Saturday, June 30, 2012

Weston, FLA: A New Model of Gummint Employment?

Interesting.

Weston, Fla., an affluent suburb 25 miles northwest of Miami, has one of the most unusual charters of any city: it specifically discourages the city from hiring employees.

.... the city has used contractors to fulfill virtually every city function. Today, the city of 65,000 has a budget of $121 million -- and just nine of its own employees. ...

The city has about 285 full-time equivalent employees who are "dedicated staff" provided by contractors. They work in city facilities and are treated like city employees, but on paper, they are actually employees of private companies that get paid by the city.

The result is a situation that many city managers and mayors may envy. City leaders don't have to deal with labor disputes or union negotiations; they aren't struck with ballooning pension obligations; and they aren't dealing with painful and politically unpopular layoffs.

Many of the contracts are for a particular level of service, as opposed to a particular number of employees. When the amount of work facing the building department slowed during the recession, for example, the city didn’t have to continue to pay idle workers. "That’s the vendor’s issue of what he does with the staff," says Daniel Stermer, who served as Weston city commissioner from 2002 to 2010 . "We’re not paying for it unless somebody’s using it."

Whatever you do, don't tell Scott Walker about this.

HT: FreedomLine

5 comments:

Jim said...

This is indeed an interesting idea.

I'm curious what the net profit margin is to the vendors and what personal or non-city-related business associations exist between the city decision makers and the vendors.

I'm not assuming anything negative, but I am curious.

Saint Revolution said...

Ji(s)m pukes out one valid concern:

The possible future corruption between the select few employe of any public entity and the "relationships" with private vendors.

Frying pan to fire stuff?!

I don't know...

One thing IS for sure. Privatization would be a Jack And The BeanStalk giant step forward away from the prolific corruption in public sector we have today.

Saint Revolution said...

Gee...

Tuesday, March 08, 2011 03/08/2011 09:01 AM Saint Revolution Dad29 blog comment...

excerpt:
"...Everything...EVERYTHING...EVERY EVERY EVERYTHING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR CAN BE PRIVATIZED! Cops, firemen, any public sector worker up to and including the governorship...EVERY JOB can be relegated to competition. Make NO mistake about this. Make NO mistake about this!..."


Peruse other Saint Revolution Dad29 blog comments here.

Jim said...

Sure, because there is no corruption in the private sector, ST. Orem.

Saint Revolution said...

Hey, Ji(s)m 7/02/2012 10:11 AM:

Read. READ...READ!

...and I quote MYSELF:
excerpt:
"..the possible future corruption BETWEEN the select few employe of any public entity and the "relationships" with private vendors....".

BETWEEN. BETWEEN. BETWEEN.

Assumes and imputes inclusion of BOTH subjects on either side of the word.

BETWEEN, Ji(s)m.

Like...try, try, try and use that shitpuke BETWEEN your ears...