Commentary: Outsourcing provision of proposed charter is dangerous

At taxpayer expense, the city recently mailed to residents a pamphlet titled “How would Costa Mesa be different under the proposed charter (Measure O)?”

I understand why it didn’t use the word “better” instead of “different.”

Costa Mesa won’t be better with the proposed flawed charter, and I think the outsourcing provision is one of the key reasons. It would allow the City Council majority to practice unlimited, risky and predatory outsourcing that could have no benefit to the city or its residents.

Currently, the city can go through a process to outsource many but not all services. The proposed charter (Section 802) would allow the council majority to outsource any service.

The charter does not state any specific requirements or justification for approving outsourcing. As a result, any operation or service could be outsourced by the council majority, regardless of the risk and, as indicated in the provision, whether or not it saves money.

Outsourcing is risky because there are two opposing motivations at play. The city worker’s goal is to provide public service and to comply with the quality, moral and ethical standards of the city. On the other hand, a private company that is granted an outsourcing contract has the primary goal of maximizing profits.

If the contract is discontinued, the city would have to find a new company or bring the service back in-house. Bringing the service back in-house could be difficult if the skilled people have been fired and the equipment has been sold or has become unserviceable. So the real options would be to find another company that might repeat the cycle of increasing prices and therefore profits, or to go back and pay more to the current company. Paying more to the current company could bring us back to where we started — or worse — in terms of costs.

If there aren’t huge savings, why would the council majority take this risk? One goal might be to weaken city employee associations and reduce the number of city employees, especially if they have been critical of the council majority. Also, companies that get outsource contracts could make campaign contributions to the council members who approved the privatization. There is nothing in the proposed charter provision to prevent this.

The risky outsourcing provision in the proposed flawed charter (Measure O) is just one reason why the charter will not make Costa Mesa better.

CHARLES MOONEY lives in Costa Mesa.