A City Outsources Everything. Sky Doesn’t Fall.

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guerilla

All we do is win
Aug 18, 2007
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/business/20maywood.html?_r=2

snippet
City officials last month fired all of Maywood’s employees and outsourced their jobs.

While many communities are fearfully contemplating extensive cuts, Maywood says it is the first city in the nation in the current downturn to take an ax to everyone.

The school crossing guards were let go. Parking enforcement was contracted out, City Hall workers dismissed, street maintenance workers made redundant. The public safety duties of the Police Department were handed over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

At first, people in this poor, long-troubled and heavily Hispanic city southeast of Los Angeles braced for anarchy.

Senior citizens were afraid they would be assaulted as they walked down the street. Parents worried the parks would be shut and their children would have nowhere to safely play. Landlords said their tenants had begun suggesting that without city-run services they would no longer feel obliged to pay rent.

The apocalypse never arrived. In fact, it seems this city was so bad at being a city that outsourcing — so far, at least — is being viewed as an act of municipal genius.
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Great read.
 


The budget for the Police Department last year was nearly $8 million, more than half of Maywood’s revenues. The contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will cost about half of that.
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wow - that's awesome

sounds like their entire force was just a huge liability so they got rid of it
 
Or, you could be like crime-stricken East St. Louis, IL, be in a budget crunch, and lay off 30% of your police staff. And not outsource the cut positions. That's sure to work out well for them!
 
johu said:
Or, you could be like crime-stricken East St. Louis, IL, be in a budget crunch, and lay off 30% of your police staff. And not outsource the cut positions. That's sure to work out well for them!
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They don't think outside the box, and some people have this illusion that contracted workers are not criminally accountable for anything in the end. When in fact contractors often tend to do their jobs better to earn their may as opposed to state/city officials who slack off knowing they have job security.
 
fuck i saw this the other day on the news and forgot to bring it in here. Loved it. The only thing i was hazy about was their outsourcing of LAPD to LA county office. Isn't that kinda out of the frying pan into the fire? (not that I would be that thrilled with a private corp handling this stuff either...Blackwater?)otherwise I love the idea of outsourcing city needs, especially, trash, cleanup, water....whatever to private corporations.
 
Now they only need to outsource the mayor too. Would make it complete. The first town that's not run by the state lol.
 
Andrew Scherer said:
That makes a lot of logical sense when you put it like that
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That's why I like economics. It is the studies of these incentives.

When people stop believing that politicians are super human or the best of society, and see them as susceptible to the same corrupting influences which effect all of us, then rational ways to organize society will emerge.

If someone is given the power to make law AND judge everyone AND the power to tax AND the power to investigate, it should be no surprise that they become completely corrupt over time.
 
LOL - Waiting for this to fail.

Why? I have worked at a multinational bank that was caught in outsourcing with their pants down.

IN effect:

Programming - Outsourced to India, mostly
Consulting - Outsourced across the board, project management (that is where I was)
Software Architecture (IBM)
.. etc...

Everything was bloody roses UNTIL everyone decides they want more pay.

IBM - 30%
Indian contractors 10% more every year

Because they know you stand there naked.

This is a fucking trainwreck waiting to happen.

::emp::
 
“Remember the Soviet Union?” said Hector Alvarado, who heads a civic advocacy group. “They had a lot of bureaucracy, and they lost. Maywood was like that. Now people know if they don’t work, they will be laid off. Much better this way.”
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:) message is too short
 
good for them.. why they hell would people be rioting/creating anarchy in the streets just because a few people got fired? if the job is being done well and at a cheaper rate, then I don't see how there would be any opposition to that. sorry to the people relying on public jobs, but tough times call for tough measures and outsourcing is a viable business model now
 
sgtryan said:
good for them.. why they hell would people be rioting/creating anarchy in the streets just because a few people got fired?
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People wondered whether they could get by without city officials and police, and if there would be anarchy without such wise and benevolent overlords to guide and manage their lives.
 
emp said:
LOL - Waiting for this to fail.

Everything was bloody roses UNTIL everyone decides they want more pay.

::emp::
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That was my first thought too, but when they say "outsourced" they're not talking about actual private firms. They outsourced policing to a sheriff's office, which isn't exactly a predatory consulting firm.

They outsourced parking enforcement to a security company. There are what, 12 major ones in the nation? I would not think that the cost of switching is very high from one to the next.

They're borrowing a Mayor from a neighboring city. I'm sure if she started demanding CEO-level bonuses that they could find another Mayor to moonlight for them.

It's too bad the results will take a while to be proven, and the article stating: "City cleans up crime and saves citizens $3.5 million" won't be coming out within the next year. Could probably save a lot of cities right now to cut down on corrupt small-time politicians and outsource to people who are motivated by to do good work to keep their jobs.
 
I'm all for anything that reduces the number of cushy government jobs. Anyone that's ever had to deal with their bureaucratic bullshit should be happy to see their jobs getting cut, although most city workers are so fucking useless they'll have trouble cutting it in the private sector.
 
Unarmed Gunman said:
I'm all for anything that reduces the number of cushy government jobs. Anyone that's ever had to deal with their bureaucratic bullshit should be happy to see their jobs getting cut, although most city workers are so fucking useless they'll have trouble cutting it in the private sector.
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I laugh every time I drive buy a group of city workers just sitting there in a circle watching 1 dude do all the work. There's also nothing like going into a government office and getting treated like a pile of shit.

There's been countless times I have walked into a government office and they make you feel like you're bothering them. If these people were held to the same standards as workers in the private sector they would have all been fired a long time ago.
 
Wow, no one's started the "ZOMG NOW THE ECONOMY IS GOING TO COLLAPSE BECAUSE WE'RE CUTTING JOBS" argument yet? Shocking....
 
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