Recently in Street Maintenance Category

Source: Fox 6 (CA), 5/03 12:27 am

Waste collection, street sweeping and road maintenance are among 11 municipal services San Diego will consider outsourcing to private businesses in an effort to save money, Mayor Jerry Sanders announced Friday (.pdf).

Privatizing the 11 services would cut 291 municipal jobs and save the city $63.1 million in expenses, according to city officials. But union officials representing city employees questioned the timing of the announcement, which came as contract negotiations between the Mayor's Office and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 127 have stalled.

...... "We are ready and willing to compete," AFSCME Local 127 President Joan Raymond said following the mayor's announcement. "We are not afraid of competition as long as the process is fair."

Source: By Joe Wessels, Cincinnati Post (OH), Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Some City Council members see a recent audit of street sweepers in the city as an opportunity to call again for managed competition.

...... Crowley cited the fact that the private company now cleaning streets in the central business district - Contract Sweepers and Equipment Inc. - came in with a bid for the rest of the city more than $200 per curb mile swept higher than the city workers bid. "I think that is a clear indication that they didn't want anything to do with that," he said, another reason city employees are key to getting the tough jobs done.

Source: By Jennifer Vigil, San Diego Union Tribune (CA), February 27, 2006

Outsourcing has become a buzzword in cash-strapped San Diego. ...... A form of it – managed competition, which would pit public employees against private firms – has become a key piece of what Mayor Jerry Sanders calls his “reform agenda at City Hall,” portions of which will be reviewed by the City Council at 2 p.m. today. A city street-repair program hints at what managed competition in San Diego could be like. The task fell to contracted crews two years ago, when 16 city employees were laid off. It later was found that the costs of paying private firms to do the work could exceed those generated by city employees by $1.9 million. ..... Joan Raymond, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 127, which would represent the workers, said some city divisions already have programs in place to ensure their costs are in line with industry standards.