Unions Want Bigger Say on Privatization

A new task force came under fire from public employee unions Tuesday even before starting its job of studying what county services might be better run by private businesses.

“If they wanted an unbiased study, they’d have employee organizations represented on the task force,” said Dallas Jones, president of the union local that represents 650 county firefighters. “It doesn’t even have the appearance of being unbiased.”

Jones and other leaders of unions that represent about 16,000 employees were annoyed to learn this week that Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez had called together local business leaders and top county officials to review county operations and decide which ones might be better managed by the private sector.

That task force is part of an ambitious county effort to hold down costs in the face of dire budget projections suggesting a shortfall of as much as $70 million.

But union representatives were not included in the task force, which meets for the first time today, and some worried that the group will make recommendations that could mean layoffs of government workers.

Vasquez and other supporters of privatization said Tuesday that it is too soon for employees to be worried, since the task force has yet to meet, much less make specific recommendations.

“It’s probably premature,” said Todd Nicholson, executive director of the Industrial League of Orange County and a task force member. “We’re just planning to sit down and take a look at whether there are any logical areas where privatization may make sense.”

Vasquez said that the county’s worsening financial condition has forced the issue.

“The fiscal crisis that we are in demands that we evaluate any and all options,” he said. “Once the task force has had the opportunity to evaluate these suggestions, and once the Board of Supervisors has considered them, there will still be ample time and opportunity for the employee organizations to be consulted.”

But to some employee groups, news of the task force’s makeup and mission was cause for grave concern.

“This is a big surprise to me,” said Tim Miller, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 787, which represents about 600 county custodians, maintenance workers and other employees. “I’m going to get together with some of the other unions and suggest we meet as a coalition and lobby against this.”

Miller said that the decision not to include county workers on the task force was particularly galling, since it would keep the group from receiving the views of employees who harbor reservations about putting certain operations up for bid.

A preliminary county study of government services found 144 areas that would be candidates for privatization, though about 45 of them were dismissed as unwieldy or too controversial. Among those that were judged to deserve at least further study were suggestions to let private business take over food service in the jails, county harbor patrol, the sheriff’s helicopter patrols and security operations at John Wayne Airport.

Smaller issues were addressed as well. School crossing guards, tree trimming and pest control, for instance, were all listed as candidates for private sector takeover.

Employee representatives warned that the process can have a downside for local governments, however.

“This can be very hazardous,” said John H. Sawyer, general manager of the Orange County Employees Assn., the county government’s largest employee organization. “It deprives the county of control over its services, and that can put the residents who depend on those services at risk.”

Sawyer, however, said he did not object to the task force leaving out the unions as long as those groups are fully consulted later.

“If they decide they want to contract some things out, then we definitely want them to meet with us,” Sawyer said. “Those items are negotiable.”