Agenda - Council - 03/24/1987 - Laserfiche WebLink

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i / MIn~crncnt I,q'o~:tlo~ that part-time a~d se~.sonnl employees Be laid off before full-time employees. Civil service ruhi often include elaborate bumping rights, including tht~ u~e of ~niority and veteran's bonm points, while ot}~er rules require certification that no one will be displn~i and that the contract is in the best interest of the government and its tenance of affirmative action progran~ may effectively limit or prohibit contracting. Even if union and dvil service rules do not pwhibit contrncting they may rahe the cost W such an extent that contracting is no longer attractiv(~. Such i.~ues as employee retention fights, severance p~y including sick leave and vacation, nad unemployment compensation aH need to be addres.~d. F'h'/ng of work~xs can also fa/se political problems a~d the cost of con! TABLE 2. ADVANTAGES IN COHTRACTING 1. May cost less. 2. May provide bel_ter performance. 3. Limits the ~row/h of governm~t. 4. Avoids Imlg¢, initial capital cost~. $. Permits greater flex~'oilRy bq ~dju/ti~ '~ pro/ram size. 6. Provides a ytr&tick for compar~n 3. Produc~ be~ter manngemcnt. TABLE 3. D~SAOVANTAGES IN CONTRACTING I. May cost more. 2. May result in ~or service ~o citi~-t~ ~ 3. May increa~ the ~ of 4. A ~n~or ~y ~ ~mpl~e ~~. 5. ~ pubic ~ploy~ ~d ~v~ op~don from m~ci~ ~om. 6. ~t~ probl~s ~ fo~afing ~de4ume ~n~. 7. May ~ ~d~ed by ~w. 8. May ~ proble~ 9. F~ to ~t~ ~u~e ~m~ion for SOURCl/: F~k, D., Ki~inL H., tad Mudler, T. P~ate Peo~si~ of ~ Service: An O~er~. Wnxhin~-n, D.C, The Urban There are several ways to ease personnd problems: · Require the contractor to hire the displaced worker. Orange County, California used this approach with considernble succen when contmctin~ for data essing services, but that case was atypical since most of the employee~ were skilled pmf_~_~onah. · Give displaced workers priority for other 8oventment job openings. ~ is common practice but matching knowledge and skills is likely to be difficult, paflicu* hrl~ when government employment is shrinlfing. · Provide for retaining workers. While this is possiMe within ~im~ts, it is likely to be expensive, and hence not a pra~ical solution foF most local governments. · Arrange for gradual transition from public to private service to provide greater oppoFtunity for transition through sttrition and placement. This is likely to in- crease costs markedly in the short and medium term. While these four su~estions may be helpful tn easins personnd training problems, often firing will be nec- e~ary if cost savings are to be realized. Availability of Providers. Another important constraint . for many governments is the availability of providers. To state the obvious: It is difficult to contract for a ser- vice if there are no contractors available or interested in providing the service. Furthermore, it is advantageous to have more than one supplier if maximum cost savln~ are to be captured. 'fo trade one monopoly, government provision, for another monopoly, private provision, is not likely to be ver~ helpful. There are three important considerations which affect the number of suppliers: location of the local govern- ment, the service being contracted, and the government itself. All other factors being equal the government in a major metropolitan area has the greatest number of alter- native contractors or likely providers available. Smaller governmmts located far from metropolitan areas are likely to have the greatest difficulty in locating a con- tractor." Even if the isolated government is able to a contractor, there is likely to be little price competition. Also, the isolated dty is likely to feel pressure to use the there may be national or regional but no local providerL In such a case the s/ze of the potential contract will govern the number of potential providers. The second availab~tity factor is the lack of a provider for certain service areas. A local government has several ways with which to deal with this issue. One is to work with private rums in the commuflity to create a supplier. The Tw/n C/ties of ]V~nnesota took this tack when they established Public Service Options iPSO). Another ap- proach is to divide a larger service into smaller functions that can be contracted. For example, it may not be sable to find a company to operate a correctional fadl- ity. However, it ma), be poss~le to contract for separate