Privatization of governmental programs has provided more effective and lower cost alternatives in services such as garbage collection, health care and prisons. The latest government program to turn to the private sector for better service at a lower cost is public libraries. Here in Tennessee, Germantown has followed such a strategy as reported in the Germantown News Online.
“The County, faced with severe money problems dating back several years, has decided to phase out its annual $5.6 million contribution to the Public Library and Information Center. In response, Germantown hired Library Systems and Services (LSSI), a Maryland-based firm, to run the branch at Farmington and Exeter….Germantown officials determined that hiring LSSI – which will cost about $1.1 million annually ($1.3 million for overall library operations as a City department) – would be cheaper than paying $1.5 million per year to stay in the county system. Also, services will be increased – including new Sunday hours, an expanded collection and a closer relationship with local schools. In contrast, the County was planning to reduce services.”
Having been part of the wave of privatization in public health care in a past venture, I can say that some of these initiatives only take things half way or do not pursue these strategies with pure intentions.
In some cases, they keep large bureaucracies in place to “oversee” the private firms they contact with. This tends to minimize the cost reduction that could be created and constrain innovation. I have seen some privatization efforts clearly be set up to fail by disgruntled governmental employees who set up a system of oppressive micro-management.
Some privatization initiatives merely take the inefficient and ineffective systems already in place and make them a private entity. In addition to the obvious “feathering of nests” by contracting with former governmental employees, no real innovative changes will likely take place to save money or improve service.
The initiative in Germantown appears to be one that is not falling into these traps. While they do have oversight (which any contract should have), it looks to be of a reasonable scale. They are also letting the private firm improve services and use their existing systems.
Thanks to Ben Cunningham for passing this article along.
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