Feed the Meter
Of course, no one is surprised by this, from Brian Calle's column in the OC Register:
When contemplating the many reasons cities in California and elsewhere are venturing closer to bankruptcy, look no further than the relatively lucrative and often-unjustifiable salaries bestowed on municipal employees – and the lofty pension benefits attached to the high pay.
One of the latest examples comes from the California coastal city of Hermosa Beach, where some community service staffers who collect money from parking meters and manage their operations – positions once widely known as “meter maids” – are making nearly $100,000 a year in total compensation, according to city documents.
You don't need to hire Mitt Romney or Bain to know what the solution is:
[Mayor Pro-Tem Patrick] Bobko is pushing a plan to outsource the city’s parking enforcement operations, which he says will save money, reduce maintenance costs, relieve the city of accounting functions related to parking enforcement, increase efficiency and, perhaps most importantly, increase revenue and “reduce the city’s pension and salary obligations.”
There has been opposition to the outsourcing proposal from Hermosa Beach’s Police Chief Steve Johnson and Councilman Howard Fishman. Both expressed concerns about letting go full-time city staff. Bobko accurately characterized the resistance: “When you outsource, you take away union jobs.”
In this case, outsourcing parking-enforcement duties would benefit the taxpayers among Hermosa Beach’s population of slightly less than 20,000. For an example of how such a switch might work, Hermosa officials could travel about 45 miles south along the coast to Newport Beach, where the city successfully moved to outsource parking enforcement last year.
“We have seen increased revenues with the private company operating the meter program,” Newport Councilwoman Leslie Daigle said.
Since Newport made the move, the city “has seen a 24.4 percent increase in parking-meter revenues over last year and salary savings of approximately $500,000 from outsourcing parking meter operations,” according to Tara Finnigan, a spokeswoman for the city.
Outsource!
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Sep '10
Re: Feed the Meter
Perhaps the citizens of California should outsource all of their state government except for a few dozen civil servants in Sacramento. Couldn't be worse than what you have now.
Apr '11
Re: Feed the Meter
The complete and utter folly of the state and local govnernments astounds me sometimes.
Jul '11
Re: Feed the Meter
Outsourced meter readers doing the jobs Americans....er, Hermosa Beach residents won't do.
100k per year to walk around all day? I clearly missed a window of opportunity here.
Sep '11
Re: Feed the Meter
I'm disappointed the column doesn't ask the really hard question:
How much revenue do those parking meters generate? After salaries, taxes, and benefits--including healthcare and retirement--what's the net to the city?
If it's much less than $200,000, I'd just drop the meters entirely. Cut off the poles, and sell the meters on EBay. The increase in retail sales tax from Hermosa Beach shops would probably cover any net loss.
Jun '12
Re: Feed the Meter
John Murdoch: I'm disappointed the column doesn't ask the really hard question:
How much revenue do those parking meters generate? After salaries, taxes, and benefits--including healthcare and retirement--what's the net to the city?
If it's much less than $200,000, I'd just drop the meters entirely. Cut off the poles, and sell the meters on EBay. The increase in retail sales tax from Hermosa Beach shops would probably cover any net loss. · 6 minutes ago
But that would mean the metermaids become unemployed, and that would cut into the union boss' lavish lifestyles.
Oh, no, we can't have that.
Sep '10
Re: Feed the Meter
California could balance its budget tomorrow if they implemented the Scott Walker agenda. Specifically, eliminate union monopoly power over state and local budgets. Once that is gone, slash state funding to cities/counties/school districts. The localities then easily make up the difference by restructuring obscene benefits and perks. You don't even have to go so far as to outsource (although I strongly favor outsourcing as much as possible).
The employees will squeal and shriek, but in the end none of them will leave their jobs, because they will still have it better than anyone with similar abilities/skills in the private sector.
Jun '12
Re: Feed the Meter
Now, I'm all for making all government employees non-union, but did anyone else cringe at the last two paragraphs of that article? The collection of parking fines is one area where I appreciate government inefficiency.
Mar '11
Re: Feed the Meter
John Murdoch: I'm disappointed the column doesn't ask the really hard question:
How much revenue do those parking meters generate? After salaries, taxes, and benefits--including healthcare and retirement--what's the net to the city?
If it's much less than $200,000, I'd just drop the meters entirely. Cut off the poles, and sell the meters on EBay. The increase in retail sales tax from Hermosa Beach shops would probably cover any net loss.
I had the exact same thought - do these meters actually generate any revenue for the town, or does the town operate parking meters merely to defray some of the costs of employing expensive meter maids?
At the same time, I would be interested to know how $100,000 in "total compensation" actually breaks down, i.e., how much do these guys actually earn in their monthly paycheck vs. how much is withdrawn upfront for lavish pension, healthcare, union dues, and high taxes.
Sep '10
Re: Feed the Meter
Mendel
At the same time, I would be interested to know how $100,000 in "total compensation" actually breaks down, i.e., how much do these guys actually earn in their monthly paycheck vs. how much is withdrawn upfront for lavish pension, healthcare, union dues, and high taxes. · 7 minutes ago
Milwaukee Public Schools average teacher compensation is just over $100,000. It breaks down to roughly $60k for salary, and $40k for pension and healthcare benefits. I would guess the meter maids have a similiar breakdown.
Aug '12
Re: Feed the Meter
If the "maids" are making $100K, what is their manager making? I wonder how voting would change if each polling place posted the local city and county budget numbers (or balance sheet), along with the names of those who administered and approved the budgets.
