The Petal Board of Aldermen has voted to begin contract negotiations with ClearWater Solutions of Auburn, Alabama, regarding privatization of the city’s Public Works Department, which could see that company come in to assume the duties of that department.
That decision was made at the August 16 board meeting, when Mayor Tony Ducker said the city is “probably 80-90 percent down the road” on privatization with that company. The city took a similar measure several years back, when it privatized its trash pickup through Waste Pro, which currently handles that service.
“It’s not a done deal yet, but at the same time we’re going to enter contract talks with (ClearWater) and set up a framework,” Ducker said. “We’ll task our attorney and a few of the aldermen to put something together that’ll be acceptable to both parties.
“Obviously, we want to put enough hooks and enough off-ramps for us, that if it’s something that we don’t think is working, we want to be able to pull out of it and go a different direction. This is the legal side of things; what you hope is that the job is getting done, and you don’t ever have to pull the contract out to say, ‘hey, you’re not living up to what you said you were going to do.’”
The issue of privatizing the Public Works Department has been discussed for approximately a year, when city officials said one of the benefits of privatization is that it would take some of the pressure off the city as far as health insurance rates.
“Our (Public Employees Retirement System), we pay 17.4 percent on that, which kind of hurts us,” Ducker said in a previous story. “And we’ve noticed over the last year or so that we’re losing people that are going into construction and other jobs that are just able to pay more.
“So the privatization could be a good thing for some of the employees, because they would get a pay increase. It’s tough when you’re paying folks $15 and $16 and hour, and other municipalities and private entities are paying $19 to $22 an hour.”
As far as how billing would be handled if an outside company took over the Public Works Department, it is likely the city would continue that measure as it does now. Current employees of the department would get first dibs on jobs with a new company, if privatization were to happen.
“This isn’t something that should cost anybody employment, and there would be a few positions that (the city) would need to retain as well,” Ducker said. “Although we’re not an employment agency – my main focus isn’t to make sure everybody in town has a job – you do care about these folks that have done so much for us.
“I think from that standpoint, you look at it a little deeper, and you say …. they can hire our folks, and we can get more resources. Then they get better equipped to do their jobs, and the private sector would bring more resources to bear when it’s all said and done. But (our employees) will be a part of this process.”
Ducker said the city also would keep its equipment, which would allow officials to go in another direction if things don’t work out with ClearWater Solutions. The contract would obligate a company to Public Works Department duties for five years.
“We’ve got a little bit of experience when we privatized our sanitation in 2013, so it helps us a little bit from the contract side and what we’ve got to get done,” Ducker said. “This is different from the sanitation … because (with that) we were going in and trying to save money, so you farm out one of your headaches, one of your inefficiencies, and put it with a private company.
“This isn’t a situation where we’re trying to save money; we’re just trying to get more done with the money we do spend, and private companies a lot of times are a little more efficient than we are.”
So far, officials have determined the contract with ClearWater would run approximately $1.4 million, but that figure doesn’t tell the whole story.
“Obviously, they would take over operation of our vehicles and our equipment, so they would be paying oil, maintenance, things of that nature,” he said. “They would do some repairs, and then things do step out of that number.
“And any capital projects – (American Rescue Plan Act) funds – that’s basically spent outside of that as well.”
