{"id":10239,"date":"2011-08-25T11:19:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T19:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=10239"},"modified":"2011-08-25T12:04:01","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T20:04:01","slug":"riehl-world-wrong-jobs-to-outsource","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=10239","title":{"rendered":"Riehl World: Wrong Jobs to outsource?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The August edition of Carlsbad Currents<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, the city\u2019s bi-monthly publication mailed to city residents, carries the headline, \u201cCarlsbad maintains good financial health.\u201d The story boasts of a budget balanced by reducing the size of the city\u2019s workforce and operating more efficiently. The city\u2019s 2011-12 budget report explains the workforce was cut back by eliminating 10 currently vacant positions, including a fire marshal, a graphic artist, a building inspector and two custodians.<\/p>\n

We learn from the newsletter that sales and hotel taxes are expected to grow, while property tax is projected to decrease slightly. Finance Director Chuck McBride assures us that investment in the city created by new hotel, retail and commercial projects puts the city \u201cin a good position to capitalize on opportunities as the economy recovers.\u201d It appears happy times are here again.<\/p>\n

Follow the jump for the rest of the storyBut maybe not for the city\u2019s worker bees. Here\u2019s why. <\/p>\n

1. A projected $600,000 surplus in the 2011-12 budget will add to the city\u2019s current $53 million in reserve. That\u2019s 47 percent of the 2010-2011 budget. City policy requires only 30 percent in reserve.<\/p>\n

2. There\u2019s enough room in the budget for a $1.8 million direct subsidy to bail out golf course operations again. City Manager Lisa Hildebrand explained it \u201cno longer made sense\u201d to call the annual bailouts loans that have to be repaid (\u201cBudget plan gives and takes away,\u201d NC Times, June 6).<\/p>\n

3. This year\u2019s contract with city employees imposed a 7 percent pay cut for the lowest paid city workers, resulting from a wage freeze combined with shifting to employees the share of pension contributions the city has formerly paid on their behalf.<\/p>\n

4. Despite the city\u2019s projected prosperity, council members are considering outsourcing city services.<\/p>\n

Outsourcing leads to layoffs or lower pay or both. With the latest uptick in the local unemployment rate from 9.6 in May to 10.5 in July, you\u2019d think outsourcing would be an acceptable option only if the city were going broke or if residents were complaining about the quality of city services.<\/p>\n

In this case, there\u2019s no evidence of either. Word from city hall is that the budget\u2019s in great shape. The city\u2019s latest \u201cPublic Opinion Survey and State of Effectiveness Report,\u201d showed 92 percent of those surveyed were satisfied with city services (60 percent very satisfied\/32 percent satisfied), causing council member Ann Kulchin to gush about city workers, \u201cThis is your report card. As a parent I feel like I\u2019d like to take you all out for an ice cream cone.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to confidence in city government, 78 percent reported they were satisfied (22 percent very satisfied\/55 percent somewhat).<\/p>\n

Comparing report cards, I\u2019d say it would make more sense to outsource city government than city services. <\/p>\n

Richard Riehl<\/a><\/strong> writes from Carlsbadistan<\/em>. Email him at fogcutter1@yahoo.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The August edition of Carlsbad Currents, the city\u2019s bi-monthly publication mailed to city residents, carries the headline, \u201cCarlsbad maintains good financial health.\u201d The story boasts of a budget balanced by reducing the size of the city\u2019s workforce and operating more efficiently. The city\u2019s 2011-12 budget report explains the workforce was cut back by eliminating 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10239"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10239"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10241,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10239\/revisions\/10241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}