In the world of government, the word “privatization” has become a dirty word. Of course, those who run government agencies don’t want to hear that private companies could do the same job, more efficiently and cheaper. Advocates of government will give you every reason in the book why it’s a bad idea to contract out some services, as opposed to keeping public employees on the payroll. Of course, the public unions will try every trick in the book to stop all privatization at any cost.
But, let’s look at some of the simplified reasons how the City of North Miami Beach could save tax dollars and run more efficiently by contracting out certain services. For starters, please click on this chart above to magnify it so you can read about the relationship between contract workers and in-house workers. Then please read my essay below so you can understand my thoughts. Please remember, this is just my opinion based on my own research. If you disagree, please explain why and give some examples. I’m certainly open to discussion.
Some services cannot or should not be privatized for various reasons. A police department, for example, should not be replaced with a squad of glorified security guards. That would be like privatizing the United States Army with a band of mercenaries who are only loyal to their paychecks and not to the country. They’re sold to the highest bidder. A municipality, whether it be a city, county or state, must have a professional and well trained police department. In my opinion, there is no way around this.
I was also amazed to learn that we are under no obligation to have a unionized police force. According to its Constitution, Florida is a right to work state, which means, “The right of persons to work shall not be denied or abridged on account of membership or non-membership in any labor union or labor organization.” If it had the resources and the inclination, the City of North Miami Beach could actually form its own non-unionized police department and not have the added expense, not to mention aggravation, of having to deal with a union. Under this arrangement, employees would be able to receive merit raises if they are deserving, and not be chained to union negotiated cost of living raises or across the board cuts. The power unions wield over employees is that it leaves individual workers absolutely no incentive (or permission) to ask to be rewarded on their own merit, while protecting those who are not properly doing the job. Why should the salaries of all employees be bound by “collective bargaining” when not all employees are equal? I never could understand why anyone would even want to be a union member. Again, just my humble opinion.
However, the start up cost of a brand new union-free police department would most likely be cost prohibitive, so I seriously doubt this option would ever be on the table for our city. I only brought it up as food for thought.
I had also considered the pros and cons of privatizing the building department, but after interviewing a professional public administrator, I was somewhat convinced that this may not be in NMB’s best interest. It was explained to me that if a private company were to be in charge of issuing building permits and approving construction, it would not be in the company’s best interest to move too quickly to issue final approval or assist the homeowner with requested changes and the like in order to speed up the process. The reason for this is if a private company were being paid by the hour, as is usually the case of independent contractors, it could ostensibly stretch out the approval process as long as possible for the purpose of increasing its income. While one would hope a company would have an ethical business practice, there is always the possibility of this scenario occurring. I’m still on the fence about this, but I’m leaning toward not privatizing the building department.
Some people feel that the sanitation department should not be contracted out, but I have many excellent reasons why it should. Unlike the private sector, where there is usually a cap on how much a labor could be expected to cost the company, many governmental agencies, including North Miami Beach, provide a contracted Cost of Living increase (COLA), which guarantees an employee at least a minimum raise each year of his or her employment. Of course, this is notwithstanding wage freezes that may be implemented from time to time. Accordingly, a sanitation worker who started at or near minimum wage thirty years ago, could possibly be earning upwards of fifty thousand dollars today. Granted, that worker may have received titular promotions within the department to justify large salary increases, but the fact of the matter is that the city is paying fifty thousand dollars to a worker for a job that is probably only worth about half that amount. One could argue that longevity on the job should be rewarded with generous raises, and one would be right about that. However, a salary should be commensurate with the job, and there is no way that anyone could possibly justify paying fifty thousand dollars to someone to collect trash. This would be the same thing as having a housekeeper in your home for thirty years who started at say $200.00 a week, and is now earning $1,000.00 a week simply because she’s been cleaning your house for so long. Are you going to tell me your house is so difficult to maintain that you’d have to pay $1,000.00 a week to have it cleaned? It’s just not economically