Cities outsource jobs to private companies

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga., Sept. 15 (UPI) -- Some newly incorporated U.S. cities are turning to private businesses to run city hall.

Officials in so-called contract cities said they are more flexible and cost efficient because private employees can be hired and fired with less stringent rules and the city owns fewer buildings, USA Today reported Friday.

Mayor Eva Galambos of Sandy Springs, Ga., once a summer village retreat for Atlanta residents, now the state's newest and seventh largest city, said they had hired CH2M Hill to staff all city departments except for emergency responders. She said the city has only four employees other than police and firefighters.

"We wanted to get the most efficient possible use of our tax dollars," Galambos said.

"Some governments take each department and build stovepipes and people turfs," said Rick Hirsekorn, the CH2M Hill program director at Sandy Springs. "As a privately held company, employee-owned, it behooves everyone in the company to help somebody else." Similar programs have been put into place by Weston, Fla., and Centennial, Colo., and even San Diego, Calif., is looking into the model. But the union representing most city employees says it's bad practice because it lacks accountability.