The Smartest City in America?
Attention Ricochet Members,
We are all moving to Weston, Florida. Why, you ask? Because of this, from Governing:
Weston, Fla., an affluent suburb 25 miles northwest of Miami, has one of the most unusual charters of any city: it specifically discourages the city from hiring employees.
... Since its inception, the city has used contractors to fulfill virtually every city function. Today, the city of 65,000 has a budget of $121 million -- and just nine of its own employees. "I see no reason why we'd ever have to increase the number of employees," says Mayor Eric Hersh, who’s led the city for over 10 years.
All total, the city has about 35 contracts for services such as parks maintenance, engineering, code enforcement, building permits, public works and custodial service. Fire and police service has been contracted out to Broward County.
The city has about 285 full-time equivalent employees who are "dedicated staff" provided by contractors. They work in city facilities and are treated like city employees, but on paper, they are actually employees of private companies that get paid by the city.
The result is a situation that many city managers and mayors may envy. City leaders don't have to deal with labor disputes or union negotiations; they aren't struck with ballooning pension obligations; and they aren't dealing with painful and politically unpopular layoffs.
Many of the contracts are for a particular level of service, as opposed to a particular number of employees. When the amount of work facing the building department slowed during the recession, for example, the city didn’t have to continue to pay idle workers. "That’s the vendor’s issue of what he does with the staff," says Daniel Stermer, who served as Weston city commissioner from 2002 to 2010 . "We’re not paying for it unless somebody’s using it."
Anytime that I get into a dispute with a liberal who believes that my conservative/libertarian fusionist worldview would deprive poor children of educations or leave old ladies out on the street to die (that one's for your French brother-in-law, James), I always tell them the same thing: just because government decides to finance a good doesn't mean that government should build the bureaucracy to provide that good. Little did I know that all this time there was a city living out that mantra.
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Comments:
Jul '11
Re: The Smartest City in America?
Well isn't that a peach!
Aug '11
Re: The Smartest City in America?
The article keeps referring to Weston's "affluence." I'm not sure how much of a factor that is.
I live in a city about that same size, although rather than a suburb of a larger city, we're the largest thing in this quadrant of the state, so I'm not sure we can pull it off.
Though after hearing yesterday about a huge gazillion-dollar development project in our city's downtown, and wondering how much of the bill I'm going to be stuck with, my reaction today is "I'm certainly willing to try."
Sep '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
Meanwhile, in Green Bay, thanks to Governor Walker, they are finally allowed to attempt to outsource the job of "crossing guard" to a private firm.
Yes, you read that correctly. The city of Green Bay has for decades employed members of the Teamsters Union to help kids cross busy intersections.
Jun '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
It's funny. You confiscate half of somebody's money, and they get less generous. Thank God that the people who confiscated the money can step in to pick up the charity slack. That's the way it plays out in most places.
Edited on May 16, 2012 at 6:59pmMay '12
Re: The Smartest City in America?
Don't you think we'll be seeing more towns heading in this direction? From necessity if not ideology.
Nov '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
Sadly, no. Certainly not from ideology, and necessity will be resisted at all costs. The experience of Weston, FL depends upon a level of enlightenment and resistance to the impulse to power not likely to be much repeated in the city halls of America. Nor anywhere.
Edited on May 16, 2012 at 7:22pmAug '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
I don't know all the ins-and-outs of Weston's city charter, but I assume the bit about discouraging the hiring of employees has been included ever since the city was first incorporated.
Keep in mind, Weston was incorporated very recently, in 1996.
I think it would be inordinately difficult for an existing city to alter it's charter to emulate Weston.
Will future new cities follow Weston's lead? That's a different question, altogether. ("That's a different question!")
Dec '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
From the census data:
There's more to it than just a good business model.
Edited on May 16, 2012 at 7:47pmApr '11
Re: The Smartest City in America?
Orange.
Mar '11
Re: The Smartest City in America?
Sandy Springs GA just north of Atlanta also operates that way - - and claim to be first.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Springs,_Georgia
Jul '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
The money quote from the article is "Many of the contracts are for a particular level of service, as opposed to a particular number of employees." In a incorporated area in Southern CA that outsourced many of their services, they weren't able to negotiate that into their contracts as the contractors used union labor and forced the city to accept a minimum number of employees (quite large, in fact). These contracts were negotiated nearly a few decades ago and it would be interesting to see if today those contracts could be changed. Also, any problems had to be taken up directly with the contractor, not the city, which led to some sticky problems.
Apparently, Weston saw the handwriting on the wall and did it right. So kudos to them.
Aug '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
rico is right, and the man who can claim the credit is Oliver Porter. I can attest to his savvy and the remarkable thing is that he did it in his first retirement. There is a very large message here for municipal America.
If you want to create jobs, then PPP (Public Private Partnerships) is a great way to do it, italso improves services, reduces costs, and eventually taxes. Good idea eh ?
Now there are one or two little obstacles to this. The first is spelled AFSCME, the second is spelled Obama.
As in the Fed, public employee salaries have soared above the private sectors. Their benefits are intact, their pensions attached to the jugular of revenues, and there is a big job unwinding this. Often it happens through trauma, i.e.: Vallejo and Stockton. But the new villes like Sandy Springs have a chance. Theirs was to opt out of Atlanta.
Aug '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
DrewInWisconsin:
Though after hearing yesterday about a huge gazillion-dollar development project in our city's downtown, and wondering how much of the bill I'm going to be stuck with, my reaction today is "I'm certainly willing to try." · 6 hours ago
Drew,
Suggested entry for the glossary.
TIF : Thy intravenous future.
"You might feel a little prick " is a sentence we have all heard.
They found a new way to leave the needle .
and then there's RDA .
Just knowing it's illegal in California is the most intriguing aspect .
Aug '11
Re: The Smartest City in America?
As with any contract, set the level of service expected and then instruct the supplier to bid services accordingly. I'm not going to tell the supplier how to provide services and don't really care about how many people he will use to support the contract as long as he meets the SLA's established and at the price quoted. It appears that Weston has figured this out. Wish other cities, mine included, had the chops to do the same thing.
Jun '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
Let's all move there and rename it Ricochetville. A well-run government and we'll like the neighbors--though we may have to separate the hard libertarians from the social conservatives.
Edited on May 17, 2012 at 2:40amOct '10
Re: The Smartest City in America?
In the late 1960s we lived in La Mirada, California. It was at that time a contract city, run much like Sandy Springs. Life was good, taxes were low and services were good.
Don't know about now.
May '12
Re: The Smartest City in America?
Turf wars, oh my! There goes the neighborhood.
tabula rasa: Let's all move there and rename it Ricochetville. A well-run government and we'll like the neighbors--though we may have to separate the hard libertarians from the social conservatives. · 3 hours ago
Edited 3 hours ago