feasible, nor are you even remotely getting what you pay for. Eventually there has to be a cap on salary or the employee will price himself out of a job. A private sanitation company, on the other hand, is in business to make money. This company will provide a service for a price. When this company advertises to hire employees, it may advertise its wage schedule, and a prospective employee would know exactly what he can expect to earn during the course of his employment. If at any time he feels he should earn more than the company is willing to pay he’ll look for another job. By the same token, the company will simply turn around and hire someone to replace him. Believe me, this company will have no problem finding replacement workers who will be more than happy to take the job. The company can still remain in business, and the city will continue to receive the service for the price it contracted the company to do. Some will argue that a private business cannot provide the “personalized” service that a government sanitation department can offer. I beg to differ. A company will offer a variety of services at a full range of prices. A municipality can contract for as many or as few of these services as it needs in order to maintain a proper service level to its residents. A private company can offer basic trash pickup or as many extra pickups as necessary, depending on what the city is willing to purchase. Even at the highest level of service, it’s a given that this contract will in no way begin to cost what we are now paying a full staff of sanitation workers. Another thing to consider is that by contracting out with a private company, the city will save tremendous amounts of money by not having to purchase or maintain its own fleet of sanitation vehicles. Cities all over the country are going the route of privatization for its sanitation services, and I firmly believe the City of North Miami Beach should, too.
Another department that I feel should be contracted out is the city’s legal department. As it stands, we have a city attorney and two assistant city attorneys and several secretaries. On top of that, we also have on retainer a labor lawyer, a pension lawyer and a CRA lawyer. Why do we have in house counsel if we are still having to pay for outside counsel? A city the size of North Miami Beach certainly doesn’t need three attorneys at the salaries and pension costs that ours are commanding, and still have to pay outside counsel at a rate of hundreds of dollars an hour. What about contracting out all legal work to a single firm that can handle all our issues for a single hourly rate? This will cut out the high salaries and benefits, including outrageous pensions of in house counsel and staff (which alone cost the city over $200,000.00 a year!), as well as the retainer costs of three separate attorneys, which can be astronomical. The best reason of all to outsource the legal department is that we could absolutely avoid another “Street Furniture” fiasco because an outside private firm of attorneys would be impervious to any coercion tactics of a corrupt mayor as was the case in our former mayor’s bullying of our current city attorney. Contracting out our legal department would be a win-win for everyone!
The Human Resources Department is another one ripe for privatizing. Under the (mis)management of former HR Director, Beverly Hobson, the city racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees paid to outside legal counsel by calling the labor attorney every time she had a question about anything. At a going rate of about $500.00 to 600.00 an hour, the labor attorney gladly took her phone calls. Had the incompetent Mizz Hobson bothered to read or comprehend the labor contracts or city employment manuals, I’m told the answers to probably 99% of her calls to the labor lawyer could have been avoided. She apparently had the answers literally at her fingertips but was either too lazy or too ignorant to look them up. This went on for years and years at a considerable waste of our tax dollars paid to her and her department. I won’t even go into they way she terrorized employees she didn’t like or her race based methods of hiring and promotions. Suffice it to say, she was a Kelvin Baker crony. Even though Mizz Hobson conveniently planned her retirement when Baker was fired and had it coincide with the last city election, probably because she saw the writing on the wall that her days were numbered. Guess she figured the gig was up. But, even without her, the city could save tons of money, not to mention do away with potential nepotism, by contracting this entire department out to a private and professional HR company. I hope the Council and City Manager consider this option.
Next up for possible privatization would be the city’s Finance Department. Under the directorship of the now fired Susan Gooding-Liburd, another Baker crony, this department was a complete and utter disaster. Does the sum of $2.6 million ring a bell? I remember at a council meeting when Councilwoman Beth Spiegel asked Ms. Gooding-Liburd a simple question about interest rates the city is paying on pension contributions and the Finance Director had no clue! She also made a million dollar mistake on her financial report to the council. How does an alleged financial expert make a million dollar mistake? I’m just saying. In this day and age of technology, I imagine the city could save literally millions of dollars by contracting out the entire Finance Department.
