City's War on Workers

Mark Twain once said of life’s injustices, “No good deed goes unpunished.” That came to mind when I learned of Carlsbad’s plan to outsource jobs of city workers who sacrificed pay and benefits over the last several years to help the city survive the Great Recession. Carlsbad not only survived, it prospered on the backs of those worker bees.

The city council voted Tuesday night to seek bids from contractors to outsource all parks maintenance services. A consulting firm was paid $102,000 for a report claiming contractors could save the city $1.7 to $3.68 million each year.

What’s wrong with this picture? Ninety-six percent of city residents rate parks maintenance “good” or “excellent.” But city officials are now ready to risk that level of citizen satisfaction by replacing those responsible for it with lower-paid workers hired to enhance the profitability of a private contractor.

The consultants compared Carlsbad’s yearly parks maintenance cost per-acre, half of which is currently contracted out, with that of three regional cities that outsource all landscaping services. Only one, at $5,464 per acre, was lower than Carlsbad’s $6,572. The other two spent $10,353 and $10,104.Unable to justify privatizing on a cost per-acre basis, the consultants turned to the average salary of a current city worker compared to that of a private sector worker doing similar work.

The average salary of Carlsbad’s thirty-four full-time Maintenance II workers is listed at $45,243, amounting to $22 an hour. But averages of small numbers can be misleading. The salary of the 26-year Carlsbad city employee pictured mowing the grass in a July 17 NCT article, together with others of similar experience, could drive up the group average substantially. Entry level pay is $39,193, or $19 an hour.

The average pay of a private sector employee with ten years experience is listed at $32,567, or $16 an hour. That’s based on surveys of regional salaries by national organizations. The consultants combined average salaries of workers with the job titles “gardener” and “groundskeeper.”

Averages of small group numbers with large variances is fuzzy math. But combining averages of averages to compare to another average amounts to math malpractice.

Although a private contractor can no doubt hire cheaper labor, the consultants don’t explain how Carlsbad’s “overpaid” city workers are able to deliver the same service at about half the price of contractors in two out of three cities in its regional peer group.

The larger question is why is it urgent to cut costs now, with the city sitting on a $53 million and growing budget surplus? Considering the devastating impact on the lives of the four dozen loyal workers who have provided remarkably good service, why risk the city’s natural beauty by entrusting its care to a private contractor chasing a buck?

As one city worker told me, “Comparisons between our employees and outside contractors never, ever have taken into consideration the importance of the small things we experience every day, seeing the same faces, the “good mornings,” listening to their concerns, etc. We’re there every day to make Carlsbad as fine a place as you’d want. You would never get that from a contractor who, if you’re lucky, comes once a week.”

The council vote to seek bids from contractors was unanimous, but Councilman Keith Blackburn’s vote was the most reluctant. After describing the value of city workers in words like those above, Blackburn agreed to call for bids but declared the cost savings would have to be “huge” to get his vote to approve an outsourcing contract.

What it comes down to is that city officials need to include opportunity costs in their analysis of outsourcing. Do potential benefits outweigh the risks of less attractive parks, downtown and beaches and the morale of city workers who’ve earned high praise from those they serve but are told by their bosses their jobs are expendable?

Why Should Carlsbad Outsource Jobs?

For San Diego's North County Times

A year ago we learned that Carlsbad is considering outsourcing city services, but to this date we haven't been told why.

At a July 2011 workshop, City Council members heard a presentation by Tom Guilfoy, the Director of Competition in Carrollton, Texas ("City to explore some outsourcing of government work," North County Times, July 19, 2011). He told the council his city saved at least $25 million over nine years under its Managed Competition plan.

Liking what they heard, the council directed City Manager Lisa Hildabrand to conduct an internal review to see whether outsourcing could make city government more businesslike.

But a closer look at why and how the Texas town adopted outsourcing suggests Carlsbad's city leaders may have found a solution in search of a problem.

