Amazing!

[cowman]

In Red Deer county the powers that be are very proud to trumpet the fact that "alternative services"(read that as private contracting out) have saved the county over $7.5 million dollars in the 5 years it has been done. Phase #1 of a four part plan was implemented.
I recently asked my councillor when phase #2 was going to begin? Through a lot of BS the answer came through as basically NEVER! No real reasons given other than some generalities!
Phase #1 was public works and utilities and she went on to tell me how successful that was! Phase #2 was supposed to be assessment and Agricultural services. She claimed private assessors were almost impossible to find in Alberta...thus the reason for keeping it public. Had no real reason for agriculture services not being privatized! She tried to BS me the AG fieldman was not receptive to dealing with a contractor...but that really didn't wash...as he had been in private business before and had a very successful relationship with his private contractors! I have dealt with him the past on many private contracts and I know he has no problem with it...in fact welcomes it! Now without a doubt I would be very interested in contracting this service, so am not just a neutral observer here!
I suspect the real reasons behind the whole "alternative services" thing is this: First county council needed something to divert attention from the fact the county CEO had embezzled $3 million dollars, and nobody was minding the store! Second county council didn't want to deal with a newly formed union in public works! Third, "alternative services" has been a fiscal disaster with council cooking the books to make it look good! And fourth, not being able to admit they made a huge mistake and screwed up without looking like total incompetent fools!
Sooner or later the chickens will come home to roost? You can't fool the people for ever?

[cowman]

Trust me, contracting Agricultural Services costs considerably more in the long run. As you know, contractors are out to make a buck vs breaking even. Red Deer County is blowing their horn on the savings, but as you say, who has had a close look at the books !!!

[cowman]

Well I would question that? In reality the Agricultural services are pretty inefficient and the beurocratic drag is pricey?
A quick example: seeding costs for Red Deer County average close to $180 acre! They use a system that is not only incredibly expensive but really doesn't work all that well, especially in dry weather(a hydro seeder). It does not do a better job than a broadcast system and harrows, but the people who promoted the system now have a hard time admitting they screwed up by buying the $100,000 plus machine!
I would also say the inability of their staff to work flexible hours and days is very inefficient? Pretty hard to get much spraying done when you start at 8AM and the wind is howling by 10AM? Or on a nice calm day they shut down at 3PM! Then watch the custom sprayers at work...when that sun cracks the horizen they are at the job site getting it done! When the sun goes down they are still hard at it! Top that off with the counties incredibly complex state of the art equipment, that is broke down half the time and no one to fix it, and you have a pretty poor system?
The truth is a private contractor could do a better job at a lower cost...and I believe that goes for practically any government service? The public system is not built on any incentive system and that is the problem. It leads to ineffective management of time, labor and resources? You actually need a profit incentive for real efficiency.

[cowman]

Oh, one other thing. The counties actually do not pay their summer staff very well? End result is they get untrained people who don't know what they are doing? Very few counties can afford to pay licensed industrial sprayers? Ballpark, they pay their spray crew around $15-$16.50/hr. The going rate for a licensed industrial sprayer was in that $19.50 to $21/hr. last year!

[cowman]

If they aren't ensuring that working flexible hours are part of the job description then that is unique to RD County. Many municipalities will have spraying crews out at the crack of dawn on a day without wind regardless of what day of the week it is.
An Ag Department is only as efficient as the budget it has in the hands of the people within the department.
Some of the junior staff in municipal ag departments are doing a great job, while others just don't understand the intent of ASB's,programs etc.

I have worked with numerous Ag Fieldmen and ASB's over the years and there are sone excellent ones out there. The MD of Rockyview has one of the top Ag Fieldmen in the province, Stettler County isn't far behind so there are some very efficiently run ag programs around. Maybe you need to suggest that your county network with some of the others around the region to see how they run these programs efficiently.

[cowman]

emerald: Because Red Deer County has no other employees starting early, it is actually a violation of the "working alone policy" that they have in place? Before privatization they had other employees out earlier?
Walt Saar over in Stettler is quite a character! You might be interested in knowing he has curtailed his public "spraying service" in the last year and now relies on the private sector for some of the things his employees used to do? The times are a changing?