Public facilities are owned by the public, when private entities operate public facilities, they have only their profit motive to drive their decisions regarding maintenance. It is very likely that maintenance issues will be put to the bottom of the list of expense. This will cause the public to lose value in their facilities.

For instance, if South Lake Tahoe were to privatize the snow removal within the city. The various vehicles would very likely receive less maintenance and would break down more often resulting in much reduced snow removal. The residents would then have more snow on their streets. The snow and ice would then stay on the roads longer and degrade them that much faster. The contractor would not have any interest or profit motive to keep this from happening.

Should privatization go ahead, the contracts would have to be written and administered very carefully, increasing the expense for the city. It is very likely that this would offset any savings that privatization would bring.

Mixed bag. Private industry certainly has more incentive to operate efficiently because they MUST make a profit to survive. And if another private company is out there doing the same thing BETTER, they also can suffer, whereas with government, they usually have a monopoly, so the public doesn’t get to choose.
If a public service becomes privately operated, it can be a really good option or a really bad one, depending on how govt. sets it up. As long as the privateer guarantees a certain amount of income to the govt, and pays up, maintains the property, it should all be good. But if our city lawyer isn’t smart and doesn’t write it up to OUR benefit, we’re screwed.

Subcontracting operations is a good idea. The City maintains the asset but all the employee salary and benefits is managed by a subcontractor. The City is able to forcast costs through the contracting process. If the assest isn’t being run the way the city wants then they should have a clause to terminate for cause and find a new company.

What you are about to see is the City Mgr. remove the public works road dept and go to Part time snow removal services, AND CONTRACT STREET MAINT.

SOMEBODY BETTER WAKE UP, BOY WILL YOU BE IN FOR A SUPRISE, I HOPE YOU GET ANOTHER WINTER LIKE LAST YEAR, THEN YOU WILL BE DEMANDING THE REMOVAL OF THIS CITY MGR. AND CITY COUNCIL

Allan- Great point, look at STR, fairly low paying jobs with a select few getting rich.

FIREMAN. Know why he’s for it?? Because his 5% cola raise is pending street and roads and recs being completly eliminated. I don’t see fire agreeing to being privatized???? TAHOE relys on snow and skiers during the winter. Cal trans clears hwy 50. Some of your plow drivers have many years of experince behind them to take care of your streets. Think they will come back and work low wage?You pay them, you call and get things fixed because they are city run. They are held to certain standards to maintain thier jobs.A private contactor? Where exactly will they find people willing to have the experince needed to safely plow your streets to come here and work seasonal. What if something happens to your property? Will you call the contractor,private citzen with a private company who already has a signed contract for the year or if he’s smart 5? 10 years and he’ll really care that his low wage guy hit your mail box, or fence, or CAR, yeah he’ll surely take it out of HIS profits to pay you. The city won’t. You’ll sue him? Complain?They are not city run.The city won’t care. Why? Because if O”rouke (who rents a house in the county and who’s family dosen”t EVEN LIVE HERE!!!!!He commutes back to vail)Will slaughter half his work force to maintain his raise, why will he care about you?

The city plow has damaged my mailbox twice in the last 2 years, and they refuse to repair or replace. And my observation is that very few of the city plow drivers make any attempt whatsoever to avoid leaving a berm in front of the mailbox. As a citizen, I am not impressed with the city’s snow removal.

How could a private snow removal service be any worse?

Steve, when we first started getting home delivery up here the Post Office put out the requirements for the placement of the mailbox. It had to be within 3 feet of the street so the driver would have to get out of their car. The reason was that they are not “Mailmen” but Rural rout carriers and don’t actually work for the agency and the insurance wouldn’t cover them. The right of way for the City and County is 8 feet, in other words anything within 8 feet of the street can be damaged by the snow removal operations and they are not liable. The Post office’s answer to this was to put the box in a bucket and move it when it snows.

Stop being so damn cheap, get a post office box forget the *****.

The mail box that you see just another tacky eye sore of someone pushing the ordinances both ways, when no one wants to do something that positive that works for all parties involved.

Those 5 gallon buckets are nothing but targets for butt holes to mess with.Don’t even mention stealing your id,They already know everything about you.

Why dont we ask all of the residential area in nevada how they like thier private snow removal services. Nevada does not do any residential streets they are all subcontracted out. Might be some good topic for discusion. I dont know if they think they get good value for thier dollars or not. I have worked over there doing snow removal for a private contractor when i was younger and made good money. The big thing was i knew that if i didnt do a good job or provide a positive customer service i would not havea job tomorrow. So I made sure everyone was as happy as could be and went above and beyond. If we dont do something to grow our town and increase revenue we will not be able to suppport the services we have.