Headlines
LA: State Civil Service clears way for privatization, layoffs
GA: Augusta Commission votes down outsourcing HR department
NJ: County nursing homes are an endangered species in New Jersey
PA: Contract could derail liquor store privatization
WA: Mixed feelings about privatized liquor sales in Washington
MI: Flint emergency manager plans to privatize operation of city jail
NC: Billionaire privatization activists pushing ‘neovouchers’ for North Carolina
Privatized torture
LA: State Civil Service clears way for privatization, layoffs
The State Civil Service Commission cleared the way Wednesday for three state agencies to turn over some of their job functions to private contractors that will save the state about $4.3 million in costs for the fiscal year starting July 1 and result in 110 layoffs. It also gave a fourth agency, the secretary of state’s office, provisional approval to contract out security services at the State Archive and Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge, if some of the office’s budget cuts stand. First Assistant Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin said if the nine security jobs are abolished they will be turned over to a private company, saving about $271,000. “We may not have to do it,” Ardoin said. He said he wanted the panel’s approval in case the plan has to be activated. The biggest job hit will be 79 positions at the Department of Health and Hospitals where food service functions at four facilities for the aging and developmentally disabled will be turned over to Healthcare Services Group of Bensalem, Pa. Times Picayuane
GA: Augusta Commission votes down outsourcing HR department
Augusta commissioners ended months of debate Tuesday over whether to outsource most human resources functions to the global outsourcing firm Automatic Data Processing, approving 6-3 a motion to deny ADP’s contract offer…The debate over whether to outsource to ADP pitted ADP employees against city employees, with both sides spreading information about missteps the other was making. It also prompted some commissioners to consider the firm’s impact on Augusta, as it employs some 800 at a west Augusta call center. The agenda item had reappeared on commission agendas for months, but no ADP staffers appeared at Tuesday’s meeting. Augusta Chronicle
NJ: County nursing homes are an endangered species in New Jersey
County-run nursing homes in New Jersey could be headed for extinction. Four have been sold to private operators in the last 18 months…And some within the industry suspect that the remaining 16 aren’t far behind. With local government budgets shrinking, county-run nursing homes — the government’s traditional means of caring for seniors who lack money for a private facility — are steadily being privatized. New Jersey is joining a national trend: Government nursing homes are mostly a bygone institution elsewhere and represent less then 6 percent of nursing homes in the country, said Don Redfoot, an analyst with AARP. Outside the Northeast and Midwest, county homes are virtually nonexistent. In Pennsylvania, five county homes have been sold since 2010, with 32 remaining. Philadelphia Inquirer
PA: Contract could derail liquor store privatization
A new contract for union employees in liquor stores across the state could stall or even kill current efforts to remove liquor and wine sales from the hands of the state of Pennsylvania. The new contract for 3,500 employees runs through June 2015, according to Philly.com, and the union says one provision requires any private company that would buy the state stores to hire and pay union employees the same salary until the end of the contract. Westchester Patch
WA: Mixed feelings about privatized liquor sales in Washington
Privatized liquor sales in the State of Washington started Friday for the first time in decades. “Well I think it’s pretty handy,” said customevr Leo Profitt. Handy is exactly what area retailers want customer Leo Profitt to think about when he walks into the local grocery store to buy liquor. Spirits are now on shelves all across Washington….But not everyone is happy. Customer Tyler Biggers said he’s sad to see locally owned liquor stores go. “You don’t have to deal with a corporation,” said Biggers. “I don’t think they care about the customers as much as the locally owned stores.” DeLane said a lot of customers coming into the area are coming through to check out the prices and see how much they have fluctuated. KLEW TV
MI: Flint emergency manager plans to privatize operation of city jail
When the city jail reopens later this year, a private company will apparently be watching the inmates. Flint emergency manager Michael Brown confirmed his decision to privatize the operation of the city lockup today after Genesee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jamie Curtis was told Sheriff Robert Pickell was no longer in the running to handle the job. MLive.com
NC: Billionaire privatization activists pushing ‘neovouchers’ for North Carolina
North Carolina lawmakers are moving ahead with plans to establish an indirect voucher system that would help low-income children attend private or religious schools with public funds — and they are doing so with the financial support of billionaire school-privatization advocates from outside the state. The North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship Program would allow corporations to donate to nonprofits that would provide scholarships of up to $4,000 per student. In turn, the corporations would receive tax credits allowing them to divert a total of up to $40 million of their state taxes next year, and even more in the future. Facing South
Privatized torture
On Friday, a federal appellate court ruled that private military contractors allegedly complicit in torture at Abu Ghraib aren’t immune from prosecution .As everyone knows, soldiers and civilian contractors at the Abu Ghraib prison committed criminal offenses, with military officials going so far as to hide prisoners from the Red Cross. In 2004, an independent panel of civilian defense experts found that Pentagon leaders helped create the conditions that led to the scandal. “The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline,” the report said. “There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels.” Despite these findings, only low-ranking soldiers were sent to prison. New York Times