Thursday, August 7, 2008

Managed Competition & You

So once in a great while something that U-T prints catches my attention other than the Fry's ad.

Yesterday, it was Gerry Braun's article on managed competition. In it, Braun explains the complexity of the seemly simple task of dead animal removal. While on the surface, the job seems simple enough. You pick up the dead animal and take it to the dump to be disposed of. But there are so many variables that muddy up that simplistic notion that you begin to ask.

Does any private contractor really want this hassle? If some heartbroken person, frantically looking for their beloved pet calls to see whether their pet was picked up. Will the contractor find out? If there is a licensed pet that is picked up, will contractor try to contact the owner? I mean the list can go and on.

Now imagine if this was wastewater? Or water purification? Will the contractor put the public interest over profit? Will the contractor adhere to the guidelines in place to ensure the city isn't getting skimmed? Will the contractor bid honestly? I don't know about you but sometimes the private sector isn't the best place to run public works because public works inherently are types of projects that must be done in a manner that is done safely and securely for all. After all it's our money and our services and I don't want to worry the some contractor wanted to save some money by hiring people that weren't properly trained in order to pocket a few bucks at the expense of the city because it wanted to squeeze out a little bit more profit.

If Managed Competition is the future; by what mechanism can we be assured that our tax dollars aren't used in a manner that benefits contractors who are looking to maximize profit by endangering the public and shortchanging it too.

What are your thoughts?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"m in total agreement with the post. I'd like to hear Donna Frye come out against managed competition, but I guess she's too busy cozying up to Carl DeMaio. We need to stop the Halliburtonization of San Diego. We must elect Sherri Lightner, Todd Gloria, and Marti Emerald to the Council in November. We can't afford a DeMaio-Whitburn-Thalheimer-Boling-Frye coalition in favor of outsourcing.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure why Donna is out and about with DeMaio, but I'm pretty certain it doesn't have to do with his views on outsourcing. Same with Stephen. I think both Dems have been pretty skeptical of outsourcing.

Anonymous said...

Donna and Carl are both for open government. that is what they are collaborating on. hopefully they will make progress on open government and build some bipartisan spirit for our city's problems.

Anonymous said...

The only open government DeMaio is for is a government open to outsourcing. He can't wait to enrich his friends with fat city contracts, and he is using Donna to get this done. If Whitburn is elected, Donna will make sure he falls in line. Gloria, Lightner, and Emerald are progressives who will have the courage to stand up to DeMaio, not "collaborate" with him.

Anonymous said...

Managed competition is a mixed bag. On one hand it prevents public employee unions from raping the tax payers but on the other hand it opens the doors to usurious private corporations raping the tax payers. If the whole thing was very tightly regulated and the enforcement of laws was strong then I wouldn't have a problem with it but given how corrupt our city government is I don't think we can count on the Republican controlled city government actually doing the proper over sight.