Editorial:
In 2006, San Diego City voters passed Proposition C which gave the mayor the option of outsourcing city jobs. Since that time, while the mayor has rattled his saber in regards to outsourcing, no jobs have been outsourced. Part of the reason has been due to the pressure from city unions as they try and protect the jobs and benefits of the thousands of workers in the City of San Diego.
But this week the City Attorney, Jan Goldsmith, rendered an opinion that seemingly cleared the way for the Mayor to start the process of outsourcing classified work to private contractors. Up until this time the sticking point, which had been pushed by the employee’s unions, with Mayor Sanders and the city council affirming, has been the demand of a competitive bidding process that compared apples to apples, and if the bids received were within 10% of the cost that the city could perform the work, the city would continue to use city employees.
The city attorney’s interpretation of the law allows for the mayor to start the process of outsourcing and awarding of contracts to private firms without the benefit of a competitive bidding process from the city. Prop. C as it was passed does not dictate the competitive bidding necessity – no apples to apples. While city jobs offer living wages, health benefits, and a retirement fund, private firms are under no such obligation.
Classified employees are the rank and file employees where Hispanics and ethnic minorities dominate the payroll. These include all sorts of jobs and services provided by the city such as printers, sanitation workers, secretaries, you name the service and these people’s jobs are on the line. The two protected areas are police and firefighters. All other services are eligible to be outsourced to private contractors.
There was a time not long ago that city jobs/government jobs meant security for a family, a good living, with health benefits, where parents could raise their children, provide them with a stable home environment and live out the dream of sending their children to college so that they would not have to spend their life working as a blue collar worker, but as a professional.
City jobs were about providing economic stability within our community – an additional return on taxes we pay. But with the future of city jobs being out-sourced to the lowest bidder, dreams and opportunities along with the economic stability of our region will be dashed.
Couple the outsourcing to private contractors with the fact that the City of San Diego has an embarrassing record of contracting with minority firms, less than one percent historically, only goes to compound the problem for ethnic minorities in San Diego. At this rate San Diego will only be home to the white wealthy elite while Hispanics and Blacks toil in the shadows with the heavy burden of poverty weighing them down.
Jan Goldsmith did not interpret the proposition incorrectly; he interpreted as it was written. It was a badly written proposition that does nothing to protect the works and gives the Mayor and the city council the opportunity to take away the American dream, of a living wage, health benefits, and a retirement fund and instead reward big business and the already wealthy with yet another opportunity to get rich off of tax payers funds.
The only check and balance in this whole process lies with the city council which at its discretion can choose not to award a contract to a private company. Both the mayor and the city council, last year, have committed to the idea of a competitive bid process and to protect the city workers when possible by comparing contract offers based on merit and a level playing field. The ball is now in the city council’s hands where we will have to wait and see if they live up to their commitment and keep the American dream alive for the thousands of workers who only want provide a better life for themselves and their children.