City employees angry over outsourcing

Tuesday, city employees renewed their call for utilities officials to scrap the idea of outsourcing a managerial position at the city's wastewater department.\nIn January, the city solicited proposals from private firms to oversee operations at the city's two sewage treatment plants, which treat about 15 million gallons of water a day. The idea -- which is only being explored as an option -- has stirred up a firestorm of controversy.\n"It's money leaving this community -- that shouldn't happen," said Tony Walda, a 10-year employee of the Dillman plant just south of Bloomington. "There's no need to hire a public firm when these facilities are run well."\nOpponents of the idea spoke out at a public forum Tuesday evening at the Monroe County Public Library. Assistant Utilities Director Scott Dompke had to defend himself from volleys lobbed by the public and fellow panelists, all of whom were Democrats opposed to the very idea of privatization.\n"It's implied that only professionally trained individuals are fit for these public jobs," said City Councilman Andy Ruff, D-at large. "I resent the assumption that municipalities all across the country operate poorly or inefficiently because they can't keep up with the demands of the private sector."\nAs did many audience members, Ruff expressed the concern that a private company would be more accountable to its bottom line than to the public.\n"As a progressive Democrat, I believe that the government should provide vital public services," he said. "And city employees are more accountable."\nUtility officials aren't considering privatizing the service, Dompke repeated during the course of the evening.\n"We're looking for a manager that can draw on the resources of his company behind the scenes," he said. "It would only be a midlevel manager who would report up the chain of command. The manager would have to report to a public employee."\nAnd Dompke -- who believes that taxpayers could stand to save money from such an arrangement -- stresses that no final decision will be made until the department can review the proposals.\n"We might hire from the inside; we might hire from the outside," he said. "But the job requires a lot more responsibility than an individual can manage. It take a lot of knowledge of science and a lot of knowledge of legal -- that's what we hope a company can bring to the table." \nAnd in any event, a private company would only profit by providing human resources, Dompke said.\n"It's a fairly narrow proposal," he said. "And we're only exploring alternatives to filling in vacancies."\nStill, critics blanched at the plan, which they branded "an assault on democracy."\n"We're talking about the cheapest government when we should be thinking about the best government," said Jack Miller a longtime activist who sparred with former Indianapolis Mayor Steven Goldsmith, known for privatizing city services. "If you want cheapest, hop a plane to Somalia. It's cowboy city, where we can all be libertarians."\nBloomington Mayor John Fernandez, while opposed to privatization, said he's open to the idea of contracting out the position. He caught the forum on community access television.\n"All of this rhetoric was ratcheted up," he said. "But no one has any intention of privatizing any vital public service. I share concerns about accountability, but I think this has become more a broad political debate"