Wichita's city council is considering laying off some employees next year and privatizing parks maintenance in the face of an $8 million budget shortfall. The moves were discussed publicly for the first time Tuesday and have sparked lots of criticism.

In essence, the city is talking about getting rid of the entire Park Maintenance division and 70 or more decent paying jobs (about $17 an hour) and turning them over over to private, basically unaccountable company which would most likely pay little more than the minimum wage--with no benefits.

Once a company gets a contract the City has to enforce it.  It is difficult to "fire" a private company and certainly takes time.  Private companies have legal rights set out in ordinances, the City has to prove non-compliance, political pressure can be brought to bear to overlook problems.  The City will still have to monitor compliance with the contract. 

There are problems with work quality: contractors are paid by the job not by the hour.  The faster they get the work done, the more corners they cut and short cuts they take, the sooner they move on to the next job.  The contractors are also aware that the City will have a problem forcing compliance with contracts and that they have political avenues and this will insure that those short cuts will be taken.

While labor costs are a big part of the City's General Fund, they have grown only a little faster than the cost of living.  The Cost of living increased about 13% over the past five years, while SEIU average wages have increased by 15%.  That bare 2% edge is going to disappear over the next two years as the City retrenches.  Cit workers are not overpaid. Over the past five years wages have kept up but only barey surpassed the cost of living.

The City Council, while increasing wages 15 percent has increased overall general fund spending during this time by 29%.  Revenues increased by 28% during the same period.  The City Council increased its spending to match and more recently to surpass its income--but workers didn't cause it or benefit from it.  If Wichita needs to pare back, it should come out of those areas of the budget that saw growth in excess of inflation during this period.

Privatization is not easily reversible. It's not the case that "if it doesn't work we can bring the work back."  That sounds good but it doesn't match reality.  Eliminating an entire Division of Park and Recreation means that institutiional memory, knowledge and skills will be lost.  There is also a great deal of specialized equipment that the City only recently purchased.  This will be sold or retrofitted for other Divisions or Departments.  Recreating this work unit will entail significant  start-up costs.