Cities Outsource Government to Private Companies

[Iplayboard]

[i]Newly formed cities are giving the keys to city hall to private companies that say they can run a government better than bureaucrats.

Mayors in "contract cities" say they get better services for less money; more flexibility, because private employees can be hired and fired more easily than workers under civil service rules; and lower debt, because they can own fewer buildings and less equipment.

"We wanted to get the most efficient possible use of our tax dollars," Mayor Eva Galambos says.

"As a privately held company, employee-owned, it behooves everyone in the company to help somebody else."

Fred Siegel, author of the book The Prince of the City— about how Mayor Rudy Giuliani battled public-employee union influence in New York — says the privatizing trend is driven by voters who think local governments have stopped being accountable to them.


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