>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.
. . .
>I don't know. Do you think I'm crazy?
>
>Tim Connolly
>Downtown
I'm not qualified to answer that.
But you're sure talking crazy. And I think you really know better.
Per your examples, Minneapolis has thousands of miles of roads &
alleys to pave (enough to reach from New York to California and partway
back, I believe.) This is certainly enough to hire full time paving
crews, and keep them just as busy and as effective as a private paving
company.
Minneapolis has enough garbage to keep plenty of crews busy doing
this full time, and efficiently. (Didn't one recent study indicate that
the city crews were more efficient than the private ones, which just asked
for (and got) a price increase?)
The Park Board has many thousands of trees, and keeps several
tree-trimming crews busy full time. And they seem to operate pretty
effectively.
On the other hand, selling popcorn & ice cream at the Lake is a very minor
part of the Park Board operations, it only lasts for a few months of the
year, and it's quite likely that the Park Board will have trouble running
this as efficiently as a private company that specializes in that
business. So it makes perfect sense to contract that out to someone who
can run it effectively. (Just make sure that the contract requires
inoffensive signage, litter disposal, etc. that meets public expectations
of our parks. The Park Board has the legal help to make such a contract
possible.)
I don't think it's that hard for most people to distinguish between the
"basic services" of governmental bodies, which can be done effectively
'in-house', with full time employees; and minor operations, which can
easily be contracted out to businesses in that field.
Tim Bonham, Ward 12
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