For 23 years Frank Acosta has tended the grass on Sacramento’s public golf courses. He earns about $60,000 a year, plus a city pension and health benefits.
It’s a good living, but it’s one that officials say the city can no longer afford. As part of their effort to cut costs and plug a $39 million budget deficit, the Sacramento City Council voted last month to outsource maintenance jobs at city-owned golf courses.
If finalized this fall, the move will result in 38 city workers losing their jobs, but will save the city an estimated $500,000 a year, according to city budget officials.
“I sit at home and think, ‘Man, I have to look for another job after 23 years,’ ” Acosta said. “I never thought of that, but I guess I should have.”
The agreement would mark the first time the city has laid off workers to hire a private contractor, according to labor union officials.
It was a decision watched closely by many.
There was a sense among city officials that golf maintenance would serve as a good barometer of the City Council’s appetite for contracting out jobs historically held by public employees. If the council wouldn’t outsource a service for a so-called elite sport, there was no sense trying to expand the concept.
But now that the council has approved the move, city officials say privately that it could open the door to other contract proposals. Solid waste collection and park maintenance could be next.
That has the city’s labor unions concerned.
“We’re all nervous, and we should be,” said Marcia Mooney, a business representative with Local 39, City Hall’s largest labor union. “Private contractors are not in it to be nonprofits. Eventually they will have to raise their fees, and the city is at the mercy of that contract.”
Political patronage
With budget deficits dogging cities across California and the nation, more are trying to save money by hiring private companies to perform work traditionally done by public employees. While many local governments already outsource garbage collection and water treatment, more are looking at expanding the concept.
Budget officials argue that contracting with private firms greatly reduces labor costs and, in some cases, can increase the quality of services by using expert firms.
But opponents of outsourcing have argued it leads to the loss of expertise and opens the door to political patronage, where elected officials grant lucrative work contracts to large donors.
Voters in San Diego overwhelmingly passed a proposition in 2006 that gave the city broader outsourcing authority. Also in Southern California, the Orange County city of Costa Mesa made headlines this spring with its plan to outsource much of its workforce.
The Bay Area city of San Carlos approved a wave of private contracts last year, including parks maintenance and payroll services. The city will save $550,000 because of the moves, said Jeff Maltbie, the city manager.
“If we just continued to cut the budget in traditional ways, we were going to watch our services disappear,” Maltbie said.
Barbara Bonebrake, director of Sacramento’s Convention, Culture & Leisure Department, said plummeting golf course revenue drove the decision to outsource maintenance jobs. With revenue falling, the city’s general fund – which pays for police, firefighters and parks – was on the hook to subsidize golf operations to the tune of $500,000 this year, she said.
A private contractor already handles other daily duties at city courses. Expanding the contract should “stabilize the system,” Bonebrake said.
Labor officials say they doubt outsourcing will save the city money; an audit will explore the situation this fall.
For Megan Crose, Acosta and Jose Ruiz – who have more than 65 years combined experience maintaining the city’s golf courses – losing their jobs will likely mean significant cuts to their benefits.
On a recent morning at Bing Maloney Golf Course, the three argued that their experience in caring for the course – a living, breathing thing – is invaluable. And they worry about the future.
“It seems they’ve given up on us,” Ruiz said of the city.
Report backs outsourcing
Sacramento already contracts out some other services, albeit on a smaller scale. Streetscape maintenance, some off-street parking and a portion of street and alley maintenance is handled by private companies.
A third-party review of the city’s finances and operations last year recommended that City Hall explore contracting out several services “even if strongly opposed by some stakeholders.” Services highlighted in that report included parks maintenance, management of the city’s vehicle fleet and operation of the Convention Center, Old Sacramento, the marina and the zoo.
Downtown business interests have also approached the city manager’s office with the idea of handling services in the downtown core.
In a May 25 letter to city officials, Michael Ault, the executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, asked to discuss the possibility of his organization taking on some services, such as security, garbage collection and parks maintenance. Ault’s goal, he wrote, is to enhance “service levels currently threatened by the city’s budget deficit” and to protect public and private investment downtown.
“We believe there may be several municipal functions that can be provided by DSP at a lower cost than currently being incurred by the city of Sacramento without a reduction in service levels,” Ault wrote.
Political support for outsourcing at City Hall is mixed. Many members of the City Council are closely aligned with labor unions and, as a result, could be reluctant to enter into larger contracts that cut into union-represented workers. At a May council meeting during which the golf contract was approved, Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said outsourcing “is not always what it seems to be.”
“I want to see how much we’re going to save,” she said. “I’m not sure we can contract out everything just to fix the budget.”
While stopping short of saying he supports the idea, Mayor Kevin Johnson’s office said he is open to exploring private firms taking on a bigger load.
“There are a number of cities having success with contract services, and we may or may not be one in the future,” said R.E. Graswich, the mayor’s special assistant. “Given the dilemma we face with our budget, we would be doing the public a disservice if we didn’t take a look at it.”
Source:http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/24/3724148/outsourcing-golf-course-maintenance.html
