Private vs. public argued in Newport Beach

Alicia Robinson

With discussions about Newport Beach’s 2005-06 budget and plans for a

new city hall underway, the latest buzzword in the city has been

“outsourcing.”

While debating the need for a new city hall, several residents

have suggested the city could cut costs and save space by contracting

services out to the private sector.

But city officials say the city just does some things better than

private business, and the quality of service is a high priority for

people who live here.

The City Council on Tuesday heard a presentation about how much

work the city actually outsources. Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff

said the city contracts out 16 major services, including park

maintenance and storm-drain cleaning, which is more than any other

city in Orange County.

While most cities use a combination of in-house and contract

services, the half-dozen that provide most of their own services

include Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Anaheim.

Using information from a League of California Cities consultant,

Kiff calculated that Newport Beach residents pay about $72 a year to

the city for services. Those charges are mainly in the form of sales

and property taxes, cable franchise fees, water and sewer bills and

some use fees such as those charged for building permits.

The local tax burden in Newport falls roughly in the middle of

Orange County’s 34 cities, Kiff said.

But Phil Arst, who is on the citizens’ slow-growth Greenlight

committee, argues that the city doesn’t know if money could be saved

through contracting out because it has never sought bids. He doesn’t

buy the city’s claim that it outsources plenty of services.

“Most of them are like legal opinions. Well, everyone does that,”

Arst said. “As far as something that takes huge chunks of labor, the

only thing that the city has outsourced as far as the entire function

is tree trimming.”

He claims the city’s cost to trim trees dropped from $89 a tree to

$39 when the service was hired out, and he thinks similar savings

could be realized in trash collection.

The other part of the debate is the need for a new city hall. Arst

believes the city wouldn’t have to embark on a $41.5 million plan to

build a new city hall if more services were provided by outside

firms.

Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau disagrees. Using trash

collection as an example, he said that when it comes to services,

cost isn’t always the bottom line.

“Our residents love the guys who pick up their trash, and it would

be very unpopular for me to propose that we contract out that

service,” Bludau said.

And using outside firms for services such as the planning and

building departments wouldn’t necessarily reduce the need for space,

he said.

“Contracting out doesn’t push them off-site because so many of our

employees have direct, face-to-face contact with our customers,” he

said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson@

latimes.com.