Davis Seeks to End Private Janitor Services

Gov. Gray Davis, who proclaims his desire to make government more innovative, is proposing to hire 87 workers to clean government buildings in place of private janitorial services that did the work for about half the cost.

In Davis’ $80-billion proposed budget, the added cost of nearly $4 million is small change.

It’s nowhere near the $26 billion the governor wants to spend on public schools--which he calls his first, second and third priorities. It pales when compared to the $335 million Davis wants to spend on a new prison.

Still, the shift away from private janitorial services is one example of how the Democratic governor, who won office with a major assist from organized labor, wants to use the budget to help his political allies. The Service Employees International Union and its affiliate, the California State Employees Assn., which represents janitors, gave Davis’ campaign at least $1.4 million in direct and indirect contributions last year.

The Service Employees International Union has been engaged in an aggressive campaign to organize nonunion janitorial firms for years. In Sacramento, much of that effort has revolved around state office buildings, a lucrative source of work in this government town.

The fight over hiring private companies to do more government work began in the mid-1990s, when Republican Gov. Pete Wilson attempted to privatize many government functions, including janitorial services.

Seeing a threat to their membership, unions challenged Wilson--and often won--in administrative proceedings and in the courts.

Now with an ally as governor, unions are retaking many jobs they lost during Wilson’s tenure. Shortly after Davis took office in January, the new administration quietly began scrapping janitorial service contracts.

Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante characterized the question as one of fairness. He said full-time state janitors, whose starting wage is $19,440 a year plus more than $10,000 worth of benefits, earn more than private janitors. The starting wage for a state janitor is $9.31 an hour; private janitors were paid 4% less, $8.94 an hour.

“The governor has been very consistent,” Bustamante said. “Workers should be treated fairly, workers are entitled to fair wages, and workers are entitled to benefits. That’s exactly what this action does.”

Davis’ Department of Finance cited several reasons for recommending the policy shift: More full-time state workers give the state added flexibility to respond to emergencies; the use of full-time employees would reduce labor rancor; pay for all janitorial staff would be equal; and employee morale would increase.

Davis, who has appointed an aide specifically to oversee innovation in government, proposes that California pay almost $8.6 million to hire the 87 full-time state workers to clean 13 Sacramento-area government buildings.

The state paid private contractors $4.6 million a year to clean the buildings, which house agencies such as the Department of Justice, Caltrans, the Employment Development Department and the Franchise Tax Board.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature is siding with Davis. Republicans on the conference committee writing the spending plan for the 1999-2000 fiscal year protested the shift, but they were voted down 4 to 2.

“We should pay for it by stripping $4 million from the governor’s budget for innovation in government,” said Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga), a budget committee member.

Bustamante said Davis’ government innovation effort is in its infancy, but it will be aimed at streamlining costs and making workers more efficient.

Firms that have lost their contracts include Somers Building Maintenance, long a target of union organizing efforts in Sacramento, and American Building Maintenance. American Building had charged $976,000 a year to clean the Franchise Tax Board building. The state’s cost of cleaning the building with its own employees will be $1.37 million.

“We are always looking for ways to save our customers money,” said Brian Baltzley, branch manager for American Building, which lost its contract in May. “They didn’t even allow us to bid.”

The change has caused problems in at least one state building used by the Board of Equalization. Board member Dean Andal said complaints shot up about shoddy cleaning work since the state took over from Somers Building Maintenance.

“It’s a Class A building and it’s just deteriorating,” Andal said. “. . . Ironically, people who pay the price are state employees themselves.”

Andal, a Republican from Stockton, blasted the shift as “typical union use of the political process to force their employees on the state.”

However, Perry Kenny, president of the California State Employees Assn., said the new policy ensures a stable work force. Janitors at private firms, he said, “come and go” as they find better jobs.

“In the long run, we’ve always found [contracting out] was not a cost savings,” he said. Kenny, who was on Davis’ transition team, attributed the new policy to Davis’ election and an era of “more productive politics.”

“It’s a matter of respect for workers,” Kenny said. “We’re pleased, very pleased.”