Published: July 31, 2007 11:22 pm         

Benson says he is not pursuing contracting out city services now, it may be in Enid’s future

Although he has considered areas in which the city of Enid could privatize services, City Manager Eric Benson said there are no immediate plans to pursue those options.

“Anything we do will be with the involvement of the union and at the behest of the council. It will be well-reasoned and in the open,” Benson said.

The city currently is in contract negotiations with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Em-ployees, which will represent non-uniformed city workers.

Privatization is a broad term for the transfer of services from the government to the private sector. Military and the federal government have led the way in privatization, Benson said. Air Force officials have long had a civilian contractor do much of the work — from mowing to maintaining the fleet of aircraft — at Vance Air Force Base. The Air Force also recently contracted out gate security at Vance, Benson said.



Areas of possibilities



One area in which the city possibly could use private services, Benson said, is mowing. Benson thinks next summer the city could contract out its mowing services, especially if rainy weather occurs. City crews could not keep up with mowing this summer due to heavy rain, particularly in June, and other emergencies that forced employees to help out with other jobs. The city had two large water main breaks this summer, and mowing employees were part of the crews repairing them.

Another possible area to look at is pothole repair, Benson said.

“We wouldn’t think of doing sewer repair without Luckinbill, so why not hire someone to do potholes? I believe in the long run it’s an issue,” he said.

The city has repaired 25,000 potholes this year, and Benson said it may be beneficial to contract with a company for that work in the future. However, he said that would not happen until after in-depth study and cost comparisons.

“We would be remiss in our responsibility to the people if we didn’t look at every option, try to find the most efficient and correct procedure and the biggest return on our investment,” he said.



Privatization in the past



However, Eldon Stephens, a member of AFSCME who works in the solid waste department, said the city has tried privatization in the past unsuccessfully.

“They couldn’t provide the service the city did,” he said.

Stephens is aware the city is considering privatization of solid waste but predicts service will be lost.

“If you put our staff back to the level it was before Gamble, you could keep up with what we need to do,” he said.

Former Enid City Manager Bill Gamble made deep cuts in the city while facing a financial crisis.

Stephens thinks the privatization consideration is a scare tactic against the union. He said solid waste is down about 10 employees. When employees are put on other projects, like the citywide cleanup and storm problems, it depletes the work force even more, he said.

Stephens said Oklahoma City privatized trash collection once and had to go back in to certain low-income areas and begin collecting, because the private company did not want to collect there. He also said after the initial few years, costs will skyrocket with privatization.



Benson: The downside



The highest-turnover jobs in the city and those with the highest number of workers’ compensation claims are in the area of trash collection, Benson said. He said he has looked at outsourcing the entire trash department, as well as those jobs that deal with upkeep of parks.

The downside of outsourcing, he said, is the city loses longtime employees and the ability to have workers do more than one thing, he said. He said the city must make sure the short-term solution does not become a long-term malady.

“We’re only selling one thing — service. The people are entitled to the most efficient bang for the buck possible,” he said.