Ditto for the IT Department. Here’s why. By the time a teenager graduates high school, he or she knows infinitely more than the average adult about technology. Young people also have the capacity to learn new technology as fast as it’s invented, which believe me, is at warp speed now. Teenagers and young adults are not only fascinated by technology and all the gadgets that this field entails, but so many of them could literally reinvent the wheel. Companies are hiring these young folks as soon as they graduate from college (or sooner in some cases) because CEOs know that these brilliant young minds can imagine and create possibilities beyond our wildest dreams. No matter how intelligent or educated the folks in my generation are, we just cannot compete with them. So why try? Why not harness that energy and finally bring our city’s antiquated technology system into the twenty first century? If any of you have even the slightest idea of how technologically advanced a municipality could become, you have to know we’re not even on the map. Privatizing our IT Department and hiring a company on the cutting edge of technology is a no brainer.
One last word about the IT Department. I’m told that the police department has a separate IT division, and it’s sole employee is literally a tech whiz. When the city’s computers need servicing or has programing issues, I hear they have to call an outside agency, while the police IT dude does it all. Wow! Maybe the City Manager can look into cloning the police IT guy for the city. I’m just saying.
After doing extensive research, talking to many experts, and forming my own opinions, these are just some of my suggestions for dealing with the city’s problems. This is by no means an “expert” analysis, or even a comprehensive list. I just know there is a solution and a much better way to run a city, than the way it’s been run for decades. We now have the chance to enact some major reform in the way our city has been managed and pretty much rebuild government from the ground floor. If we do this right, I can envision North Miami Beach making several top ten lists for the best places to live in America. Can you?
Your comments, opinions and suggestions are welcome. If you disagree with me, maybe you can share some of your own recommendations. Hopefully, the Mayor, Council and City Manager will read all of our comments and take them into consideration. You and I may not run the city, but our representatives should be listening to the people who voted them into office. I also hope they would consider the opinions of the employees who actually know what goes on behind the scenes. What a novel idea, huh?
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
the best thing to do with the Building department is to have an assistant City Manager meet with the Asst. Managers of the surrounding communities (Aventura, Sunny isles, Miami Gardens, Miami Shores, North Miami etc.) to get them on-board to force Miami-Dade County to open a satellite office in the area that would serve all the city’s just as they do the unicorporated areas. There would be no need to duplicate all the building directors, engineers, electricians, etc. when one group could serve all the Cities. All building plan review and inspections of any municipality in Floirda are all done in compliance with the Florida Building Code, National Electric Code, and so on, so there is no reason to have all the duplication.
In fact, there’s an idea for the CRA director to pursue. Find a location in NMB, preferably in the CRA areas, and offer it up as a site for the Miami-Dade County Building Department North Dade Branch.
Another department that could have been turned over to the County years ago was our Library. It would have remained a library in the city however it would have been run by Miami-Dade County and the taxpayers of NMB would not have to continue footing the $1,000,000 annual budget.Its too late to turn it over now becasye the MD Libarby System doesn’t want it now and will not accept turning it over to them. Even if it were a County library, the City of NMb could have paid for some optional programs for children at the library and still have the same function as it does now.
I’m in full agreeemnt with you on the legal department. Why do we need a staff when the city spends about the same amount of money on outside council as it does on the in-house staff?
Keep up the good work Ms. Kienzle.
Bob
Thanks, Bob, for your comments. I would never have thought of that about the building department. I’m going to send your suggestion to the council because I bet they never thought of it, either. Great thinking! I hope they agree. Thanks so much for reading my blog and contributing your thoughts. I bet that if we all work together we could really help fix NMB!
Steph
Ms. Kienzle
I am a Police Officer that has been working for North Miami Beach for the last 24 years, I have been a sergeant for 18 years. I would like a disclamer to start as I don’t write very well. Please don’t trash me as I am under educated and have a slightly better than high school education. Only by the grace of God have I made it this far. I kind of realize the fear that you speak of, I have probably felt the same fear as I have traveled back and forth to work lately. I have felt uncomfertable to say the least.
