posting
03-01-2006, 11:04 AM
Public and Private delivery of public services The following process for considering public services is from a recent report by the Pacific Institute, BEYOND PRIVATIZATION: RESTRUCTURING WATER SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE (http://www.kingstonelectors.ca/article.php?id=353)
-- Kingston Electors
"allowing values and beliefs to overshadow the factual and analytical part of the decision often leads to costly outcomes that polarize and divide communities"
While values and beliefs certainly have their place in any decision about utility restructuring, allowing values and beliefs to overshadow the factual and analytical part of the decision often leads to costly outcomes that polarize and divide communities. Experience in the upper Midwest shows better-performing utilities:
• have staff in the right numbers and of the right kind
• know what assets they own and the condition of those assets
• are consistently funded at adequate levels because they use a wide range of techniques to control costs and to maintain financial credibility with their communities through continuous communication
• measure performance and provide rewards or penalties as appropriate in order to ensure that staff at all levels are encouraged to either improve the quality or reduce the cost of service
• make decisions in open processes, with transparency and public participation and periodic third-party reviews, thereby avoiding even the appearance that corruption or "private agendas" are driving the decision process, and
• if restructuring is needed, avoid a false start by identifying the symptoms and underlying causes of the problems people are facing—and discussing the full range of solutions that might be implemented— before deciding to undertake potentially controversial actions such as changing from a public to private or a private to public utility structure.
The choice of public versus private structure is important because it involves social values such as public health, affordability of essential services,
and the general approach of each community to satisfaction of basic needs. But our research shows that with respect to performance — how much or how many services get delivered per dollar of rates paid by customers — the choice of public versus private is not nearly as relevant as the bulleted points above.
-- BEYOND PRIVATIZATION: RESTRUCTURING WATER SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE, Pacific Institute, December 2005 (http://www.kingstonelectors.ca/article.php?id=353)
-- Kingston Electors
"allowing values and beliefs to overshadow the factual and analytical part of the decision often leads to costly outcomes that polarize and divide communities"
While values and beliefs certainly have their place in any decision about utility restructuring, allowing values and beliefs to overshadow the factual and analytical part of the decision often leads to costly outcomes that polarize and divide communities. Experience in the upper Midwest shows better-performing utilities:
• have staff in the right numbers and of the right kind
• know what assets they own and the condition of those assets
• are consistently funded at adequate levels because they use a wide range of techniques to control costs and to maintain financial credibility with their communities through continuous communication
• measure performance and provide rewards or penalties as appropriate in order to ensure that staff at all levels are encouraged to either improve the quality or reduce the cost of service
• make decisions in open processes, with transparency and public participation and periodic third-party reviews, thereby avoiding even the appearance that corruption or "private agendas" are driving the decision process, and
• if restructuring is needed, avoid a false start by identifying the symptoms and underlying causes of the problems people are facing—and discussing the full range of solutions that might be implemented— before deciding to undertake potentially controversial actions such as changing from a public to private or a private to public utility structure.
The choice of public versus private structure is important because it involves social values such as public health, affordability of essential services,
and the general approach of each community to satisfaction of basic needs. But our research shows that with respect to performance — how much or how many services get delivered per dollar of rates paid by customers — the choice of public versus private is not nearly as relevant as the bulleted points above.
-- BEYOND PRIVATIZATION: RESTRUCTURING WATER SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE, Pacific Institute, December 2005 (http://www.kingstonelectors.ca/article.php?id=353)