To the editor,
Privatization is not the way to go for financial budget control. It can increase costs for our borough, give up control and decrease the quality of service.
Contractors add tremendously to their cost estimates versus public sector cost estimates. Contractors need to have a guarantee profit over and above their real actual costs (direct cost plus indirect cost plus overhead and profit) and change order cost would be more expensive.
The contracting process is an overburden to the local public agency department with related indirect costs of preparing specs, advertising, processing bids, continued monitoring, inspecting and change orders. All this can add 30 percent plus to the price of a contract and the contract has to be ultra-detailed or the city will pay for it.
Poor service decline due to privatizing.
Borough has no real experience staff to continually and properly oversee contracts for which would result in cost overruns, schedules missed with many attached compounded mistakes made. The city can be taken advantage of by contractors and an invite to mass corruption of billings and rigged scales, a disaster in the waiting.
Money going out of the community due to privatizing.
There will be an added “tax” or a quarterly fee for Naugatuck residents to pay for probably around $95 to $125. That will be a fact no matter what the politicians say to the residents.
I am a retired construction manager with over 25 years total experience in the public sector as well as the private sector and know contracting. Privatization of the borough trash pick-up is a bad idea for us the citizens of Naugatuck, respectfully my opinion.
We don’t even have a full-time blight official, and we don’t need additional quarterly bills and an increase in our taxes again all due to privatization for which undoubtedly will happen, don’t be misled.
Being an idealist is not practical. Please no more idealists, we have one in the Oval Office and besides I like my garbage (refuse) department, they do a tremendous job. Fifty-two percent of USA municipality governments surveyed tried privatization with no success and with insufficient cost savings and returned to in-house public service.
Emidio C. Cerasale
Naugatuck
