The San Bernardino, Calif., City Council approved its bankruptcy exit plan Monday on a 6-1 vote, according to an editorial in The Press-Enterprise yesterday. The exit plan comes nearly three years after the city sought bankruptcy protection, with outsourcing services and impairing every creditor other than city employees’ pension system proposed as the way forward. Outsourcing services is a critical step that the city should have taken long ago. Whenever there are efficiencies to be gained, costs lowered or better controlled and opportunities to limit the size of government without compromising service, that route that should be taken. The arguments about privatization are familiar. Profiting is demonized, while high salaries and bloated spending are considered perfectly reasonable so long as government employees and agencies are involved. San Bernardino, like all cities, has finite resources. Whether efficiencies come about through contracting with other government entities or with the private sector shouldn’t matter, so long as residents receive the best possible service at the best possible price.
