Where Do the Candidates Stand on Privatization of Water?

[Kenneth Warren]

It is can be difficult to imagine public assets on the block, because a city can’t manage the labor/value/quality equation in a way that generates affordability and satisfaction for the residents.

Despite how the gut feels, it is only just that the market force of – competition, choices, incentives – which so many public employees choose to exert in leaving Lakewood for residency in other places and creating a de-facto regionalization of the public sector labor force – may come back to dispossess them of their too highly priced labor power through the inevitable rationalization process that comes from performance measurement.

Status quo may be a cultural vacuum. However, there are economic and structural realities that are implicit in the Citistat exercise. The vultures know this; the ostriches may not.

Kenneth Warren

[Lynn Farris]

I agree with Suzanne. Citisat is a tool. It can be used for good or evil. It all depends on who is using it. Knowledge is a good thing in my humble opinion. Sticking your head in the sand and pretending that everything is perfect and that we don't need to improve anything isn't.

To me it is like an internal audit. Where can we do better? Why aren't we doing as well as other areas? These are areas that we need to focus on to improve.

We shouldn't continue to do things just like we always have - when there is a better way. I'm not sure we know all of our weaknesses and we should. We should expand Citistat to other departments.

Citistat doesn't demand privatization - it points out areas where perhaps we can improve.

Maybe we decide that the long run benefits outweigh the short term gains. That is entirely acceptable - but why not have imperical information on which to base decision?

John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

[Suzanne Metelko]

"Citistat doesn't demand privatization - it points out areas where perhaps we can improve." THANK YOU LYNN! And then we get to choose whether or not the loss of local control and the social value the service provides are things the community does or does not value. We do that now. The library issue was passed without the picture of a building because the community was provided with solid data with which to make a decision. And if the issue had failed - there would be no new library. Taxpayers in Lakewood supported neighborhood schools in spite of the possibility of limiting expenses by having one great big elementary school. We're not idiots, we've just been treated that way. At this point, I would say that the ostriches are those who don't want to ask, don't want to know and please could we just not talk about this anymore because it may damage the Lakewood brand.

When we've done some type of Citistat measurement of safety forces, then you can talk to me about a police levy. The neighbors I know on Wyandotte aren't excited about the current level of service and they're not about to show up at the police station looking for information...of any kind. You can only be told that the only answer is to sell your house and move so many times before you get the message - shut up and quit your complaining and could you get out of my way so I can get home to anywhere but here.

[Dr. Larry Keller]

Jim:

I believe that Las Vegas is on the west side of the Rockies as is Tucson. To get flat land one would have to go almost to Mexico and even then they are mountains though not as high as the Rockies. From your perspective it would be better to re-route the Mississippi River and then connect the Great Lakes to the River.

Somehow, I can't imagine the cost of such a project. And besides, you make more money, much more money, selling Great Lakes water by the bottle than by the Lake.

[Dr. Larry Keller]

Suzanne:

I agree with Ken and Jim about measurement and privatization. It is not the measurement itself but the focus on management in a narrow sense. Measurement does not capture non-economic values well and in a sad but true Gresham Law measured items tend to drive out non-measured items. Having the community offer services makes for a better public discussion, with economics one of many characteristics of concern.

What scares me about privatization is the possible corruption in giving and servicing contracts to private parties. This corrupted urban politics greatly a hundred years ago and still does today. It takes a very professional government in a very strong professional environment to make contracting work. I don't see such governments and environments in too many northeast Ohio communities.

[Suzanne Metelko]

I'm stunned. I fully understand the concerns about the results of measurement being applied so clinically as to disregard the quallity of life aspects of the job. I understand we're concerned that while calculating the cost of back yard garbage pickup, senior programs, and adminstrating our own tax department, that someone may suggest they could be done better privately or even by the county. That conversation has been going on for years. And so the answer is to not measure? What prevents us from using some common sense and trying to develop operations that reflect the reality of their current status, and a plan for improvement that includes the community's value for their quality of life? Other than the leadership and our fear that they may not have the capacity to follow through, I can't think of a reason why we don't want to do that.

The status quo doesn't protect us - it makes us more vulnerable to the nonsense in Cleveland and the county. We have to become leaders in the region or we're going to be absorbed.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I'm stunned. I fully understand the concerns about the results of measurement being applied so clinically as to disregard the quallity of life aspects of the job.