In an April interview with the Reason Foundation, Carrollton City Manager Leonard Martin explained he was hired in 2001 to help the city close a $2.5 million budget deficit. He created the position of Director of Competition, hiring Guilfoy from the private sector. Guilfoy introduced Managed Competition for all city services, requiring each to prove it could deliver "cheaper, better, faster and friendlier service" than private businesses contracted to do the work.

The first objective listed under Carrollton's 2002 goal to transform the city's culture into a competitive service business was to "achieve high citizen satisfaction with services and organizational values."

When I asked Guilfoy a week ago whether he could produce evidence the objective had been met, he told me Carrollton, unlike Carlsbad, doesn't do citizen satisfaction surveys. "We know intuitively that they like the results," he explained, adding, "Citizens everywhere want better quality services at lower prices. We have delivered on that promise."

In his Reason Foundation interview, City Manager Martin was asked whether residents were happy with the city's changed business practices. "We know residents are pleased with what's happening," he explained, "because there's no political turmoil."

For city officials who take such pride in running their city like a business, it's hard to understand why they have no interest in customer feedback, especially after investing so much in the program's administration.

Carrollton may no longer be running a deficit, but the city's financial condition, as posted on its website, is nothing to crow about. While Carlsbad's growing general fund balance is projected to be over $53 million this year, 47 percent of its spending plan, Carrollton projects a $2 million decline in its general fund balance over the past three years to $12.6 million, a mere 16 percent of its budget.

So the question remains: Why would Carlsbad, with its enviable record of fiscal responsibility and customer satisfaction, want to emulate a business model forced on a Texas town as life-support for its failing city budget?

What Romney's education plan is not

News of the latest California school rankings is about as exciting as a San Diego weather report. Student family income continues to be the best predictor of a school's success, and North Countians are reassured that their schools, like Lake Wobegon's kids, are mostly above average.

Each school gets two scores, ranked on a scale from 1 to 10, from the bottom 10 percent of other schools to the top 10  percent. The first compares the school with all other state schools. The second compares schools with similar student characteristics.

Take San Marcos and Mission Hills high schools, for example. Both rank above 90 percent of all California schools, and both rise to the top 10 percent of schools with similar student

characteristics. Forty-five percent of their combined enrollments are from low-income families.

By comparison, just 18 percent of Escondido's Classical Academy High charter school students come from low-income homes. The school's overall 90th percentile rank equals that of the two San Marcos schools, but it falls to the 40th percentile when compared with  schools that have similar student characteristics.

What does a comparison of two traditional public schools with a school of choice suggest about the future of school reform?

Those who favor school choice say competition in an open educational marketplace will lead to better schools. Mitt Romney joined that chorus after competing in primary campaign debates where candidates were cheered for vowing to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.

The title of his plan, "A Chance for Every Child," is a rhetorical retreat from the promise of "No Child Left Behind." It surrenders the responsibility of public schools to help all students succeed. The only "chance" children get under his plan is the opportunity for their parents to go shopping for schools.

Romney pledges to divert the $25 billion in federal funds now going to schools for low-income and special-needs students to go directly to the families of these students to allow them to enroll in any school of their choice, public, private or charter. He calls it "A Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education." But it's designed primarily for those parents who have the knowledge, time and financial ability to find schools and transport their kids to them.

The promise of American education has always been to provide publicly supported, high-quality neighborhood schools for all ---- not a free market of schools of varying quality that survive only on their ability to attract and retain paying customers.

Look to the two San Marcos high schools to see how it's done.

Envision An Aging City

For San Diego's North County Times

When they rolled out their 2012-13 preliminary operating budget two weeks ago Carlsbad city officials were singing "Happy Days Are Here Again." But not everyone joined in the chorus.

A parade of disgruntled residents reprimanded the city council at its June 5 meeting for the city's failure to invest in more open space. And now members of the planning commission join hotel industry experts in suggesting the city might soon be overbuilt with hotel rooms.

One land use issue that didn't make the headlines can be found in a report on the city's changing demographics by Community and Economic Development Director Gary Barberio.

Barberio pointed to forecasts showing the addition of 20,000 Carlsbadians by 2040, a 20 percent increase. But the number of 35 to 64 year-olds, who now make up nearly half of city residents, is expected to shrink to little more than a third of the population.

