Democrats are very clear—they would rather pay $25 an hour for a union worker to do mediocre work, then $20 an hour for a private, non bribe paying worker to do exceptional worker. Democrats love to get the political donations, while caring little about the need or value of a service. That is why they hate private firms doing better work than government workers who keep their jobs just by paying bribes to a union.
The Democrats are looking at ways to make it harder for good workers to get job while assuring bribe payers permanent government jobs. Isn’t this a conflict of interest? Looks crooked to me—what do you think?
“A package of bills introduced in the state Assembly aim to break apart a perceived culture of abuse in government outsourcing to private-sector businesses.
The bills are part of a greater movement among states to stop contracting out in cases when the work is seen as better suited for public employees — an effort largely organized by the nation’s largest public services employees union, AFSCME.
Assembly moves to rein in ‘abuse’ of government outsourcing
Assemblyman Richard Pan has introduced legislation that would stop what he calls ongoing “abuse by state agencies” due to over-reliance on contractors and lax oversight of their performance.
Allen Young, Sacramento Business Journal, 2/13/14
A package of bills introduced in the state Assembly aim to break apart a perceived culture of abuse in government outsourcing to private-sector businesses.
The bills are part of a greater movement among states to stop contracting out in cases when the work is seen as better suited for public employees — an effort largely organized by the nation’s largest public services employees union, AFSCME.
Crystal Strait, chief of staff to Assemblyman Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat, said the lawmaker’s bill package attempts to stop ongoing “abuse by state agencies” due to over-reliance on contractors and lax oversight of their performance.
“It’s culturally acceptable to enter into contracts and then have the contractor not meet any standards. That increases costs to the state,” she said.
In a related action, a proposed resolution by Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat from Echo Park would formally declare that the state Assembly “opposes outsourcing of public services and assets” and supports “processes that give public service works the opportunity to develop their own plan on how to deliver cost-effective, high-quality services.”
The resolution also suggests local governments consider the Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda, a document by AFSCME that advocates for private contracts to be posted online, among other practices.
Calls to Gomez and local AFSCME representatives were not returned by press time.
Pan’s three bills, sponsored by AFSCME, would establish new rules to prevent instances of contractors being paid for shoddy work while targeting other forms of perceived negligence on behalf of either a vendor or state agency.
“There seems to be a lot of saber rattling against contracting out; we just want to make it a fair field for everyone,” she said.
Pan is not opposed to the general idea of outsourcing, Strait said, and the Assemblyman is eager to discuss his proposals with vendors and other representatives of the business community.
Here are the bills:
Assembly Bill 1574 would allow state agencies to terminate contracts if the contractor does not provide the agreed upon products or services.
Assembly Bill 1575 seeks to empower state agencies by requiring contracts to meet specific performance criteria and cost parameters.
Assembly Bill 1578 would require the state to publish an online database of contractor names and payments per contract, including the hourly wages of private contractor employees.
Last year, Pan successfully carried legislation that allows state employee unions to review and challenge government contracts before they are approved. That law went into effect last month.