I’m in a fortunate or unfortunate position to see the City of North Miami Beach come full circle to where we are at today. When I started working for the City we had no take home car’s and I would come to work sometimes 20 minutes early so that I could get a car. I would have to sometimes put cardboard on the floor to keep my feet from hiting the payment. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to waste your time talking about cars. I get it… It just stick’s in the crawl with some people that we have these take home cars. Although I hear there are studies to support them, I feel that you all could be presented with a study from the (CBO) and it wouldn’t make one bit of difference. (Again forgive my miss spellings and other errors.). I will offer you my two cents worth on this matter. I worked 10 yrs. in a undercover street crimes unit where we would be sitting in parking lots or nieghborhoods where auto thefts, burglary’s or even worse robberies were occurring. It would drive me insane when right when some subjects we were watching were just about to commit a, some Officer from our City or another would pull through the lot and cause them to immediatly stop and drive off. Oh well, we would usually stop them down the road and charge them with what ever we could if anything. In addition, please remeber that although I don’t live in the City and park the car there I see several Police cars from other City’s parked in driveways as I patrol. It’s good, not only for the individual Officer but for all citizens when these cars from all the surrounding City’s are driving around on the highways, through the city’s and yes even to their homes. It deters crime, how much, at what cost, who knows.
I wasn’t even going to bring that up, I want to get back to why I suddenly feel like one of “Americas Most Wasnted”, because I do not live in the City. I was thinking, why do I feel so guilty for not living in the City that I work for, then it hit me. I live in a city that I have no idea what the crime problem is like. I do not know if my neighbor was burglarized yesterday, who was robbed or how many cars have been stolen. I know every burglary that has occurred in the City of North Miami Beach, I know every suqare inch of North Miami Beach. I make it a point to know the Crime that is occurring in our City and I make it a point that every Officer that works for our City knows. I didn’t always have that luxury, when I first started we didn’t have crime analysis, we didn’t have a street crimes unit and we didn’t have community patrol officers that if all else failed we could be confident that they would solve the problem. We have that, we have that now and it is all about to go away.
I am not trying to frighten anyone, I’m telling you the truth. I am a Police Officer who is expected to carry a weapon when I am off duty. I have not carried a weapon off duty in probably 15 years, I am currently looking for a personal protection weapon (pocket gun). Not because the City of North Miami Beach is thinking of cutting Officer positions, but because I watch the news like everyone else. I have not seen the lack of respect for human life like I see now since I started in Law Enforcement. That includes the boat lifts and drug wars of the 80’s, you have to seriously consider what is about to take place.
I would like to close with my thoughts on this whole benefit thing thats going on. When I first started you could have just given me a gun and taught me how to be a Police Officer, that was it. I like the majority of these your Officers, just wanted and want to have the opportunity to do Police work. I still to this day have no idea what I make, although I probably will know when your buget person slams me tomorrow. Don’t drag these fine Officers through the dirt, they don’t deserve it. Our Department (Thus City), regardless what they are paid have a hugh amount invested in them, please don’t throw that investment away. Don’t go from Feast to Famine, I know we are better than this. Mr. Mayor you are not paying for yesterdays work today, kicking the can down the road, the tail waging the dog and all these other sayings that are going around. This is an investment in a City that will be here for another 100 years, don’t destroy it. It took two years to get to where I made progress working out, how long do you think it will take if I “Quit” to gain back what I lost. You will get the short term benefit of saving some dollars, but it will take years to get back what is going to be lost. I’m just saying….
Arty,… reminds me of “the neighbors eating kids”. Allot of rhetoric and BS. The sky is falling syndrome. Oh, if we do not break our necks and empty our pocket book paying you guys, we will not have a good police department.
A nurse does not make half as much, yet he/she is spat upon, kicked, called names, but still get the job done saving and caring for your loved ones. Yet we do not hear the rhetoric coming from them.