While the share of Carlsbad's Generation X gets smaller, the number of Millennials between the ages of 20 and 34, is expected to grow by 20 percent. Baby Boomers from 65 to 80 will rise by a whopping 124 percent.

Barberio left out the fastest growing group of all, which I'll dub the Older and Wiser, those in their 80s and older. That group will grow by 157 percent. The bottom line? If the forecast proves accurate, one in four Carlsbadians will be 65 and older by 2040.

If SANDAG planners are right, there's little doubt the city's population will be substantially older than today's. The number of residents 19 years old and younger will grow by a measly 4 percent over the next 30 years.

The city's Envision Carlsbad project is currently reviewing land use options that take into account the city's changing demographics. Barberio says Generation X typically buy detached homes. But Millennials and Baby Boomers, on the other hand, are more likely to buy multi-family units, condos and townhouses. Boomers look to downsize by moving to more centrally located living units in walkable locations closer to services. Millennials marry later in life, if at all, and have fewer children.

Barberio points out these changes will substantially affect the housing, commercial and industrial sectors of the city. He says it will create the need for "greater land use flexibility in the future." That raises more questions than answers, but it shows the importance of addressing these issues in the Envision Carlsbad project.

The city has done a great job of citizen involvement in the planning. But the question remains: will today's residents, composed predominantly of Generation X, have the foresight to create a plan for what they'll want their city to look like when they become members of the Older and Wiser generation?

Time for hybrid model schools?

From San Diego's North County Times

No Child Left Behind and the rise of charter schools have been the primary drivers of school reform in the last decade. But while NCLB promised school accountability, it got it by labeling students and schools successes or failures based on test scores alone. It failed the promise implied by its title, to close the learning gap separating students by income and ethnicity.

California’s charter schools, on the other hand, freed of state bureaucracy and teachers unions, were meant to help left-behind students bloom by using innovative methods traditional schools could adopt. But with a few exceptions, North County charters have served mostly as havens for families not quite wealthy enough to afford private schools. Home schooling is a feature of the largest of them, a popular choice for those who’ve lost faith in traditional schools. Low income and single-parent families are left behind when parents are required to take the place of trained professionals.

Hard times are now delivering punishing blows to schools simply trying to survive as they are. The talk in Carlsbad is about how many days to furlough teachers to save money, shortchanging students in the bargain. If voters don’t approve a tax increase in November things will only get worse. And if that happens, the survival of schools may depend more on transformation than reformation.

Technology has transformed the business world, producing vastly improved customer service. Yet schools are still run like Henry Ford’s assembly line. Students are expected to move along at the same rate, learning the same things in the same way, with periodic quality assessments that don’t impede their progress.

The Capistrano Connections Academy in San Clemente gives us a glimpse of how technology can transform education. It delivers its classes online rather than in classrooms. A tuition-free, accredited public charter school authorized by the Capistrano School District, it enrolls more than 1,000 students from its surrounding counties, including San Diego. Teachers are professionally certified, and the school meets California’s academic achievement and accountability requirements. Its impressive array of technology, available to teachers, students and parents, allows for a highly customized delivery of course content and ongoing measurable student progress.

Unfortunately, the Academy’s student test scores are not especially impressive. Its 2011 Academic Performance Index (API) stands at 779, down 15 points from its 2010 results, so online education alone may not be the answer. But maybe it’s time for a hybrid model, involving online instruction for certain courses and allowing teachers to do what they do best—work with small groups of students to facilitate learning in teams. It won’t be cheaper, but if schools produce better results voters may be more willing to support them.

Comeback Kids Should be Cheered, not Feared

From San Diego's North County Times

Americans have loved the underdog ever since a ragtag bunch of patriots whipped a king's army. But a darker side of our history reveals how often we label individuals who don't fit the norm; creating the very obstacles to success we praise them for overcoming.

Newspaper opinionators can do a lot to expose the damage done by stereotyping.

