In a memo to City Manager Jim O’Connor, Councilman Richard Winger raised questions about the quality of city parks and right-of-way maintenance recently outsourced to private contractors. Outsourcing has been advocated by proponents of “limited government,” who argue the city should only do work that cannot be performed by private businesses.
Winger wrote, “Two Parks with long grass which would be objectionable for children are Piece of Pie and Jacoby. The grass is long enugh to harbor snakes.”
“My question is what in the world is going on? Is that what we have to expect going forward?” Winger added.
Indian River Guardian 
the city of ft.pierce outsourced its fleet services and learned the hard way that it didn’t work
It has only been a little over a month and it is obvious. Did anyone really think that we could get the same care and detail for $49,200 a year from a company based in Winter Park? Look at the bids! City Council agenda meeting May 7th, 2013. I think this is a harbinger of what we can expect not only with park maintenance but with other City provided services being considered to be outsourced, sold off or just plain discontinued. People are going to notice!
Study after study has shown that outsourcing of government operations is the most expensive means of getting tasks done. There is first the upfront time, effort and cost in the competitive bid process itself. Then there is the need to continuously audit the expenditure of the funds to an outside contractor to ensure that taxpayers are not fleeced.
The only way to ensure that there is not a diminishment in the quality of services provided is by writing into the contract strict goals and penalties for failure to routinely meet those goals. If this was not done, Councilman Winger shares the blame.
If the contractor provider is from Winter Park, the taxpayers need to be advised if they are also having to pay for the transit time as a part of the contract. Did the city officials factor into the analysis the additional accumulation of time charged to the contract when the workers were
in transit? Is the contract written for a set fee for services or by work done? The taxpayers need to know if they will be paying for services even in inclement weather when tasks are not able to be performed.
While it is true that park maintenance is not an exclusive government function, the limited government folks need to consider the negative impact in the loss of quality of life and the potential to lose valuable tourist dollars. .
The ambiance of the city is less today than it has been in the past not just with the parks by also with the median strips, roadways and accumulation of trash and debris in drainage pathways.
The answer to Councilman Winger’s question is that outsourcing is the surest path to diminishment in the quality of services to the taxpayers.
Remembering the years we spent providing lawn maintenance to customers in and around Vero Beach, this time of year is tough. It rains. You play catch up. A machine breaks down. You play catch up. It rains again – maybe for extended period of time. Is it true the company we hired is located out of county? Let’s put it this way. A company may have numerous accounts–mixture of residential, commercial…including a city’s parks, etc. If it gets behind due to weather, who do you suppose is going to get preference? Who will yell the loudest? I’m betting on residential, followed closely by commercial…and city parks, right-of-ways bring up the rear. The nice thing about having the maintenance done by city workers is that work gets priority. You can’t stop the rain or hurricanes, but the work gets done as quickly as humanly possible….assuming the powers that be haven’t made it impossible by reducing the workforce too much. And by the way, try working outdoors in the summertime for five or six days a week, moving from one property to the next. It isn’t like working in an air-conditioned office….been there – done both.
Progress continues down the slippery slope to mediocrity. I hope you are enjoying your reduced electric costs … or not!
It’s obvious that the troika is hell bent on destroying the City of Vero Beach and doesn’t give a moments thought to the fact that local people are losing jobs and our tax money is going to an out of town contractor. By being so short sighted we increase the local poverty and unemployment locally. Where is your Christian Charity that Jesus taught.
I forgot to ask the mayor if he found the landscape provider from winter park if they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Did the vice mayor check to see if they were atheists or maybe Muslims or even unforgiving Jews.