County supervisors are slated to decide Tuesday whether to ask voters in November to approve changes to the county charter and allow more county jobs to be outsourced to private companies.
The proposed ballot measure, requested by Supervisor John Moorlach, would change the county’s charter to allow the county to privatize more county work than currently is permitted.
Moorlach’s staff report doesn’t identify positions that could be outsourced.
The effort is likely to spark objections from county employee representatives, along with support from conservative groups.
Proponents argue outsourcing saves taxpayer dollars on salaries and benefits and spawns more innovative ways to provide services through the profit incentive.
Opponents counter that privatization often ends up costing taxpayers more and delivers lower quality services, with lucrative deals and poor oversight of companies that finance elected officials’ political campaigns.
The supervisors’ potential ballot measure comes as Costa Mesa’s city council majority continues to fight a years-long lawsuit challenging their efforts to outsource most of the work done by the city’s general employees.
The county measure is scheduled for discussion toward the end of Tuesday’s meeting, which starts at 9:30 a.m. Click here for Moorlach’s staff report on the proposal.
You can reach Nick Gerda at ngerda@gmail.com, and follow him on Twitter: @nicholasgerda and on Facebook.