That's why it was disappointing to read local columnist Thomas Arnold's take on Carlsbad Village Academy students, ("Decision jeopardizes student safety," May 2).

Budget cuts have forced the closure of the CVA campus next year, requiring its students to move to Carlsbad High. That spurred Arnold to suggest CHS student safety will be at risk from those who "couldn't cut it in regular school because they got pregnant, were expelled, or have behavioral problems."

After quoting a Carlsbad High student who's afraid his new classmates might establish a "turf" and "start fights," Arnold concludes, "I'd be every bit as alarmed as this 10th-grader is."

That sounded like stereotyping to me, so I took a closer look at the school designed for students who fall behind. The main difference I found between CVA and CHS students is that more of them are English learners, Latino and economically disadvantaged.

Arnold may be surprised by what else I learned about the school from Suzanne O'Connell, the district's assistant superintendent for instructional services and CVA Principal Keith Holley's recent report to the school board.

O'Connell assured me students are not banished to the CVA for misbehavior. They enter the school voluntarily, most often in the 10th grade, to recover credits after falling behind their classmates in local middle schools. Their behavioral problems are no different from those of their peers at CHS. Arnold's young friend can rest assured the school's not a dumping ground for expelled gang bangers. He has nothing to fear from the return of his middle school classmates.

Carlsbad Village Academy is proud of its academic achievements, including a 98 percent graduation rate, a 100 percent passing rate on the High School Exit Exam, and an 86 point increase last year in its Academic Performance Index. Latino students and English learners led the way. Eleven percent of CVA students recover enough credits to return to regular classes at CHS at midyear.

O'Connell told me that planning has not yet begun on the details for transforming CVA into a school-within-a-school on the CHS campus next year. The objective is to provide a wider, college prep curriculum for CVA students, while retaining the individual support and fast-track class scheduling that will help them catch up with their classmates.

You'd think Carlsbad's comeback kids would be more cheered than feared.

Politics and Religion a bad mix

For San Diego's North County Times

Miss Manners tells us to avoid religion and politics in polite conversation. But the gloves are off in the letters section of this newspaper, where the link between God and government is the favorite subject of habitual letter writers. Depending on the individual's reading of the Bible and the Constitution, we live in either a Christian nation, assailed by the godless left, or a secular one, threatened by the religious right.

A local church leader weighed in on the God gap last month, writing, "We're out of our pews now, and we're coming in love to you at the polls ... to propose for conversion to God and peace in the heart." His name and denomination are not important. An Internet search of his homilies reveals the pastor's path from the pews to the polls.

Here's a sample of direct quotes taken from sermons he gave a month after the 2008 presidential election and a month before the midterms two years later: "Socialism is our god, and Obama is his prophet ... Jesus came to save us from abortion, homosexual lust, socialism, liberalism. ... We can establish the Kingdom of God here in the U.S. and still respect our Constitution. ... That means we exclude abortion, exclude gender confusion, exclude some people from marrying because they don't want to marry someone of the opposite gender ... and if we're the majority we have the right to do so, and we say no, the minority doesn't have the right to impose itself upon us."

During my entire Catholic education, from elementary school through college, I'd never heard of Jesus' plan to save us from turning gay, liberal or socialist, or that majority rule trumps minority rights.

In a recently published essay, "God and Caesar in America," based on their 2010 book, "American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us," a couple of university professors explained why mixing religion and politics is bad for both.

David E. Campbell of the University of Notre Dame, and Harvard professor Robert D. Putnam tracked the changing religious and political views of separate age groups from 2006 to 2011. They found "religion" to those in their 20s "means, 'Republican,' 'intolerant,' and 'homophobic.' Since those traits do not represent their views, they do not see themselves ---- or wish to be seen by their peers ---- as religious."

The researchers concluded, "All sides ---- progressive and conservative, religious and secular ---- should be concerned that placing a partisan label on religion has hurt the ability of religious leaders to summon moral arguments on behalf of causes that transcend left and right."

Before the pastor and his flock head to the polls, maybe they should think about what they're leaving behind in the pews.