July 29, 2011
MORE ON SAVING MONEY:
FINDING ALTERNATIVES TO LAYOFFS AND SERVICE CUTS;
PUBLIC WORKS FEATURED IN NEW YORK TIMES
This past week, as our nation's capital deadlocked over how to cut government spending to manageable levels, Public Works was helping opposing sides in the Second City show how to come together to solve this kind of problem.
Public Works' efforts to help reduce unneeded government spending in Chicago were featured last Sunday in The New York Times. We reproduce that article below.
On Tuesday, Chicago’s Coalition of Unionized Public Employees (COUPE) released the complete report compiled by Public Works on how to address the city’s looming budget shortfalls. The report, which we compiled in just over 3 weeks to meet Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tight timeframes, identified nearly $150 million in specific annual savings (about 4.5% of the city’s total Corporate Fund budget, akin to the usual “general fund”), and projected that the city could realize an additional $100 million in savings by carrying out a full-scale review of the type for which we did not have enough time on this project. Mayor Emanuel had threatened layoffs and other labor cutbacks if the unions could not produce savings of roughly $19 million in the current-year budget; instead of fighting this, the unions accepted the challenge, met the Mayor’s mark – and then some. Some of the resulting television and print coverage is reproduced below.
We’re proud to have contributed to this unique cooperative effort of Chicago Federation of Labor President Jorge Ramirez, Chicago/Cook County Building Trades Council President Tom VIllanova, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to work together to find ways to make government work better and save taxpayer money.
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Kudos to the Coalition of Unionized Public Employees for whipping out an insightful 31-page report on how to wring efficiencies from the city budget. Public-employee unions, often seen as resistant to change, have put forward a serious agenda to save taxpayers money. And they say that, given time, they can come up with more ideas.
Bring 'em on.
View full article here
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The City Payroll May Include a Few Too Many Bosses
In City Hall’s Department of Family and Support Services, the relatively small band of employees receive supervision from no less than one commissioner, 14 deputy commissioners, 4 assistant commissioners, 6 assistants to the commissioner and 17 others with the word “director” in their titles.
The Chicago Federation of Labor's consultants, Public Works LLC of West Chester, Pa., say that the Emanuel administration should closely examine the overall proportion of workers to managers, and they point to the organizational structure of three departments, including Family and Support Services, as examples of the problem.
“Fewer workers are actually doing the work and an excessive number of supervisors and managers are overseeing the work,” the consultants contend in the report. “We don’t need to be firing any more of the people actually doing the work — we need to get rid of the excessive number of people watching them do it.”
View full article here
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There appear to be some solid items in the report, which was prepared by an outside consultant retained by unions. The report appears to be the most solid when it asserts that $40 million - or 10% - could be saved by interjecting competition into pieces of city work that now are privatized, often in no-bid contracts. Another $37.5 million could be saved by reducing by 1 the ratio of city supervisors to workers across city government, the report says. I haven't checked the details on this, but I find the general argument very credible.
The report was prepared by Public Works LLC, a budget and policy research firm. Officials declined to say how much it was paid.
View full article here
