Google Analytics reports That Website Traffic For Advanced Building Maintenance Shot Up 600% After Becoming A Featured Business At Greenwich RoundupCity to outsource janitorial services, lay off four employees
June 11, 2010|By Stephen Fellersfeller@tribune.com
Looking to streamline costs and increase efficiency, Coconut Creek plans to hire a national janitorial services firm that will do more work in the city at a lower cost than in-house staff has been able to.
On May 27, the City Commission approved a plan to hire USSI, a Bethesda, Md.-based company to handle the services in the city for the next two years, starting in July.
The contract with USSI will cost the city $234,100 per year, saving about $200,000 per year from the current costs, said Assistant City Manager Mary Blasi.
The company will pick up from the janitorial department in maintaining City Hall, the Police Department and city public parks that total about 108,564 square feet, in addition to about 12 square miles of city area including about 5,000 feet of greenways, 1,500 feet of boardwalks and 45 trash cans at bus shelters in the city.
USSI is a 100-year-old company with four offices around the state of Florida and has contracts with cities across the state, as well as a significant presence in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas. Maria Millan, area manager for USSI, said the company already works for the cities of Jupiter, Homestead and Miami Gardens in southeast Florida.
Nashville school board approves plan to
outsource janitorial jobs
The Tennessean - Janell Ross - May 26, 2010
Metro Nashville Public Schools board approved a plan Tuesday to outsource janitorial and custodial services and shift about 700 employees off the district's payroll.
In a 5 to 3 vote, the board voted to approve a five-year contract with Ohio-based GCA Services, valued at about $20 million.
The company was one of 16 that submitted proposals to provide janitorial and landscaping services at schools and other facilities. The plan will save the district about $6.2 million, a GCA official said.
"This board should expect a very high level of accountability (from GCA)," said Jesse Register, director of schools.
217 FWCS JANITORS COULD BE CUT
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) – Fort Wayne Community School officials authorized a plan to outsource 217 janitorial staff positions Tuesday night.
On March 22, district officials agreed to reduce $2 million dollars in custodial services.
However, the new plan goes well above that figure.
The plan will save about $4 million dollars every school year from the district's custodial services budget.
"It was a done deal. There was no point in me standing up after this and asking them to keep us in mind because we were taking out of the equation tonight," said AFSCME President Michelle Tribolet.
Tribolet pleaded with the district for months said her last proposal to the district would have saved $1.9 million dollars but FWCS didn't accept that plan.
During a PowerPoint presentation on Custodial Services, financial leaders said janitorial services is not the core business of FWCS.
|Meanwhile, the measure was approved 6 to 1 to allow Superintendent Dr. Wendy Robinson to finalize a contract with Sodexo Management services.
Sodexo is large facility management company with 125,000 employees and operations in all fifty states.
Sodexo will be in charge of hiring and cleaning all FWCS schools and administration buildings.
Board Member Kevin Brown cast the only "no" vote.
Brown said the outsourcing situation could become "like the NFL and the scrubs."
Brown's simile refers to a 1987 situation when the NFL hired replacement players because of financial disputes.
Brown said he is also concerned about the usual standard of cleanliness that teachers have become accustomed to.
"Within that two weeks it will give me an opportunity to go ahead and do my own investigation within the budget... maybe even make recommendations," said FWCS Board Member Kevin Brown.
Officials say current FWCS custodial employees will be able to interview with Sodexo.
However, no jobs for current FWCS employees will be guaranteed.
We've also learned Sodexo will hire 22 fewer night custodians.
If approved on June 14, Sodexo will take over custodial services on July 19.
School officials explain the lengthy nine week process.
“We needed to take some time to get proposals in from outside companies,” Fort Wayne Community Schools Public Information Officer Krista Stockman said. “We have gone through that process and now this is just a culmination of that.”
During the last two months administrators collected proposals from 11 outside custodial companies and one from their current custodial staff.
After reviewing information and having meetings with the current custodial staff administrators are expected to give a recommendation to the board about out-sourcing the janitorial staff.
