Council votes on outsourcing

City officials decided on Tuesday to determine whether the city could be run more efficiently by substituting private contractors for full-time city personnel.

The council voted unanimously to direct City Manager Ken Frank to provide a list of 10 city functions for which private contractors are available.

It will also consider during budgeting deliberations funding for an independent consultant to analyze the benefits and disadvantages of contracting.

“I have no idea what the results of such an analysis will be,” said Mayor Pro Tem Steven Dicterow, who proposed the exploration of contracting.

“Nonetheless, I believe it would be prudent for the city to explore the issue further.”

The question of contracting services, often raised at council meetings by Gary Alstot when he represented the Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn., surfaced during the Measure A campaign to increase sales taxes to pay for repairs to infrastructure damaged in the June 1 landslide and to establish a disaster fund.

Dicterow said his proposal was not a reflection on staff, but just an effort to see of the city can be run more efficiently.

Laguna Canyon Conservancy President Carolyn Wood said the council should have considered contracting before, or at least at the same time, it voted to spend $10 million on the relocation of the city maintenance yard to the Act V parcel in Laguna Canyon. City firefighters urged the city in the 1990s to contract with the Orange County Fire Authority for services, a recommendation not supported by city officials.

Suggestions have also been made in the past that the city could contract with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement, as all other South County cities do, but that, too, failed to muster support.

“Today, with the growth of cities in South County, there are numerous businesses that provide services to new cities that have no facilities,” Wood said. “What we are suggesting is that the city investigate services where equipment or storage of equipment takes up a lot of space.”

Specifically, she questioned what could be omitted from the Act V project, reducing the size and cost of the relocation, if some services were contracted.

“When you consider we are talking $10 million for only part of the maintenance [some functions will stay at the present location], if we could save that or a portion thereof, we could direct it toward other necessities, such as the Village Entrance,” Wood said.

Dicterow said he was advised that the city manager supported the review and analysis and that the staff would welcome a professional evaluation of city services.