My friend, paying you guys $600.00 to $800.00 a day that includes astronomical pensions and salaries, us paying for fuel that is worth 10 trips to the moon for a small one horse city, you have got to be kidding me.
My days for believing in ghost stories are over. You people take one story and rehash it 40 times, make a huge sensation and make yourselves feel more important than everyone else.
NMBPD has 34 detectives and 24 sergeants? Unbelievable! Sick. My house has been broken into. Never heard back from the NMBPD if it was a cat, dog or a human-being did this. Finger prints…. a joke. The detective guy who showed up took the evidence and threw it in a thrash can and said one cannot get a finger print from a broken window pane. He did not even try.
Stay good and Peace.
Shut up Kazan!!!!!!!!!!!! No one is listening to you.
Come on. Try to be nice. 🙂
Registered Nurse Average Salary: Mean Salaries for RNs
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary of a registered nurse in the United States is $63,750. The average hourly wage of a registered nurse is $30.65. Keep in mind that these are only averages, and that a registered nurse may make more or less than these amounts based on location, experience, and other factors.
In addition, the starting salaries for an RN may be much less than the average salary.
Florida RN Salary: $29.94 (hourly wage); $62,270 (salary)
Yes, that’s probably about what a registered nurse should expect to make in today’s market. Of course, it also depends on whether or not there’s an employer willing and able to meet that salary. Private hospitals have traditionally been able to pay the top salaries primarily because they are in business to make money. A public hospital, like Jackson, which depends on tax dollars, can’t hire nurses at that rate. Considering that Jackson has been so mismanaged and is now in a deep hole, I’m betting they were paying those salaries and more, not to mention the deep pockets of the administrators who were literally raping the coffers. This actually brings me to the point I was making with this blog. When a private company is in business, it can do all kinds of things to increase revenue assuming their product or service is in demand. A private business is also free to cut costs, when necessary, including laying off employees if it has to. A government agency’s revenue is limited to tax dollars. It also can offer a few other services for extra fees, but the bulk of the government’s income comes from taxpayers. When the economy sucks and tax revenue is down, the government simply cannot compete with private industry. Nor should it. A government is NOT in the business of turning a profit. Today, there’s no danger of that happening anyway.
Steph you are right on target with the PD’s IT “Whiz”. The guy is an absolute genius and can run circles around the City IT personnel; and I mean all of them. The PD IT guy does all the work himself; he changes out servers, maintains the network with an up time of over 99%. The guy never has to “contract” out anything! Meanwhile I hear that the city IT guy has contract out most things; his excuse being “I’m too busy to do it”.
The only problem besides the PD IT guy being severely underpaid for what he does is that the PD IT guy doesn’t “have the CM’s ear” the way the city IT guy does. And the city IT guy has done a great job of extolling his IT prowess to the CM when in reality the PD guy could run circles around him. The PD IT guy doesn’t get to meet or talk with the manager at all really so the CM doesn’t really know what kind of employee he is and that he doesn’t need to spend all this extra money to “contract” out IT issues; and trust me the PD IT guy is plenty busy yet still manages to do all the work himself. I honestly feel the PD IT guy could change the city’s IT department for the better and at less cost than what is being paid now. The only problem is that the PD IT guy has almost left at times for a better paying job and that would really be a sever loss to the PD and the city. He should make at least what the city IT guy is making if not more.
Keep up the good work Steph!
Frank, please help me with this question. A reader sent me an email questioning my comments about the IT Whiz. She wrote, “13 employees in the communications department budgeted at $1,164,293,” and she wondered who I was talking about. Can you please give me more information so I can pass it on?
Thanks,
Steph
LOL!!! Does not seem to be inexpensive after all.
Shut up Kazan….no one is listening to you
“Communications” in the PD are the 911 operators. Not part of PD IT or city IT. Very important function. But it could probably be outsourced, maybe to Bombay LOL.
