O.C.’s Auto Body Workers Drive the Right Bargain : Contract: Competing against 4 private firms for the county’s business, they turn in the best bid.

The county government’s five auto body workers knew they ran a tight ship. But when the county began looking for a private company to do the work cheaper, they knew they had to prove it.

So, earlier this week the employees submitted a proposal to the General Services Agency, outlining their costs and offering suggestions to reduce costs at the auto body and paint division. Only hours after turning in their bid, the workers learned they had made the county its best offer.

“We had felt pretty threatened, but now we feel vindicated,” said Cynthia Pickett, a field representative for the Service Employees International Union, which represents the auto body employees.

“This just goes to show that the whole privatization thing is not what everyone thinks. People shouldn’t think that all of county government is costly and inefficient, because there are departments that are very efficient and providing excellent services.”

As part of the county’s overall effort to reduce costs through privatization, the General Services Agency had been accepting bids from private auto body and paint shops interested in repairing county cars.

Bob Griffith, director of the agency, said the county workers’ proposal was selected from the five bids submitted simply because it was the most cost-efficient.

“Our employees’ cost of providing service was cheaper than any of the quotes we got from private vendors,” Griffith said. “The costs estimated by the private vendors ranged from 74 cents to $5.62 an hour more than our employees’ costs.”

The employees, who work out of a county-owned building on Fruit Street in Santa Ana, will continue on the county payroll, repairing and painting mostly sheriff’s cars that have been in accidents.

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“Everybody was just ecstatic when they heard the news,” Pickett said. “We have shown that we are cost-effective because we came in less than current vendors.”

In addition to outlining operational expenses, the five employees in their bid offered three suggestions for reducing costs: revamp the computer system, revise some procurement practices and change employees’ schedules to be more efficient.

Griffith said his staff will review those recommendations to see if any are feasible.

“We’re always interested in looking at ways to do things even cheaper,” he said. “And with these recommendations, we might find additional savings.”

Barry Adams, the county’s transportation manager, said he had been fairly confident that the auto body workers would remain on the county payroll.

“We felt we had a lean organization and that our employees are high quality,” Adams said. “I’m very pleased with the way this process was done. I think it was fair, and now the county knows it’s getting the best return for its dollar.”