DeWine on San Diego competition panel
Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine is going to San Diego next week to talk about efforts to make government more efficient.
DeWine is a discussion panelist for a seminar titled “Competition Works: How Managed Competition Can Enhance Accountability and Efficiency in City Government.”
DeWine is on the Sept. 7 panel for a discussion called “Managed Competition Success Stories from Across the Nation.”
DeWine, a Republican commissioner, has been a key member of Hamilton County’s managed competition committee.
It is reviewing services now provided by government to see if they can be done more efficiently or at less cost.
The most recent example is the maintenance and repair of the 14,000 fire hydrants in the unincorporated areas of Hamilton County.
The Hamilton County committee studied to see how the cost and efficiency of government employees doing that worked compared to a private company doing it.
County workers won.
The committee found that county workers are doing the servicing and maintenance of fire hydrants for $500,000 less per year than a private company would charge Hamilton County.
The same study, though, found that Hamilton County could save $20,000 this year by using the current city of Cincinnati’s fire hydrant purchasing contract.
Up next for the committee: Studying the Hamilton County vehicle fleet to see if the cars, trucks and other vehicles can be bought and maintained cheaper or more efficiently if done by a private company.
DeWine’s panel discussion is in San Diego where citizen will vote Nov. 7 to decide if the city can use managed competition to remake the city’s government.
Also on the panel with DeWine is the director of procurement for Mecklenberg County, N. C. (Charlotte). The seminar’s keynote speaker is former Indianapolis mayor Steven Goldsmith, who pioneered managed competition in his former city.
After DeWine was elected, he and Commissioner Phil Heimlich visited several governments to view what were considered best practices. Two of the counties they visited were Indianapolis and Mecklenberg County.
The seminar is hosted by San Diegans for City Hall Reform. DeWine's expenses are paid by The Performance Institute, a private non-profit think tank pushing managed competition in government.
8 Comments:
at 6:47 PM, August 29, 2006 
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at 6:52 PM, August 29, 2006 
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at 6:54 PM, August 29, 2006 
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at 6:56 PM, August 29, 2006 
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at 7:00 PM, August 29, 2006 
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at 8:02 PM, August 29, 2006 
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at 1:07 PM, August 30, 2006 
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at 5:16 PM, August 30, 2006 
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Post a Comment*well, i have shared this tidbit with dewine, the chair of the competition group and with reporters at the enquirer - but o one will print the facts or address the issue.
the biggest waste of county funds is in "cooperative workig agreements" between county agencies and other county offices.
for instance, the county prosecutor'soffice supplies the legal services for the county child support eforcement agency. despite the support of former child support direcotr ( ad jfs director) burke, overwhelming and irrefutable evidence fromthe state studies and coparison with the successes of nearby butler couty's child support agency; dewine and heilich refused, in favor of political croonism, to keep deters serving the county's needs .
the savings; not $20K per year but hundreds of thousands per year , every year if they put the work out for competitive bid
not only does it save hudreds of thousads of dollars - all agencies that have implemented either in-house or contracted legal services - they report better outcomes, more efficiency, and higher quality work.
why? beause at the prosecutor's office child support is the lowest rug of the ladder. everyoe wants to get ito the big criminal cases or big civil claims --- no one wants or cares passioately about the tes of thousads of kids who need aggressive pursuit of child support orders.
likewise, the sheriff's office working as process servers for the couty are hugely costly for the program.
dewine ad heimlich are using their offices to control who gets reveiwed and who gets displaced by by competitive bidding.
they are playing politics, calling it oen thing whe it simpoly - again - croonyis at its finest.
the paper knows it, heimlich knows it and dewine knows it -- it is a farce
the farce will be exposed ithe other tactics emplyed and maintaied by this couty when the audit of jfs and misappropriation of funds is released in the next couple weeks
it's funny how the committee reviewing the maintenance of hydrantsmissed the point that , sttutorially, the city must maintain fire hydrants under the law because they operate the water works. public safety measures are required to be maintained by them.
but, they also missed the related issue that the county is needlessly paying for fire house water supplied for maintence and cleaning and fire fighting -- couty towships could save tens of thousands a year by renegotiating their contract with the city water works which provides these services free of charge.
how many firemen could be working if the county fixed this lapse intheir contract?
no body wants to talk about the secret elimination of contractors from consideration for competitive bidding who have at one time or another, held the county's feet to the fire previously in contract deals.
someof our best bids are igored and falsely justified, even though lower than the rest, because of personal animosity.
competitive bidding is another way to get your friends fat contracts -- it is called "pay-to-play" and the greatest abuse of goverment funds. dewine and heimlich want to expand their power and ifluece ito the private market and anchor in some big campaign contributions.
just ask joe deters how they do that
alight, so this panel has worked diligetly for over a year and they saved , what $20K. thank god they're volunteers because this is a perfect example of dewine and heimlich's "efficient" government stance. bs more of the same
To 6:52 Anonymous,
The City of Cincinnati is only responsible for maintaining fire hydrants within the city limits, unless they have a contract with other politcial entities. Otherwise the county, townships etc. are responsible. Cincinnati residents pay a fee as part of the water service for fire hydrant maintenance.
The only agencies that receive "free water" are generally Cincinnati general fund agencies.
6:52
you're right - CURRETLY, the city oly pays for certain hydrants - but thelaw says that any muicipality operating a water works is reqired to service all hydrants served by the water supply. and yes, you're right again, the city offices get free water ( along with several other government buildings - mainly ed centers and human service facilities) but THE LAW says that every fire department is to have free water for the purpose of fighting fires and maintenance and upkeep of equipment.
every time a fire truck fills their tank at the firehouse (verses from a hydrant on the scene of a fire) - taxpayers are paying for the water out of the fire budget -- when, that water and that used to wash the trucks, etc. is supposed to be provided for free by the cww.
my question is - whereas couty residents outside the city limits are paying "retail" rates for cww service while city residents pay "cost" and we are entitled to cww water for free in someregards - why are we paying? what brilliant republican county official and prosecutor failed to read the law when they approved ( signed away) free services in the contract?
cww isn't"bad" they're just smart - it is county admiistration with their"save taxpyers money" head inthe sand -- do you think fixing that contract would save far more than $20K a year for our safety services ? heck yea!!!!!
Privatization isn't cheaper or more efficient and it's certainly unaccountable.
We saw how Heimlich went against the voters will to give a no-bid contract to his business partners at the Health Alliance. Drake was sold for $30 million and the land alone was worth $43 million according to the auditor. (We know he does consult with him!)
Drake was worth $150 million with all the equipment, land and annual revenue. It was ranked top 16th in the country. Phil doesn't care about the people of Hamilton County, just his political donors and business partners.
These guys want to privatize everything so their corporate paymasters can make more money and give them bigger contributions.
Phil Heimlich is a crook that belongs in jail. He even makes Pepper look good.
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