Commentary
Should the city of Redding move forward with privatizing many or most civic functions except for police and fire? I think this is one of those sounds-good ideas that will not stand up to specific scrutiny.
The idea, as I understand it, is that it costs too much for public employees to do these jobs, so we will hire contractors to do them. The contractors, of course must invest money to get tools and equipment to do the job and must hire employees, including management people, to do the work. The contractors will need office space to deal with the billing, at least, and will have to provide the city with proof of insurance for liability and worker’s compensation. Finally, the contractors will have to make a profit to reward the investors who put up the money to get the whole thing off of the ground.
If we assume that the contractor can do all this for less money than the city was paying to do it with its own staff, we are left with one of two conclusions. And they are inescapable. At least one, perhaps both, are true. The city was riddled with fraud and corruption, which ran the cost of these services off the chart. I do not believe that for a second. Rather, I think that it is the second inescapable conclusion that works here. The contractor is going to hire people at minimum wage, or something close to it, to do this work.
What does that mean? It means we are going to turn a bunch of city jobs that pay people a decent wage so they can frequent our restaurants, stores and other attractions into a bunch of low-paying jobs that will clobber other segments of the economy even more. If you want to see even more “for lease” signs on commercial property around here, do this. It is a recipe for disaster. Oh, yeah — it is also pretty crappy to the replaced city employees.
Dugan Barr has practiced law in Redding since 1967. He has tried more than 200 civil jury cases to verdict. He is married and has five children. The offices of Barr and Mudford, LLP, are at 1824 Court St. in Redding and can be reached at 243-8008.
