"Corporations can — and do — circumvent open records requirements claiming that documents and records related to government functions are “proprietary information” exempt from disclosure. Even basic information about a government contract and the accompanying procurement process can be difficult to obtain. Corporations may not diligently collect data and information related to public programs and services, leaving the public record incomplete. As a result, the public loses access to information about our own government. The debate about the size of government at the state and local level becomes meaningless because no knows exactly how many people — including contractors — are on the government payroll. By skirting open records laws, private corporations essentially perform public functions behind a veil of secrecy that would not be tolerated by public agencies." (In the Public Interest)
1. Think of all the secret meetings (i.e. Clark Park Partnership), where all decisions are made about this neighborhood in complete secrecy. Would parks have been converted to prohibitively expensive rental facilities, requiring permits for almost any normal human activity; if open, announced, public meetings would have allowed the participation of we the people?
2. Remember how we were lied to about the use of RoundUp in Clark Park? (When I investigated, I could not discover who was in charge of chemical dumps, or what has been dumped, except the blowoff answer, "the community is in charge.")
3. How are "grants" distributed to privatized NGOs a mechanism to loot the taxpayers, while avoiding the accountability necessary in functioning republics? Think of the extreme costs of the small section of upscale lighting on Baltimore Ave. (The University and its NGO generally takes 2/3rds of all grant money as administrative costs) This type of looting is hidden, as a cost to taxpayers. (study: pork spending in politics)
This report is a good primer for the reconsideration of neoliberal privatization of all of government-in the neighborhood and across the planet. Now that it's been years since the special service districts seized governmental functions here and in center city, we must engage in a much deeper discussion of long term ramifications of privatization! (We have years of discussions on this list to study privatization and the roles our anointed civic association leaders fulfilled in this process.)
What is the full impact on citizen rights (1st, 4th, 14th amendments, Magna Carta, Charter of the Forest) of privatization? (see history of enclosure laws). How are privatization of government, oligopolies, and police states mutually dependent goals? Why is privatization, like UCD/CCD, a global problem at the heart of pro-democracy movements around the world?
Please consider this data very carefully, and then let's practice the deliberative democracy that CEO Amy Guttman once talked about:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/01/quelle-surprise-new-report-show-outsourcing-government-services-looting.html
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/01/quelle-surprise-new-report-show-outsourcing-government-services-looting.html
http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/sites/default/files/1213%20Out_of_Control.pdf
