My recent stroll down memory lane was not meant to be a wholesale condemnation of the idea of contracting out management of refreshment stands.
What troubles me is the trend over the past two decades wherein we expect government to be money making or at worst a breakeven proposition. Ah, the legacy of the Reagan Revolution. Many commented that the Park Board cannot be expected to run a refreshment stand either efficiently or profitably. One person has mentioned the ridiculously low price charged for a double scooped ice cream cone. Hey! Portion control and food cost are not akin to rocket science. There may be something to be said for economies of scale but you can bet if the MRPB is getting $200k out of this deal the net profit is going to be a heck of a lot more. And maybe a company like Sebastian Joe's did not respond because they are stretched as thin as they care to be already but whose to say they might not sell ice cream at wholesale as long as they could regulate the retail price. They may love it for no other reason than that it will take the heat off their Linden Hills store and I guess increase their market share rather painlessly. Has MPRB employed professional restaurant management type people to run these operations in the past. DQ will. Who knows? Maybe there are retirees who want to give back to the community and we can keep down costs of upper management. There are a number of possibilities here. I do also understand contracting out operations to a private business. No big deal. ASFCME and SEITU won't scream. But if we are going to do this why don't we sell the street paving concession to a company that only does street paving. We already have a consortium of waste haulers picking up half our city trash. We could get Asplundh to trim all the trees for the city and Park Board. We contract with a private company to operate our parking ramps and surface lots. The possibilities are endless. It could be like Robocop where the police had become a private for profit company. Government could become just a pass through agency contracting for services. We could probably condense City Hall into the Mayor's office, City Council chambers, and purchasing. Maybe rent some Class B office space, tear down this 112yr old building, and....... Well, you get my point. I don't know. Do you think I'm crazy? Tim Connolly Downtown __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email! http://mail.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
