Privatization is not such a great solution for the city of Coral Gables

March 15, 2011 Leave a comment

There is a lot of bad experience with the privatization of municipal services in the US.

And there are many hidden costs to the city government of privatization or outsourcing.

There have been serious issues of maintaining the quality of services by the private operators.  The region of South Florida has a particularly bad history of incompetent outside contractors, weak state laws to be able to sue contractors for incomplete work, and there are high city costs of selecting and supervising the contractors.  Evidence is that the community can be very unhappy with the quality of privatized services.

In short, privatized costs do not save costs nor is quality of services sustained.  Greater effort should go into improving the efficiency of Coral Gables government operations.  That is the job of the city manager and the city commission.

He appeared more eager that the other aspirant to take on challenges that the city will face in the coming years, among them increasing privatization of services.

via Commission hires assistant county attorney.

Filed under Coral Gables, Florida, Government, Organization

Two Resignations Today: School Reformer Michelle Rhee (DC) and City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez (Coral Gables)

October 12, 2010 Leave a comment

Rhee made a serious attempt at reforming education in Washington, DC; and Hernandez is leaving a highly debatable legacy in Coral Gables.

Rhee’s goals – higher student achievement, better teachers and greater accountability for their classroom performance – were generally shared by Rhee’s predecessors. But with new powers putting the struggling school system under mayoral control, Rhee pursued the goals with an unprecedented zeal.

She closed more than two dozen schools, fired teachers by the hundreds and spent more than two years negotiating a labor contract that gives principals new control over teacher hiring while establishing a new performance-pay system that ties compensation to growth on student test scores.

via D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to announce resignation Wednesday.

 

Source re resignation of city attorney:  see George Volsky (article received via email), CITY ATTORNEY RESIGNS,  Oct. 12

Filed under Coral Gables, Government, Organization

What’s Next After the 2010-2011 Budget Approval

September 29, 2010 Leave a comment

After the approval of the 2010-2011 City of Coral Gables Budget, we might ask what are major tasks the city manager and the city commissioners should undertake to avoid continuing property tax increases.

I would think the city needs the following:

  • Make further cuts in pensions, health benefits and salaries of all employees during the next year, especially for firefighters and police;
  • Reduce the number of firefighters and police, if they do not accept substantial salary and benefit reductions;
  • In light of the city manager’s recent comments about working for the future, the city should develop, discuss and publish a long-term financial plan, approved by the Commission and discussed by taxpayers in an open forum;
  • Continue evaluating senior and middle management and a process of “rightsizing” city government;  and
  • Delay major capital projects for three to five years, depending on the recuperation of the local economy.

What else do you suggest.

Filed under Finance, Government, Organization, Taxes and Fees

Some Random Thoughts on the Budget (re: the Commission’s Budget Meeting on Tuesday, September 14)

September 11, 2010 Leave a comment

  • City authorities should accept that the City of Coral Gables is in a real long-term budget crisis that will only get worse unless significant cost cutting and a deep reorganization is performed by city management.
  • The budget should be based on a realistic and educated awareness of the economic, financial, community and business future of Coral Gables–city authorities may be way too optimistic about an early economic recovery.
  • The biggest danger to the financial future of the city is the huge unresolved pension and health care benefit liabilities–a recent step in reducing benefits for general employees needs to be followed with similar agreements with police and firefighters (the “golden employees” of Coral Gables).
  • Public security costs, which are more than 50% of the city’s budget, seem to be untouchable–these costs have to be reduced to solve the budget crisis.
  • The city has been too slow to make the internal organizational reforms to streamline services and reduce the number of middle and upper management staff that certainly would make it more efficient and help prioritize critical services to the citizens, businesses and visitors.  Someone (commissions or management) appears to resisting significant staff reductions at the middle and higher management levels.
  • The city authorities are greatly underestimating the negative impact of the economic recession and tax increases on individual taxpayers who have suffered huge losses in both their assets and incomes.  Many taxpayers are not able to sustain further property tax increases.
  • As far as the citizens know, the problem of Biltmore Hotel operator’s failure to pay its lease has been postponed until after the budget and taxes are approved.  This is concerning because we do not know if the future negotiation will lead to another favorable agreement with the Biltmore operator that in turn forgives significant debts to the city and loads the losses on taxpayers.

Filed under Budget, Finance, Organization, Taxes and Fees

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