[Marxism] Detroit Council set to approve anti-privatization measure

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Saving city jobs

        

Council set to approve anti-privatization measure

By Diane Bukowski
The Michigan Citizen

DETROIT - After seven years of battle with two administrations, Detroit's
city council finally appears poised to approve an ordinance that should
substantially curtail privatization of city services and jobs.

"In this era of attacks on affirmative action, the loss of residency
requirements and cutbacks, it is imperative that we move this ordinance
forward now," John Riehl, president of Local 207 of the American Federation
of City, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), told the council during a
public hearing Feb. 19.

The ordinance would require that city officials submit a comprehensive
written study detailing the need and associated costs for private contracts
for work performed by city employees.

The study would also have to describe the effects of such contracts on
current city workers, future job availability for city residents, the
public's receipt of services, and the city's accountability for those
services.

In addition, both the auditor general and the city ombudsman would be
required to submit their own analyses of such private contracts.

For the first time, the ordinance would require council approval of all bids
on such contracts before they are published, and establish a procedure for
city workers, through their unions, to submit their own bids.

Final approval of any contracts surviving the study and bidding process
would require a two-thirds majority vote by the council.

The ordinance includes a controversial "private cause of action" clause,
which allows any employee or resident who feels the ordinance's provisions
have not been followed to seek redress in circuit court.

It also allows city officials to apply for waivers of its provisions subject
to council approval, and exempts various categories of contracts from
coverage.

"It's time for the administration to stop squandering taxpayers' dollars on
private contracts for their friends," said Ed McNeil, a top aide with
Michigan AFSCME Council 25, after the hearing.

"The council, as well as the administration, should be fiscally responsible
to city residents, by auditing, monitoring and costing out specific
contracts."

McNeil said that under current procedures, many contracts come up for a
council vote months after they are already in place.

Additionally, he said, many contractors obtain council approval by
submitting initially low bids, then coming back later and submitting "change
orders" to increase the city's contract costs.

He said snow removal contracts recently let to private companies without
council approval, allegedly due to their "emergency" nature, were an example
of blatant abuse.

"The city has outfitted every department with snow removal equipment for
their vehicles," he said. "We've got the equipment, why go outside? To add
insult to injury, the contractors the city employed were unlicensed and
uncertified."

City employees have also complained recently that it is the hundreds of
millions of dollars going to private contractors in the water department -
and not the delinquent water bills that outstate interests blame - that are
responsible for recent rate increases.

The ordinance appeared to have the support of a majority of the city
council, with Council President Pro-Tem Kenneth Cockrel Jr. backing
President Maryann Mahaffey's comments during the hearing. Councilwomen Kay
Everett and Sheila Cockrel declared their opposition, saying they opposed
the "private cause of action" clause.

Michael Karwowski of the city's law department, which normally approves all
such ordinances for good form, raised objections to the wording of the
ordinance. Among the objections was that the ordinance did not include an
actual definition of "privatization."

Councilwoman Joann Watson responded, "This is nothing but an eleventh hour
stalling tactic. We are mandated to get on this now." A council vote on the
ordinance was set for Feb. 25.

Establishment of the ordinance under review was required by the terms of the
revised city charter voters passed in 1997.

The charter called for enactment of the ordinance within six months of the
charter's passage, but both Mayors Dennis Archer and Kwame Kilpatrick threw
repeated roadblocks in the way, raising numerous objections and presenting
many alternate versions of the ordinance during the intervening years.

Reach Diane Bukowski at diane_bukowski@xxxxxxxxxxx



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