You will need some talking points, other than the ones that are obvious to you. I have met with the Manager and the Assistant to the Manager, and I have numbers for you.
If we buy two new trucks, which is what we need, we can either finance them for five years, or pay for them outright. If we do the former, and we give our employees raises to match the County's poverty level, our bill will be in the $900s per year. If we buy the trucks outright, instead of financing them, we can drop into the $800s per year, and add a one time assessment of $250 per home. The difference is that with the one time assessment, it's $250 once. With financing, we will each pay $555 over the five years. So it's much cheaper if we pay it now. Also, if we chose to lease/purchase, and we later decided it was better for us to outsource, we would be stuck continuing to pay a very high price for trucks we no longer need. It would be much better if we owned the trucks, so we could sell them.
In addition, there is some question about the raises. It has been pointed out that our employees have not asked for a raise. In fact, they seem proud of the fact that they're not asking for a raise. And we pay them considerably below the poverty level. These are employees we say we treasure and who say they would sacrifice almost anything to remain Village employees. I hope I'm not the only person who sees some very curious problems here. We can save more money if we don't give raises, leaving our bill in the $700s, or the $600s, if we buy the trucks outright. But could we continue to live with ourselves, now that we know we are abusing our employees? And what does it mean that our employees claim they don't feel abused and actively resist opportunities of various kinds to make more money? Something is wrong with this picture, right?
To complete the picture, the adjusted cost of outsourcing is about $400 per year. That results in reliable service, potentially from the same people who provide it now, an unrestricted influx of between about $40K and about $80K a year, and freeing up the Assistant to the Manager to pursue projects he can't do now.
At the last Commission Meeting the Commissioners asked the Manager and Public Works to come up with their best version of keeping Trash and Waste in-house. As a Commissioner, I would think you would be asking residents and Commissioners to wait for those figures before making a decision. Are you saying you now have those figures and this is what they look like? We have a Village Manager and I think it's the Manager's job to present the figures. It's your job to have an open mind and evaluate all the information once it's properly presented. That's the kind of help I want from a Commissioner.
ReplyDeletePoints very well taken, of course.
DeleteI do think we have all the information we need and can reasonably expect to get, and it will all be presented at the Commission meeting in May. I have given you a few of the numbers in this partial post. Obviously, it's a bit more complicated and detailed than the little I quoted, but I think you'll see it in a way that you will have no further questions. The decision will come down to what we all want to do, not whether there is enough information.
Having said that, I will tell you that providing information, not just my opinion, is the main use I make of this blog these days. I say all there is to say, with two exceptions. One was about the police matter. I hope you understand that I have not been able to share the little I know, and why I haven't been able to share it. When the matter is resolved, we will all hear about it. The second thing I have not really said in so many words is about this very sanitation issue. I have not wanted to seem to complain or blame, and I have not wanted to offend or be politically incorrect. I'm now thinking my posture in this regard might be in the way of adequate openness that will help with our making a decision. So let me be a bit clearer.
I have already mentioned the curiosity of employees who are not well paid and are not asking for more. I hope you will agree that on the surface, this is at least curious. When I met with the one-time CNM employee who is now a WastePro employee, he told me very plainly that municipal workers prefer municipal work. They much prefer it to private sector work. Need I say more? Complications of the arrangement municipal employers have with municipal employees include things like the following anecdote. Last week, some of our employees did not come to work on Friday. Friday is a garbage pick-up day for part of the Village, and not all the garbage got picked up that day, because of low staffing. The employees who were here were asked for one more hour of work, for overtime pay, of course. Their union contract allows them to decline extra work, even for extra pay, so they declined. That meant the route couldn't be finished that day. That kind of hog-tying doesn't happen with a contractor like WastePro. So it's figures, yes, but there is more that goes into the decision than just dry figures. Do our employees find ways to endear themselves to us? Sure they do. But that isn't always equal to getting the job done, and getting it done on time.
But Barbara, I do have an open mind. My open mind is what allowed me to come to realize we do have to pursue annexation, having first thought we shouldn't. And to decide outsourcing is best for the Village, having initially thought in-house was best. What would represent a more open mind than being able to change one's mind, after getting more information? Isn't that sort of the definition of an open mind?
But in fact what is the kind of help you want from a Commissioner? Do you want someone who will make your argument for you, even if he or she doesn't agree, or even if he or she thinks you're wrong? Or do you want someone to have an open mind, and be able to come to positions you yourself might not come to, or might honestly not share? That's the dilemma with which I struggle.
So my wish is that you and everyone else would have the open mind you want me to have, and that you might come to agree with me about this issue. But if you don't, and if a majority of BP residents don't, I have already pledged more than once to help you preserve the system you all want, even if I think you're making a mistake. Is that what you want me to do, or do you want me to impose on you and the Village the results of my open-mindedness? Brad Piper says I should do what I think is right for the Village. Milt Hunter says the same thing. What do you say?
Fred