"Ever wonder if City Council is as contentious and chaotic as it is sometimes portrayed? Here you can get a progressive perspective on some of the issues from someone who spent four years in the trenches. Totally unbiased, though!Feel free to comment but keep it respectful, just like they do at council."
Saturday, December 15, 2012
JoFo visits St. Nick
Thanks to Richard for drawing Mike Baldwin's timely cartoon to my attention.
Courtesy of WWW.Cornered.Com and published in the Globe and Mail Friday, December 14, 2012.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Does London even have an honest lawyer?
Time for the City of London to contract out all legal services...seriously London is in serious trouble with current council including the mayor.
The City of London MUST open all city services to a fair and open tendering process.
If the City of London is cost competitive then staff have no reason to worry when they compete...
Many services are contracted out or partially contracted out. Snow removal is one and the city is pretty much a price taker when the guys with the big trucks and blades want an increase in per hour and stand by rates. Recycling is my favourite example. When London became the last big city to recycle, there were about 7-10 bids and the cost for the 5 yr contract was about $500K. Fast forward to renewal time and due to consolidations in the industry, there were only 3-5 bids and the price was over $2 M. And the city had no choice but to take it as they were not about to buy the trucks and hire the staff. That is the downside of contracting out. You can get a good deal about once. Then you are going to pay later.
Yes, when services are first contracted out by private sector companies they may take a hit initially until the true costs are established and then possibly refelcted in next contract.
However in a fair and open tender process the competitive private sector would likely continue to find cost savings to be successful and come in with lowest price.
Private sector contracting will always beat that of the municipal government workforce.
When city services including labour are contracted out many liabilities are passed on to the contractor. Municipal staff have higher saleries, greater benefits, high pension costs, insurance, absenteeism, training, limited hours of work (35), holidays, etc. A lot of savings to be gained from reduced equipment purchases, maintenance, insurance, liabilities and buildings.
The job of a municipality is to manage services through a fair and open tender process. London can reduce taxes once it's managed responsibly.
4 comments:
Does London even have an honest lawyer?
Time for the City of London to contract out all legal services...seriously London is in serious trouble with current council including the mayor.
The City of London MUST open all city services to a fair and open tendering process.
If the City of London is cost competitive then staff have no reason to worry when they compete...
Many services are contracted out or partially contracted out. Snow removal is one and the city is pretty much a price taker when the guys with the big trucks and blades want an increase in per hour and stand by rates. Recycling is my favourite example. When London became the last big city to recycle, there were about 7-10 bids and the cost for the 5 yr contract was about $500K. Fast forward to renewal time and due to consolidations in the industry, there were only 3-5 bids and the price was over $2 M. And the city had no choice but to take it as they were not about to buy the trucks and hire the staff. That is the downside of contracting out. You can get a good deal about once. Then you are going to pay later.
Yes, when services are first contracted out by private sector companies they may take a hit initially until the true costs are established and then possibly refelcted in next contract.
However in a fair and open tender process the competitive private sector would likely continue to find cost savings to be successful and come in with lowest price.
Private sector contracting will always beat that of the municipal government workforce.
When city services including labour are contracted out many liabilities are passed on to the contractor. Municipal staff have higher saleries, greater benefits, high pension costs, insurance, absenteeism, training, limited hours of work (35), holidays, etc. A lot of savings to be gained from reduced equipment purchases, maintenance, insurance, liabilities and buildings.
The job of a municipality is to manage services through a fair and open tender process. London can reduce taxes once it's managed responsibly.
Gee, I didn't know the private sector got to avoid paying benefits and giving vacations. Wow. Where do I sign up?
Seriously, other than your belief this is true, where is your proof? Where are the examples? Where are the case studies?
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