Posted on 06/27/2014 9:14:16 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Sandy Springs, Georgia may look like any other town in America. It has parks, roads, and beautiful places to live. But there’s one thing that separates this town from every other town: Sandy Springs privatized almost everything.
In 2005, Sandy Springs outsourced almost all functions of the city government (with the exception of police and fire) to a single company, which runs the town. That company is in charge of running all the vital functions of government, from the running the parks, to paving the roads, and even 911 calls!
The town is run very efficiently, with zero backlogs in permit requests. Call the city, and you’ll be surprised to find that you actually get a friendly person on the other line! The city has a 24/7 non-automated customer service hotline which fields about 6,000 calls per month. It also has a state of the art traffic system with cameras and a high tech command center.
(Excerpt) Read more at isil.org ...
privatized it to a single company.... no competiton? no choice? Who in city government was the owner related to?
Sandy Springs s a great town in the metro Atlanta area. This year Fulton county is trying to raise property taxes by 17%!!!! Sandy Springs doesn’t have to do this nonsense
Even fire can be privatized. Not sure I’d want police to be, but you could just do without and contract with the Sheriff. A lot of cities do that.
That was my first thought too.
The town sounds like it is well run but you do have to question at what cost?
From the article that you apparently didn’t bother to read
When the project first started, the University of Georgia estimated that the city would need 828 employees. But because the town is managed by a private company, they’ve cut their workforce down to just 471 people. Besides fire and police, the city only has eight full-time public employees.
Because of this efficiency, Sandy Springs generates huge surpluses. They have no unfunded liabilities. The city specifically decided not to use the traditional pension model – a model which has put almost every government across America in an unsustainable pension crisis. Instead, employees can choose their own 401K package to prepare for retirement, if they wish.
This has given the town of Sandy Springs lots of extra cash to work with – a surplus that they put into building for the future. According to Sharon Kraun, “The city, as a matter of policy, sets aside 25% of revenues into a reserve during each budget planning cycle. Capital improvements have been a major focus during our first eight years, with more than $185 million invested in capital infrastructure.”
Just because a private company is running the city doesn’t mean it is sole sourced
It needs to be investigated regularly, without oversight it will become corrupt in time.
Bump!
I am curious about this as well. I hope they have a yearly renewal contract.
We just went to privatized housing at my base. The company that won the contract promised much. As for their service, I no longer live on base.
Horrible.
I don’t like monopolies, especially politically-connected ones.
hopefully it is not like a giant HOA
bumpty-bump
‘Contracting-out’ means they have a contract.
They can be sued for failing to comply with the terms, or simply not rehired.
Try disciplining or firing a public employee union member:
It’s like trying to take a cheeseburger and fries from the Worst Lady.
Privatization works. Unions hate it.
I believe in privatization - just not in the way most leftists would do it
come on it’s a start. everyone knows private parks are better than the public ones. you can always split it up as you go along if service declines. proper monitoring trust but verify.
The left doesn’t do privatization. Their union masters forbid it.
i have the original fire emblem on my house here in philly. the insurance company was the fire department. no losses due to fire. philly in the early years had no major fire disasters. brick buildings and a fire/insurance program by ben franklin.
” If part of the government performs poorly, the city can fire that company, and bid the contract to another company In 2011, the city said farewell to the main company that was managing the vital functions of government CH2M Hill, and opted to go with another company. This saved the city over a million dollars.”
Sounds to me exactly what I would have suspected from a city that privatized damn near everything properly. It would be nice to see this catch on, but I doubt if the bureaucrat's and politicians in most places would stand for it. I would be interested in seeing the party makeup of the City Counsel. Libertarian majority?
more corrupt than the town you live in? i’m not accusing just making a statement,
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