While it may be true that younger people are more technologically savvy than us old farts (myself included), the problem with the city’s IT department is one of funding for hardware and software: i.e., they have not been able to purchase needed upgrades for many years now (not a problem the PD has suffered). How outsourcing would solve that problem is beyond me. But perhaps it could happen in a way I just don’t envision. As for Frank’s allegation that the city’s “IT guy” (i.e., IT Manager Patrick Rosiak) can’t do anything and outsources everything, that’s complete and utter bullshit. In all my years with the city I’ve never had a problem that Patrick or his team couldn’t resolve themselves, and usually very quickly. Frank would do well to remember that thanks to the IT staff who programs and maintains the city’s antiquated financial system, he continues to get a paycheck every week. Moreover, Mr. Rosiak has contact with the CM because, guess what, he is required to be at every council meeting and every other televised public proceeding. Don’t you think he might like to be elsewhere, like home with his family after hours, like “your IT guy?”
Enough of that. I’m not going to say anything about the PD, because that horse has been beaten to death. Except this: a mercenary is a mercenary, whether he has a gun and badge or a law degree.
Any sensible discussion of privatization…and it is a reasonable consideration…should begin with the areas of service that are taxpayer funded, not self-sustaining, such as the building department, sanitation, stormwater, water and wastewater utilities. (And, IMHO, essential services.) Yes, those can be revisited in the future; but for now, our manager and elected officials should focus on the taxpayer-funded general fund. Since everyone agrees we don’t want paid mercenaries for our PD, what does that leave? Pretty much one department: Leisure Services. Why not propose Leisure Mercenaries to manage these services?
To suggest that integral support departments like finance and HR be outsourced because their former directors were incompetent (and Baker cronies) is truly like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The remaining staff (to use a much-maligned term) are honest and hardworking people who have toiled amid all this turmoil without complaint. Moreover, most of them are not UNION employees, so they don’t get raises every year. In fact, they’ve seen their benefits stripped away, and yet they still keep showing up for work every day.
I totally agree with you about some positions literally pricing themselves out of the job. The reason for that is simple: in the past, the COLA raise (1.5 percent) was separated from the merit raise (3 percent) in the AFSCME contract. I gather the idea was, that when one reached the max salary for a position, one would get the COLA 1.5 percent, but not the merit 3 percent. As of the last round of contract negotiations three years ago, those two were lumped together. So anyone and everyone gets a 4.5 percent raise every year. The max salary for every position is not adhered to.
Oops, I ended a sentence with a preposition. No soup for me. 🙂
Thanks for all your comments. You know last night after I wrote this blog I actually thought of the fact that some of the services are paid for separate from taxes, such as the water and trash pickup. But by then it was too late to rewrite the blog. I’m glad you brought it up. This is exactly why I wanted the employees to weigh in because they truly do know what’s going on behind the scenes, much more than average residents like me. Leisure services, formerly and rightfully known as Park & Rec, could absolutely be privatized! From what I understand, they already hire outside contractors to do much of the work, such as cutting the grass on the baseball fields, etc. As for your comments re the antiquated IT equipment, the reason I thought this was a good department to outsource is specifically because of that! An outside firm can do this stuff off site. You cannot believe how much can be done that way. For example, the IT guy who helps me with my office computer can access my computer from a remote location, with my permission, of course, and literally operate my computer from his office. Once he’s in, he literally takes over the computer, and can install programs, fix stuff and whatever the heck he’s doing, while I watch in amazement. (Yes, it takes very little to amuse me.) Anyway, if this stuff can be done, I imagine an entire IT department by a private company can be considered, and it doesn’t even have to be with the city’s old equipment and programs. With the way technology is updated so quickly, it doesn’t even pay to buy new technology for the city, because even before it’s halfway paid for, there’s new technology invented. Private companies are so far advanced and able to update because they have the money and the resources. So, that’s my opinion on that.
You get soup anyway. I’m feeling very generous today.
I do understand how much IT work can be done remotely. Our IT department does it for me all the time (as I am in a “remote” location).But still, should an outside contractor take it over, there would have to be a substantial investment in hardware and software. I’m just sayin’.
