ANAHEIM : Outside Contractors Given High Marks

Following a review of $126 million in existing work contracts let to outside businesses, city officials gave high marks to most private firms that now perform municipal services and recommended that most of the relationships continue.

Among those receiving perfect 10s on a numerical scale measuring cost efficiency and service quality were Anaheim’s state and federal lobbyists and a $254,000 annual contract for local adult softball scoring and officiating.

The lowest overall grade went to a $70,000 Police Department pact for the private collection and processing of parking citations.

The three-week evaluation of 335 existing contracts was initiated by the City Council last month.

At that time, city officials said shrinking municipal revenues due to the recession and the state’s budget problems prompted closer review of “alternate means of service delivery.”

“Privatization is not a strategy to eliminate jobs or merely replace city employees with private sector employees,” City Manager James D. Ruth stated in the report to council.

“Instead, it is one part of an overall strategy to try to adjust the city’s finances to the realities of reduced revenues.”

The $126 million in outside contracts represents about 23% of the city’s total budget. It also reflects the services provided in virtually every city department.

Overall, the report measured contract performance on a numerical scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest score.

It found that city staffers ranked the cost efficiency and quality of its outside services between 8.3 and 8.5.

Washington lobbyist Del Smith’s $61,500 annual contract rated the highest scores in all categories, with city officials crediting him with helping to bring $14.8 million to the city in federal funds in 1991-92.

And in the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, even baseball umpires are getting rave reviews. Recreation supervisor Chuck Canada said Major League Softball Inc. of Orange has been providing its score-keeping and officiating services to the city for four years.

On the opposite end of the scale, Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said the department issued a zero rating for the quality of work turned in by the processor of the city’s parking citations.

Although the chief said there have not been marked differences in the amount of parking ticket revenues flowing to the city, he said the private vendor had not been meeting processing deadlines.

He said a search was on for a new contractor.