| B.E.E.F. Contracts with JHU to Review Performance-Based Strategies Used in Local Governments |
he Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies is conducting a study that will examine the strategies that other U.S. cities have undertaken to introduce competition into government operations. B.E.E.F. contracted with the Institute to do the study that is being directed by Institute Senior Fellow Marsha Schachtel, Ph.D. The final report is expected to be available in August, 2000.
In recent years, business leaders, state legislators and others have urged Baltimore City government to employ performance-based strategies as the private sector has done to help reduce operating costs. The recent business trend of contracting out work not truly a part of the organization's "core competencies" has spawned a new entrepreneurial climate in the U.S. However, local government has often been reluctant to join the trend. ("Performance-based strategies" is the term that researchers have most recently adopted to replace earlier nomenclature such as "competitive re-engineering" and "privatization.")
There is anecdotal information available to City officials on the successes and failures of performance-based strategies used in such U.S. cities as Indianapolis and Philadelphia, but much of it comes with an overlay of partisan perspectives. The JHU report is expected to provide important and non-partisan concrete data that will help City officials determine whether and how and where the strategies can be implemented in Baltimore.
The JHU/BEEF study was conceived, in part, to support the Greater Baltimore Committee-Presidents' Roundtable volunteers who are taking part in management studies of key city agencies. The GBC had expressed interest in having documented research from other municipalities available to supplement the volunteers' observations of where economies could be achieved.
The JHU study will identify U.S. cities where competitive strategies have been examined and implemented. Researchers will look at the agencies or services in these cities which are utilizing competitive strategies most successfully, the conditions for success, and the savings that were achieved. They will also look at the agencies or services where competition was considered but not implemented or where difficulties in implementation or disappointment with results were encountered, and clarify the reasons why competition was rejected or discontinued.
In addition, researchers will explore the methods used to incorporate city employees and unions into the decision making process and will review successful and unsuccessful strategies for inclusion during competition planning and transition periods. They will ascertain the number of employees laid off and what percentage of the total workforce they were, and finally, what happened to the affected employees.
Finally, based on the experience of other cities and the analysis of outcomes, the study will suggest the considerations and methods that Baltimore City government should employ to determine whether introducing competition into particular City agencies and functions will be successful. It will also identify the necessary conditions for maximizing the possibility of success.
The City is and will remain under some pressure to continue its utilization of competitive performance strategies. In 1998, State Delegate Sandy Rosenberg fired a warning shot at the Schmoke Administration when he introduced HB 1046. Had it passed, the State would have been authorized to withhold a significant portion of the annual disparity grant to the City if the City did not implement a satisfactory competitive re-engineering program. Rosenberg withdrew the legislation when Mayor Schmoke agreed to create what became known as the "Millennium Project," chaired by Vera Hall and charged with establishing a serious competitive re-engineering program.
The Millennium Project's September, 1999 report gave a favorable account of the savings that could be realized in the delivery of five targeted government services -- worker's compensation, solid waste services, fleet management, building utilization and maintenance and agency personnel operations. Implementation and follow-up action, and the new Administration's proposed handling of the effort, are pending.
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