Sandy Clark, CGCS said: Smaller government doesn't mean smaller police or fire departments. Yes, the reporting is now up to over 1600 acres which makes it even more amazing no structures caught fire. I have always said give the firefighters and police the upper end of anything we can provide. The nature of their job certainly earns that benefit and respect! On the other hand Mel, Librarians retiring at over $200,000 a year seems a bit inflated for the job they perform! Priorities matter!
I can agree with that, I think part of the problem is pay scales can get so out of wack, especially when there are few jobs to compare in the private vs. public sector. And it works both ways, I know I don't make anywhere near the average as the private sector, but I do know my benefits are good, I have a pension plus social security, and job security is pretty great. I can't complan too much.
Of course people will say to be more like a business, but some things governments do are kind of hard to relate to being like a business, especially when its service/safety related, plus when we want full account of our tax dollars it creates that layer of redundancy that drives up costs.
I do think some government services have been getting outsourced more, I know for an example, we have had tree pruning services in the neighborhood for the last month clearing out limbs near the power lines. No telling what the cost might have been if they had all been city utility workers, of course they wouldn't have a big enough crew to get it done in a timely manner anyway.
Mel