Calaveras County : Think Outside the BOS
The largest newspaper in Calaveras County recently published a lengthy article and guest opinion piece by Supervisor Steve Wilensky on his ideas for restructuring County government to close a $4.5 million budget gap. Wilensky admits his ideas are just that, ideas, and not a fully developed proposal, but the fact of his offering new ideas to streamline the government is good. The Board of Supervisors should consider them. Now, if they only went far enough. I submit there is much more that can and should be done.
In particular, Mr. Wilensky suggests a concession from county employees whereby they would pay 3% of their retirement costs – only 3%. The touted savings would be $713,589. Imagine if the employees had to pay all of their retirement benefits like most of the rest of us, or use the same SSI system the rest of us have to rely on, plus 401K’s and the like. One doesn’t have to dig deeply to learn what a scam the CalPERS retirement plan is and how it is bankrupting California cities, counties and the state, for that matter. That is a can that can’t be kicked down the road any longer.
Secondly, a few months ago, the BOS was sent a link to a story about Sandy Springs, Georgia, a town that has outsourced as many public service jobs as possible at tremendous savings, and its working. So much so, in fact, that at least one county, Frederick County, Maryland, is looking to do likewise, and sent county officials to visit Sandy Springs.
Frederick County hired a consultant to put together a plan for outsourcing what it calls “core services,” affecting some 528 employees out of a total work force of 2215. The projected savings is $109 million over five years. Assuming that savings could be proportionately projected on to our 441 count work force, the savings would be $21.8 million, or $4.36 million a year, almost the entire budget shortfall we are now facing. All those savings are realized without any loss of services just by switching from government employees to private contractors. Thinking outside the BOS has great potential.
David Tunno – Rancho Calaveras
Related posts:
- Supervisors Recognize Value Of Rehiring County Retirees Part-time – Al Segalla, County Taxpayers Association President, Applauds Their Action
- EXCLUSIVE — Mark Campbell Speaks Out About AB 114, Teacher Lay-offs, Budgeting And Teachers’ Unions
- Celebrating the Board’s approval of Las Tres Marias Estates project, are (from left) owners Denise and Luis San Bartolome, Biologist Miriam Green and Engineer Robin Peters
- Governor has Proposed Eliminating the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board
- Calaveras County Grand Jury Releases 2010-2011 Final Report
Short URL: http://99bignews.com/?p=17639
Posted by David Tunno
on Jul 15 2011. Filed under Opinion.
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