Maywood: A city that sacked its entire staff
The US city sacked all its staff to stave off bankruptcy – and its citizens think services are now better. Tom Leonard reports.
To the casual eye, nothing about Maywood looks unusual. Police cars patrol the city’s palm-tree lined streets a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles, red-shorted lifeguards watch over the public swimming pool and, inside the striking Art Deco city hall, clerks issue yard sale permits. The police cars, however, are from “out of town” and manned by deputies from the county sheriff’s department, while the lifeguards and clerks are on loan from the neighbouring city of Bell.
Maywood – working-class, respectable and 95 per cent Hispanic – has attempted something unheard of anywhere in local government. It sacked its entire workforce and staved off looming bankruptcy by outsourcing everything. More than 70 workers lost their jobs at the end of June. Others were re-employed contractually, losing key benefits. But the newly jobless may be the only people not smiling now…
H/t: Denise.
Bell ??
Isn’t that the town with the/used to have the $800k Mayor & the $500k Chief of Police ??
Californians are waking up to the great public sector union scam.
the mayor and police chief probably weren’t in the union as they would be management. Parasites of a different type. Parasites non the less.
Bell it is/was
http://biggovernment.com/sgreenhut/2010/07/30/bell-rings-in-tea-party-spirit/
can we do this in canada like say in calgary ,alberta can we oust every single politician ,mayor ,city treasurer ,so on and so forth? is that possible? Just a question.
Paul in calgary.
As I pointed out earlier today, New Jersey has realized that it cannot mathematically afford to pay out the ridiculous public sector wages, benefits, & pensions that its past politicians have stupidly agreed to.
Over the next 10 years I expect much more of this in communities & states across America. I wish it would happen here in Canada too (when necessary) but we’ve gone so far Left that I doubt it’s possible.
of course it’s possible….all it requires is the will….and a large dollop of community organizing….
oh whither the Alinsky and Ayers of the right…where the Obama of the taxpaying citoyen ?
“can we do this in canada like say in calgary”
Los Angeles County may be unusual. It is a patchwork of incorporated cities, and unincorporated areas. The unincorporated areas are policed by the Sheriff’s Dept, which you could call the County Police. The cities generally prefer to have their own city police departments, from the big LAPD to numerous small ones. Is it better to have your own or pay for the Sheriffs? Weighs upon many factors. In Maywood’s case it was good because its city police were a collection of rejects from elsewhere.
Also, the Sheriffs are good at gang control. Besides being street law enforcement, they are also the judicial police–like federal Marshals, they run court security and the jails. Beginning LA Sheriffs must spend their first one to two years on jail duty. They know all the gang bangers, their pals, their connections. They can make life in jail easy, or not so much. A free gang banger in Maywood is more likely going to “take a hint” from Sheriffs patrol officer than the Chief of the Two Bit Maywood City Police.
I could stand to see a whole bunch of this happen here in Ontario. Reduce, re-use, recycle! Not just for us proles anymore!
Oh, it can be done.
The provincial govt here fired the entire Halifax Regional School Board in 06′.
These “adults” in charge of 140 or so schools and tens of thousands of kids’ educations could not agree on who got to sit where at meetings. I #$^* you not……….
They hired one guy to take over until the next election and ya know what? No one noticed a drop in service.
I have a dream, Harper will fire the entire staff at the Snivel/Penal service and replace them with people who can do the job based on skill set and not on skin color or a French language profile.
Could start here in Winnipeg by getting rid of the school boards and the school trustees. On our property tax assessment the local school division portion is greater than the city’s.
“Maywood – working-class, respectable and 95 per cent Hispanic”
“little apparent effect on an escalating gang problem”
“The 1.5 mile square city has an estimated legal and illegal population of 50,000, making it one of America’s most densely populated areas”
Maywood is one of California’s “sanctuary cities” defying what is left of federal laws against illegal immigration. Nuff said.
Many Canadian cities (Toronto and Ottawa come to mind)have municipal budgets greater than budgets of most countries of the world.
There a “Public Disclosure List” (also known as the sunshine list) of those making 100,000$ or more from the public purse. It is available on your Provincial Government websites if anyone is interested in just how much some of these pigs are sucking out of the trough.
Sooner or later cutbacks are coming to Ontario…
with the billions wasted on solar (useless solar panels being dismantled in California and shipped here), wind bird blenders and bloated ministries (particularily in environment and natural resources), full day kindergarten funding the only possible outcome is they are about to run out of other people’s money.
Rose – Sorry my dear, you can’t have that dream .. it’s mine!
Maywood is the prime example of what happens when Latin American corruption is imported and left to run its course unchecked. I’m not going to rehash all the stories that you can all Google for. Bell is right next door to Maywood, and just as corrupt.
Here is a short list other province’s can start with. Liquor stores, license agencies, garbage collection. The instant benefits are more booze selection, easier license registration and no garbage strikes. Have a great long weekend.
Here is what is likely to happen in the U.S. in the coming years. Perhaps after the 2010 midterms, but more likely after 2012. Whether it happens or not, it *SHOULD* happen IMO.
Bankruptcy laws need to be amended and updated. A mechanism is needed for state and local governments to utilize as some manner of bankruptcy procedure. This would allow them, amongst other things, to shed or renegotiate unrealistically rich union contracts and entitlements, and place them on sound financial footing as they come out of bankruptcy. It would also need to be legally mandated that any government utilizing such a mechanism would need to fully fund all contracts, pensions, entitlements, etc. in future.
It won’t be pretty. It will be painful. But, it is necessary.
Atlantic Jim writes:
“The provincial govt here fired the entire Halifax Regional School Board in 06′.”
True, but you may have noticed that it is back, and perhaps worse than ever. In any case, the one-man board did nothing to address the overstaffing and incompetence at the Board’s central office. The board itself was something of a joke, it’s true, but not a terribly expensive one in comparison to the operation that it (and its successors) failed to oversee.
Really surprised Obama hasn’t found a pet judge to rule this action unconstitutional or something.