“The need to cut has not gone away even though that conversation happened a few months ago. That need is still there,” Stockman said. “And that is something we said we would continue to look at.”
The Fort Wayne Community School Custodian Union Representative Michelle Tribolet has attended several school board meetings since the idea of cut backs was proposed in March.
Tribolet has stood up at each meeting and read the following statement to the board members.
“By gathering bids you are looking at laying off over 200 people,” Tribolet said. “You may say you will try to guarantee us an interview with the outsource company, but an interview is not a job. Even if we do get hired in it will be a lesser wage, with most likely fewer hours, and little or no insurance. In our eyes it is not necessary to even get bids to outsource us because we are more than willing to work together and with the school system to save the money needed to make sure the kids will not suffer. We, as your loyal employees, are very disheartened by the fact that you are looking at laying us off instead of talking with us about saving the money needed. It is a shame that we are standing with cuts on a silver platter, willing to work with you and all you can think about is getting rid of us. I will be here every meeting reminding you of the fact that there are going to be more than 200 people affected by this along with their families and the community. And reminding you that as we, your loyal employees, are willing to make adjustments in how we do things to save our jobs. Please keep this in mind as you go over bids form companies that are only out for a profit and care nothing for the school system, just about the money they can get from it.”
Stockman says tough decisions must be made.
“This is a difficult time,” Stockman said. “None of the cuts we've made were things that we wanted to cut. We didn't want to cut teachers, we didn't want to close school buildings, we haven't wanted to any of this. So, we understand that it's a scary time for people; we don't diminish that fact at all. But we do need to focus on what's best for our students and making sure we are providing the best education for our students.”
Proposed Outsourcing of Non-Instructional Labor
Michigan Policy Network - Janine Anderson - Jun 1, 2010
Senate Bill 1074 is raising some attention, both good and bad. State employees of public school districts have written to the Governor to ask about their potential pay cuts due to the contracts, and The Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources in Troy Michigan has traveled to Lansing to talk about the benefits of contracting.
Senate Bill 1074 is a proposal to require all school districts, intermediate school districts and public school academies to outsource all non-instructional labor from $20,000 and up; basically everyone but the teachers, including custodial, transportation and food services. Not only will they be required to obtain contracts, but they must obtain the most competitive bid for a contract, which in turn must be posted on each schools website before consideration. Now if contracts are already in place the school is not required to re-contract until the current one is up, but at the point all of the new rules would apply.
The department of education would gain the responsibility for developing a competitive bidding process, and would be required to make the process available to those affected. The bidding process includes making the need for contractor's public by placing an ad in a general circulation newspaper at least once, prior to selecting a contract bid. Opposition to the bill sits generally with state employees, who will take the pay cuts and loose jobs to outsourcing. They argue that this bill will eventually create losses of students in public schools, which will decrease funding, causing the loss of more staff. The argument is that when these employees lose their jobs. they are going to have to look elsewhere for employment taking their families with them. Others are wondering how they are going to continue supporting their families with a 10% pay cut, loss of some benefits and being stuck as a new employee at $9.90/hr.
Favorable positions on the bill are coming from those with experience with the contracted employees. There are 551 school districts in Michigan, 250 of them already contract with private companies for at least one of the non-instructional services. Pappageorge, one of the senators sponsoring this bill says, "If all school districts were to competitively bid for janitorial, food and transportation services - Michigan could save at least $200 million and up to $500 million...money schools can direct to the classroom." There is potential for a savings of $310/pupil says Troy Michigan Community Schools.
Republicans indicate a savings of at least $150 per pupil when all three services are bid out. Troy Community Schools did this and expect a savings of $310 per pupil.
Troy School District's Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Jasen Witt traveled to Lansing to testify about how competitively bidding out non-instructional services is saving the district a great deal of money and allowing its limited dollars to be focused toward the classroom.
Nearly 250 of the state's 551 (or 44.6 percent) school districts contract with private companies for one or more of these non-instructional services.
"If all school districts were to competitively bid for janitorial, food and transportation services - Michigan schools could save at least $200 million and as much as $500 million," Pappageorge said. "That's more money schools could direct to the classroom."
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