Headlines
1. Conn. AG: State botched $80M deal on workers’ comp claims
2. Public libraries find outside management
3. Governor Privatize
4. New rules urged for Arizona private prisons
5. Milwaukee county sheriff blasts bus security firm
6. Columbus editorial: The right recipe: privatizing city schools’ food service
7. New Haven city school food service company face allegations

New Summaries
1. Conn. AG: State botched $80M deal on workers’ comp claims
High-ranking state officials and a private consulting firm made questionable and ill-informed decisions that led to an overpriced $80 million deal involving state employees’ worker compensation claims, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Thursday, reports TheDay.com. In 2001, officials with the Department of Administrative Services completed the deal with ACE Financial Solutions, which agreed to assume up to $150 million in potential liability from 660 workers’ compensation claims.The state, by privatizing the handling of the claims, reduced the number of workers’ compensation cases it was handling and saved $13.5 million in both 2002 and 2003. But a private consultant’s analysis that resulted in the $80 million figure was seriously flawed, Blumenthal said, leading him to assume that the state overpaid ACE and wasted taxpayers’ money. Much of the analysis was done by unqualified college students, he said. “The state should have paid and could have paid less money to resolve these workers’ compensation claims,” Blumenthal said. "Privatization spawned inefficiency, incompetence and increased costs,” Blumenthal said. “We must reform conditions — lack of funding and procedures — that led to this bungled deal.”

2. Public libraries find outside management
The American City and County examines how cost concerns have lead local governments to outsource management of libraries. "In recent years, many public libraries have faced the threat of closing or reducing services as the local governments that run them tighten their budgets. The difficulties have led some cities and counties to consider turning over their public libraries to private management companies.

3. Governor Privatize
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is the foremost advocate of privatizing — even at his political peril, reports Governing.com. "Nevertheless, Daniels remains the most ambitious privatizer of any governor currently in office, turning over to outside entities not just control of a major cross-state highway but prisons, hospitals and welfare case management. Like most privatizers, Daniels doesn’t like the term, but his pursuit of the idea led the New York Times last summer to dub him ‘Governor Privatize.’"

4. New rules urged for Arizona private prisons
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano wants to tighten up rules for the state’s growing private-prison industry, which is virtually unregulated by the state, reports The Arizona Republic. A legislative proposal drafted by the Governor’s Office and introduced by Republican Sen. Robert Blendu of Litchfield Park would bar private prisons from importing murderers, rapists and some other dangerous or seriously ill felons to Arizona. It would also require the companies to share security and inmate information with state officials.

5. Milwaukee county sheriff blasts bus security firm
Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on Thursday blasted the private security firm hired to guard local buses, questioning whether the $1.1 million annual cost was worth it, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Wackenhut Corp., an international company headquartered in Florida, has provided security for Milwaukee County Transit System buses since 1993. Clarke said in a letter to the County Board that the company had "top-heavy administration that leads to fewer people actually performing a security function."

6. Columbus editorial: The right recipe
An editorial in The Columbus Dispatch says that privatizing city schools’ food service is a good idea that has languished too long. "At long last, Columbus City Schools officials are taking steps to end a needless drain on the budget. By turning over the district’s elementary-school food-service operation to private contractors, as Superintendent Gene Harris has recommended, the district could save $4.3 million per year."

7. New Haven city school food service company face allegations
Yale Daily News reports that Aramark, the food-services company formerly employed by Yale University Dining Services, is now facing allegations of mismanagement and poor food quality from cafeteria workers and custodians in New Haven Public Schools.Complaints about Aramark began in late November when a few parents expressed concern over the food quality at a school board meeting and have escalated to today’s union-led protest rally at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School in New Haven. The rally is being organized by UNITE HERE, the union for service workers at Yale. Protesters will be asking the New Haven Board of Education to terminate Aramark’s contract because they think the company puts profit before the needs of the students.

Reports
Feasibility of Outsourcing the Management and Operation of the Capitol Power Plant. GAO-08-382R, January 31, 2008
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-382R