All that being said, I’m taking my soup (thank you!) and going to bed. Thanks for the soup!
Stef, for whatever reason, you left out commenting on the PD. But you have done allot of commenting previously, but never on the other departments you now mentioned. It seems to me according to what I read, is being described as, suggesting we going back to Dade County.
Then we are back to square one.
Patrick our IT guy, has been like a magic wand for our old and outdated computers for years. He has been giving life to these, stretching it out. Last year they supposedly made allocations in our budget for the replacement of many computers. Don’t know if anything came out of this. But which high school kid could have done what Patrick is doing?
The magnificent computer today works on a binary system dealing with one and zero. No matter how complicated it may seem, it deals with those two basic numbers. Basic being the operative word. Never heard of any high school computer whiz kid being the professor of the IT class. I am not going to scoff at experience.
Legal department? Always good to have your own lawyer at hand. (if you cannot afford one, one will be provide to you). I do not know if any of us would borrow our neighbor stove to cook, because we hardly cook, hence we can do without one? Irrespective if it is Darcee or Peobo Bryson being our attorney, it has to be our own. Our own tries to save us money versus lawyer firms who tries to make more money for themselves. Not a problem, but not when it is the taxpayers money.
Mr. Klausner the pension attorney makes $350.00 per hour. Some of the most ridiculous advice he has been giving us thus far. If I am correct, he was the one who advised us to kick $4 million down the road for the police pension. He is on a retainer fee and is paid by the hour.
Building Dept? Good to keep on hand as well. Probably a reorganizing at hand. Was used as a political tool to avenge politicians. How I know this? Stef, myself and others were at the dragon’s mouth of this organisation. Fortunately, Mr. Azan is a gentleman and we avoided a disaster from happening.
Garbage dept. Yep. That stinks. Literally. A department we take for granted. If my garbage is not picked up for one day, I am ticked. We all are ticked off. I do not get patrolling in my community for months,… crime rates go up and we say it comes with the territory. If a garbage truck guy takes the truck and parks it in our parks and hide from work. He is fired when caught if he is non union. An NMBPD cop does the same, we hear excuses from his superior he is human.
Waste Management or a similar company will do an excellent job and at a cheaper price for the first year after we get rid of our own garbage pick up. On the second year or when the contract runs out, they will raise our fees. Many days they will leave our garbage where it is unless we pay through our noses like North Miami. Reminds me of exporting our jobs to China. Now they give us back in return, poison pet food, poison dry wall, poisoned toys, poison everything.
There has to be a balance.
Long ago unions looked out for workers health and safety. Today they are more like a protectionist organisation. Protection from competition. They have forced many companies to export jobs overseas, and soon to be, for cities to outsource jobs, if they do not bargain to meet within an affordable budget.
Generally, if unions can learn from the past and negotiate in good faith that can also be beneficial for tax payers pockets, it can be a win win situation for both sides. If they learnt absolutely nothing and come with the same old same old, I see allot of unemployment and out sourcing. Has nothing to do with me. Has all to do with what is happening around the country. The taxpayers have had enough and a revolution is on.
Kazan, I did not leave out the PD, but since this blog was specifically about privatization, my topic didn’t apply to the PD. See the third paragraph of my column. Even if the city were to contract with the county, this is still not the same as privatizing. It cannot be done with a PD.
From what I’ve been told, Patrick in IT is very good at his job. But, it’s obvious you have no idea what teenagers and young people are capable of when it comes to technology. These kids were practically born with a keyboard and a mouse in their hands and they know more about computers by the time they get to college than most people in our generation will learn in our lifetime. I was just telling someone the other day about when my daughter was 15 and worked part time in a law office, filing, stuffing envelopes, making copies, etc. One day new printers were delivered and all the lawyers stood around, scratching their heads, wondering how the computers were going to get hooked up to the printers. These were people who had law degrees, so we’re not talking about dummies. (No lawyer jokes here, okay?) Anyway, my daughter just went to work and started connecting all the equipment, installing the programs and whatever else needed doing, and the attorneys were literally astonished that a 15 year old girl knew how to do all this “high tech” stuff. My daughter was astonished that none of them knew what to do. Needless to say, she became their IT department. As much as I’d love to tell you that my daughter is a genius (you know, apples falling from trees and all), the truth is that most people her age can do just about anything that you can possibly do with computer. I remain in awe of and humbled by the Millennial Generation.
