Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Can't find one in the private sector...

Because we need to add one more person to the PERS rolls...

The City of Portland Announces an OPEN Recruitment for: Auto Body Restorer
Approximate Monthly Salary Range: $3,799 at entry - $4,127 after six months

The Auto Body Restorer is responsible for restoring or modifying all types of vehicles and heavy equipment operated by the City, including performing straightening and aligning, and restorative repairs.

Many companies have a fleet of vans. Almost none of these companies have their own auto body restorers. Why not? Because it's cheaper to get an account with a local auto body shop and get a discounted rate for using them exclusively. That way, you don't add another employee to the rolls who will get benefits.

Portland has a large fleet of vehicles and the local businesses would love to have a chance to bid on a contract to be the shop to fix them. But since government doesn't have to worry about making smart decisions with money and since governments main job is to grow itself, it insists on keeping everything in-house.

Heck, why not just manufacture the automobiles yourself Portland?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This really ought to be used in the fight against the City I-tax. The liberal tax supporters need to see this kind of mis-use of $$$$.

rickyragg said...

In reading the "recruitment document" I see, under "To Qualify" "Applicants must possess" "A valid state's driver's license...".

Is it safe to assume that "A valid state's driver's license..." (is that a valid state or a valid license) means no illegals?

Michoacan is a "valid state".

Chihuahua is a "valid state".

Lots of room for "inclusion" here.

Anonymous said...

About one third of the city's 2.3 billion all funds budget is used for interagency billings. The computer department bills the water department. The legal department bills the transportation department, and so on. I suspect that if we examined the rates charged for these services we would find they are higher than comparable private sector rates, by a lot. If they want to wring out money for schools or anything else this is the place to start.

rickyragg said...

Dave,

Just think of the potential tax benefits from all that private sector activity.

EEKS!

Some of the tax dollars would go down the... excuse me, TO the parsimonious protectors of put-upon people at MultCo.

Let's push for an outside audit to determine how much money would be freed up by outsourcing ALL the interagency billings.

Just for starters.

Wait. Let's teach pigs to fly, first.