Monday marked the third meeting of the city of Redding’s Privatization Evaluation Committee. In the time since the last meeting, the committee members looked through a list of city services. This week they focused on a few main services from the list that might be best privatized.
Four options were discussed to be focused on next meeting. Regionalizing government, privatizing parks and maintenance, privatizing some aspects of the fire department, and overtime of city employees. After having these specific aspects evaluated, the next meeting will be spent discussing the benefits or drawbacks of privatization.
Much of the night was spent questioning why the city should privatize services that are already being run satisfactorily. City Manager Kurt Starman reminded the committee to consider what would be most beneficial for the citizens, not only in terms of cost but also in terms of better services. “I think this process is driven by cost,” said Councilor Mary Stegall. She went on to explain that no one has a problem with the services provided — they are looking to be privatized because of the current budget issues the city is facing.
“I think dollars are the bottom of everything, personally,” agreed committee member Ken Murray.
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Jake Ford is a reporting intern at anewscafe.com.