Apr '11
Re: Feed the Meter
John Murdoch: I'm disappointed the column doesn't ask the really hard question:
How much revenue do those parking meters generate? After salaries, taxes, and benefits--including healthcare and retirement--what's the net to the city?
If it's much less than $200,000, I'd just drop the meters entirely. Cut off the poles, and sell the meters on EBay. The increase in retail sales tax from Hermosa Beach shops would probably cover any net loss. · 33 minutes ago
Like alcoholism, big gov't takes a multi-step program to overcome. First you need to replace the union workers with other American workers who do the job cheaper and more efficiently. Then you slowly draw down the actual meter maids walking around until you finally get rid of them altogether because it makes more sense to have free parking.
So patience my friend, patience!
Aug '10
Re: Feed the Meter
Maybe I'm easily distracted by side issues, but:
That's a pretty huge increase over the previous workers. So... how the heck could someone have been that inefficient at meter reading???
Jan '11
Re: Feed the Meter
And the problem is most people think that privatizing is "cruel". In my burg you park in zones, and go to a ParkPlus standing terminal, enter your zone and license and how long you want to park. Meanwhile, there are parking authority cars with cameras circulating the city automatically catching those who haven't paid or whose meter has expired. You think you're safe - no ticket - but then a few weeks later in the mail you find you're busted. Advantages - no vandalized meters, and pretty efficient revenue generation
Mar '11
Re: Feed the Meter
For a public job, outsourcing isn't always the solution, and government doing it isn't always the problem. When I was in college, I worked my way through school doing the graveyard shift in a parking lot for a public facility. The lot was run under contract by a private firm, and when the public authority in question took a look at the numbers, they found that they could double their revenues by taking over the parking lot themselves. The contactor also usually balked when it came time to do things like pavement maintenance, which they were supposed to split costs on. "Oh, we just don't have the money for that right now", that kind of thing. The authority hired us as employees on the city- county personnel system (including benefits) and runs the lot to this day. Everything improved, at no cost to the authority. MORE money was being brought in.
The problem, then, isn't always who is running it, but HOW they're running it. The solution for these cities is simple: pay salaries and benefits commensurate with the job. A meter maid shouldn't be making 30 grand a year, let alone 100.
Jul '12
Re: Feed the Meter
On the face of it, that Milwaukee breakdown does not sound extravagant, especially when you consider the cost of health insurance. And I'm quite sure that there are plenty of examples of true extravagance. But two points: Regardless of extravagance, the taxpayers cannot afford the money anymore, if they ever really could. But even if you could characterize the Milwaukee teachers as having just a comfortable situation and not a luxurious one the second point holds: Government guaranteed jobs should not even be comfortable. We all want comfortable, but you should have to expose yourself to the risks that are inherent in the private economy to get it.
Edited on August 14, 2012 at 8:28pmMay '10
Re: Feed the Meter
Rob Long:
This is what disgusts me about unions. It's not about the overall economic health of a society. No, unions are only concerned about the overall economic health of their coffers. Unions are the worst, most ineffective parasites because they tend to kill off their hosts.
Mar '11
Re: Feed the Meter
There's an inherent conflict of interest when it comes to using private contractors to collect any kind of public debt, especially if there's a reward for bringing in more money. As bad as the IRS is, would you honestly be comfortable with the IRS using private tax collectors that were paid bounties on higher collections? I can't think of a greater recipe for abuse and fraud, and you're literally giving government cover to shakedown artists, not to mention the possibility of temptation to not report some of those "collections" if skimming that money pays even better than the bounty. Yes, people will eventually get caught, but it's still a huge temptation.
Mar '12
Re: Feed the Meter
If there was a 24.4 percent increase in parking revenues, was it because they raised the cost to park, or because the redistributionists formerly emptying the parking meters redistributed the contents thereof?
They got more money by replacing the meter maids and saved more money by replacing the meter maids.
That reminds me of a famous bit of history: The unions are coming! The unions are coming! Hide the parking meters!
Aug '12
Re: Feed the Meter
Eric Voegelin: On the face of it, that Milwaukee breakdown does not sound extravagant, especially when you consider the cost of health insurance. And I'm quite sure that there are plenty of examples of true extravagance. But two points: Regardless of extravagance, the taxpayers cannot afford the money anymore, if they ever really could. But even if you could characterize the Milwaukee teachers as having just a comfortable situation and not a luxurious one the second point holds: Government guaranteed jobs should not even be comfortable. We all want comfortable, but you should have to expose yourself to the risks that are inherent in the private economy to get it. · 1 hour ago
Edited 1 hour ago
Government jobs shouldn't even be comfortable? What's the advantage to the public in having miserable employees?
Jul '11
Re: Feed the Meter
John Powell
Eric Voegelin: On the face of it, that Milwaukee breakdown does not sound extravagant, especially when you consider the cost of health insurance. And I'm quite sure that there are plenty of examples of true extravagance. But two points: Regardless of extravagance, the taxpayers cannot afford the money anymore, if they ever really could. But even if you could characterize the Milwaukee teachers as having just a comfortable situation and not a luxurious one the second point holds: Government guaranteed jobs should not even be comfortable. We all want comfortable, but you should have to expose yourself to the risks that are inherent in the private economy to get it. · 1 hour ago
Edited 1 hour ago
Government jobs shouldn't even be comfortable? What's the advantage to the public in having miserable employees? · 4 hours ago
To create disincentives for potentially useful private industry workers to consider going into the public sector.