Debate on cost allocation in the municipality of Statendam

It started with a letter

Statendam, November 5, 2001

To: Henk Jacobs, director finance department

From: Bob Jansen, manager refuse collection department

Dear Henk,

Someone told me that you had to see the teachers of one or your children last night, so you could not be present at the council meeting. Well, you have really missed something! The Conservative-Liberal Party seized the opportunity to use the 2002 budget for an attack on the municipal privatization policy. My department was seen as a possible spearhead of a new policy. The Conservative-Liberal Party thinks that only financial considerations should determine whether a municipality performs its duties itself or leaves them to the market. The Conservative-Liberal Party has conducted a small survey to compare the refuse collection rate for private persons in Statendam with the rates of four municipalities of similar sizes. Two of these four municipalities have contracted refuse collection out to a private enterprise and the two remaining municipalities work together with other municipalities in a joint refuse collection scheme Table 1 shows the figures presented by the Conservative-Liberal Party.

Table 1. Refuse collection rates for private persons in different municipalities (2001)