Smile. Good for your daughter. If no one showed those attorney, or they cared not to get classes on what to do, they will not know. But I will not trust my child going on the school bus with an 18 year old bus driver. Likewise, if I know the IT department is in the hands of a 15 or 18 year old kid, I would sincerely ask God to help us even more.
I’m not suggesting that the city replace the IT department with a 15 or 18 year old kid. But the young people in college today or those just graduating are infinitely more knowledgeable about technology than even those who are 10 years older. I happen to have a lot of faith in the younger generation. They restore my hope for America on a daily basis.
Point taken on the pd and privatisation.
Revolution. My friend, brother we see your pain. We understand your concerns we also see these disorganized thoughts you have. If you want to be taken serious please stop talking about “eating children next door” and these so called trips to the moon. The fact is we do patrol your neighborhood evey day and night. We see that you want extra attention so if you complain long enough maybe someone will listen. Sometime you say something very informative and then you follow it up with some off the wall story. This city survived way before you and it will survive way after you. You are very good at calling attention to yourself and its seems that you always play the victim. Bo this is not “Mayberry” this is reality. We see that things have to change. This took a long time to build up and it will take a long time to clean up. This is not a quick fix. You have some of the best People working in NMB. The morale is at an all time low and people do not want to work for people if they don’t feel appreciated. “Stop spreading the poision”.
Kazan did not start the eating children part. That was someone else.
That was Kazan. Two meetings ago! Classic!
Shut up Kazan…..no one is listening to you
Being an IT professional myself, abeit retired, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of the NMB IT department. It should be outsourced at the earliest possible moment. There are a number of places that could be looked at including the Miami-Dade County IT department.
This is where this needs to be posted:
Stephanie Kienzle says:
August 14, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Former Councilman Kenneth A. De Filippo sent me an email with his comments and asked me to post them here for everyone to read:
“Stephanie….It would be a big mistake to private the sanitation..1ST IT BRINGS A LOT OF REVENUE TO OUR BUDGET. 2ND. ONCE YOU GO PRIVATE YOUR PROBLEMS FIRST BEGIN…..THEY WILL NOT KEEP YOUR EMPLOYEES,
MAYBE FOR 3-6 MONTHS THEN THEY GET RID OF THEM….AFTER A PERIOD OF TIME THEY WILL INCREASE THE RATES, I DON’T CARE ABOUT WHAT THEY CONTRACTED FOR, YOUR AT THEIR MERCY. WHY, BECAUSE YOU DISPOSED OF ALL YOUR EQUIPMENT LEAVING YOU NO CHOICE BUT TO LET THEM DO AS THEY WANT….EXAMPLE…..
As you know I was in the waste management business. My company was here in our city from the early 60’s till late 80’s. During the early 70’s North Miami went private with United Sanitation….I did not bid the contract because I knew what was going to happen…Private companies have the same expenses as cities. If they don’t pay top salaries and benefits the workers don’t show up..LOOK HOW MANY STRIKES IN NEW YORK, GARBAGE PILED HIGH FOR WEEKS, RATS ETC. RUNNIGN ALL OVER THE CITY. Back to North Miami….After a period of time they fired all the city employees they agreed to take with them, raised the rates and had had everyone screaming. North Miami tried to get back in the business of collecting their own garbage but they disposed of their equipment and realized that to get back in the business today it would cost to much…
So guess what…..They have no way out and everyone has to keep paying what the private co. demand. SORRY BUT IT’S THE WRONG MOVE!”
I agree Kenny. I said the same thing earlier. See comments above.
The problem is, almost every wage, pension and perks went through the roof and our city is in a predicament.