The status quo doesn't protect us - it makes us more vulnerable to the nonsense in Cleveland and the county. We have to become leaders in the region or we're going to be absorbed.

Suzanne

I agree we have to be leaders, and we are right now in areas that other cities are now looking to us in. One place we are leading is the fight against regionalization and privatization. When Ken and i hit many suburbs in this county. the poorer cities are screaming for it, the more sound communities are running from it. This is one reason they have turned to the Observer Project for help.

I realize that CitiStat come to us from Baltimore where it worked wonders. That we could not afford the entire package, but any help with the numbers are good for thinking of ways to do it better. We agree.

But when you do a Google search for Baltimore and privatization:
Results 1 - 10 of about 662,000 for Baltimore + privatization

It would seem that Citistat can be used to grease the skids for privatization. That was all I was saying.

.

[Lynn Farris]

Privatization is nothing to be afraid of. We have it now. We want some combination of Public and Private ownership and employment.

For example, we use private (but publicly controlled) utilities all the time. We have Dominion Gas, CEI (or whatever their name is), Phone service etc. In Cleveland by contrast, they have Muny light - publicly owned Electric - which Dennis Kucinich fought for which to some degree cost him his position as the Mayor of Cleveland.

Actually I would like to see us develop some municipal power here in Lakewood in the form of Municipal Windmills. Geothermal power is another idea.

In Costa Rica, a developing nation, they are having this discussion right now regarding CAFTA, which is many pronged and multi-faceted. One of the factors is making their phone system public. It would allow more people to be connected to the internet faster with high speeds than the government is doing - but the government funds many things with the profits that it makes from these organizations.

They are having a lively debate on the subject and are discussing putting it up to a vote of the people. They seem to trust their citizens to understand the intricacies of this very complex issue, which definately has two sides. They aren't afraid of knowledge and democracy - but we are?

Some fear looking at how we are doing on some measures - because horror of horrors, it may mean that we should make public some things that are now private and private other areas that are now public?

I don't disagree with Dr. Keller, that looking at something, particularily something where we are spending considerably more money doing something leads one to wonder if the private sector couldn't perhaps do it better. But we are in charge. We make the decision. We should know the financial information. But we can factor in the non-financial information too. When I work with clients - either public or private, I often use Kepner Tregoe analysis which allows the client to weight factors of importance - be they financial or value oriented.

I remember a song, my daughter was taught at McKinley - Knowledge is Power. I have to believe that information can only make us stronger as a city - not weaker and we should not be afraid of it.

[Bryan Schwegler]

Interesting article on the privatization of highways:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18396534/

[Kenneth Warren]

Bryan:

Thanks for the link, which demonstrates “the accumulation by dispossessionâ€Â￾ (see David Harvey) playbook:

1. Capture Asset Value by Public Dispossession

"There's a lot of value trapped in these assets," says Mark Florian, head of North American infrastructure banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

2. Shake Loose Public Assets for Private Accumulation with Pols and Lobbyists Feasting on the Art of the Global Deal

“The combination of eager sellers and hungry buyers is shaking loose public assets across the country. The 99-year lease of the Chicago Skyway that went for $1.8 billion in 2005 was the first major transaction. Last year came the Indiana deal. Now states and cities are exploring the sale of leases for the turnpikes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a toll road in Texas, Chicago Midway Airport, and several state lotteries. Suddenly politicians around the country are wondering how much cash they might be sitting on.â€Â￾

3. Squeeze Labor to Capture Value for Global Capital

“For workers, the privatization wave has wrought many changes. Skyway toll takers used to be full-time city employees with rich benefits. Now most are part-time independent contractors without benefits.â€Â￾

Kenneth Warren

[Jeff Endress]

It reminds me of the rush of homeowners to take on second mortgages (renamed "home equity loans") to tap into what was once the major source of the middle class savings. Much like the homeowner that can now use their equity to finance a vacation or dinner out, our governmental bodies are looking to leverage their accumulated assets to cover normal budgetary priorities. And like the homeowner who reaches retirement to find that what should have been a major source of nest egg funding has been dissipated on consumer purchases, so to will the Governmental bodies find that the panacea of leveraging their assets will only delay making the hard budgetary decisions.

It seems very short sighted to sell off infrastructure, especially when it would be impossible to ever rebuild it.

Jeff