....... Meanwhile, she said, governors are "angry" because the Bush administration is promoting partnerships with private companies to lease or manage public assets such as toll roads or airports, rather than offering states more money.

....... The public-private partnerships promoted by the Bush administration are problematic politically, Rendell said. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D), like Rendell, encountered stiff resistance when promoting these kinds of arrangements, and the joint ventures would not be the "panacea" the federal Department of Transportation promised, Corzine said.

Posted by Info Center at 1:48 PM in Asset Sale/Lease | Transportation | Permalink

Source: By David Clarke, CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS - DEFENSE, Aug. 12, 2008 - 11:41 a.m.

The use of private contractors in Iraq by the U.S. military is far greater than in past conflicts and has cost the government $85 billion through 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday.

CBO estimates that, as of early 2008, there were at least 190,000 private contractors or subcontractors working on U.S.-funded projects in the Iraq theater, which includes Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Most of the work performed by contractors, according to CBO, deals with logistical support, construction projects, food services and providing petroleum products. The report examined data from 2003 through 2007.

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