management

please answer q5 according to the case given

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION Centraltown is an old, industrial, mid-sized city in the Northeast. After two decades of factory closings and a gradual loss of population--as residents fled to the warmth of sun-belt states-Centraltown is fac- ing financial difficulties. A new mayor is promising to shrink government through privatization, but pow- erful unions and entrenched public employees oppose the plans. ABOUT THE CHARACTERS Nancy Martin, newly elected mayor of Centraltown, has promised to shrink government and con- tract out public services. She is opposed by the city's public employee union, but she is determined to move forward as soon as possible, beginning with city garbage collection. Salvatore Pavone is the long-time head of the city's public employee union. He has always op- posed privatization, as he sees it as his duty to save city jobs. Claudia Alvarado, head of the city's management and budget office and trusted confidante of the new mayor, is charged with developing a plan to implement the privatization of municipal services. CITY IN DECLINE Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Centraltown experienced several painful factory clos. ings. The way of life in this old industrial city is coming to an end. Making matters worse, many residents joined those fleeing the rust belt for the sun belt," further contributing to the city's shrinking tax base. In response to the tough times, the voters of Centraltown elected a new mayor who promised to shake things up, beginning with cuts in government programs. Mayor Martin is a political newcomer, but rode a wave of voter resentment- toward the high costs and poor quality of municipal services-into office. One of Martin's campaign pledges was to privatize municipal services. Privatization- the practice of contracting out public services provided by government to businesses who perform the service for government--has been a widely used "solution" to problems associ- 2 ated with the cost and quality of public programs and services. While privatization has been used in many communities, it has not been attempted in Centraltown owing to the city's powerful municipal employee's union, who oppose any cuts in public jobs. The tradi- tional character of the community has also led to opposition to such changes. Most resi- dents, after all, either worked for the city or knew someone who did, and the boom years of industrial production up through the 1970s translated into economic good times for Cen- traltown. There was never a need to cut government programs. This has changed and both taxpayers and political reformers are now supportive of cutting what they see as the high costs of a bloated, inefficient bureaucracy. Mayor Martin wants to begin by privatizing the city's garbage collection and use that as a model to aggressively pursue privatization of other municipal programs and services. SANITATION DEPARTMENT The Centraltown Sanitation Department is responsible for collecting garbage and does so twice weekly through the door-to-dump collection of residents' garbage. Trucks collect garbage from every home in the municipality and, once weekly, the trucks pick up garbage from large commercial dumpsters located behind or near the city's businesses. This is an ex- pensive service that requires a staff of sanitation workers and fleet of garbage trucks. The department also collects recyclable materials (newspaper, steel cans, and plastics) bi- weekly from special color-coded recycling containers provided for residents. To obtain re. cyclable containers, Centraltown residents need only go to the sanitation department offices, fill out a request, and show a valid state ID. They are then given recyclable contain ers to use The sanitation department has been overspending its budget for several years in a row and its marginal service record has resulted in an increasing stream of complaints from citi- zens. These complaints include careless emptying of trash cans, trash spilled on city streets, sanitation workers being too loud, and tardy trash pick up. The department recently pro- cured new garbage trucks, which was an expensive purchase for the city. With the acquisi- tion of new trucks, roughly half the fleet of garbage trucks is new, the other half is and in immediate need of replacement. Several of the older trucks are breaking down and are expensive to maintain. Mayor Martin has asked her trusted adviser and head of the city's management and budget office, Claudia Alvarado, to convene the mayor's new Privatization Task Force, charged with developing a plan for contracting out municipal garbage collection. very old PROPOSALS The mayor is serious about fulfilling her campaign pledge. She gave Alvarado a short memo that included some issues and questions to be answered. The mayor's memo to Alvarado follows. Memorandum TO: Claudia Alvarado, Director, Management and Budget FROM: Nancy Martin, Mayor RE: Plan for Privatization DATE: June 19 I am asking you to convene a Privatization Task Force to study the issue of privatization of our municipal services, beginning with garbage collection. When I announce the forma- tion of this Task Force in one month at my press conference, I want to be prepared to an- swer questions about privatization and our plan for contracting out services. I would like you to have answers to these questions on my desk one week prior to the press conference. Issue A. How do we privatize garbage collection? I need to know the "nuts and bolts" of the process. Most governments advertise the contract and then require prospective contractors to submit sealed bids to the government. Officials then select the lowest bidder providing that prospective contractor is deemed "responsible and responsive." Is this the process we should adopt? Would this guarantee us an ethical process and a competent, affordable con- tractor? We need to give some thought to how we define "responsible and responsive." Issue B. There are three sanitation service companies in the region who expressed interest in working with us: (1) General Waste, Inc., whose work is excellent but they have a record of charging high amounts; (2) Northern Waste, whose price is very affordable, but their service record is questionable; and (3) Disposal Services, a new company listing mod- erate prices for their services, but they are an unknown entity. What criteria should we em- ploy in deciding which contractor to use: cost or quality? How many contractors should be encouraged to submit bids, and how should the contract be announced to the public? Issue C. Should the city consider contracting municipal garbage collection out to the county? The county appears to do a good job of collecting garbage, and its resources are greater than those of Centraltown. Issue D. I am already receiving severe opposition from Salvatore Pavone, head of our mu- nicipal employees union. He is going on record saying that no city job should be cut or lost and our economy would suffer from privatization. What do we do about Sal and the employ. ees in our sanitation department? In "marketing" privatization, can we capitalize on the overwhelming public support I received during my recent campaign for cutting government? Good luck, Claudia. I am depending on you! ROLE-PLAY ASSIGNMENT You are Alvarado's assistant. As the mayor's adviser and head of the city's management and budget office, Alvarado asks you to join her on the Privatization Task Force and make some preliminary recommendations to her regarding the privatization of the municipality's garbage collection 5. What other municipal services could be considered for privatization? Is there one approach or model (for instance, the plan you develop for garbage collec- tion) that could be followed in privatizing other municipal services