Darry Baker

As a Cliff Dweller, I agree with your piece, Save our sturdy Houston Street Viaduct, that the Houston Street Viaduct is beautiful and better maintained than many other City of Dallas facilities. That does not mean it is well-maintained; it is just not as neglected as most other roads and bridges in Dallas.

Another reason the ODB want to tear down bridges is to get at the very lucrative GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS off which most of the private sector survives. Say what you want to about government, but the private sector has helped dupe the public into thinking they have all the answers.

After more than 15 years of "no tax increases" that has been a banner-pride of city managers and past councils, we see where that has gotten us in Dallas.

We have a shortage of over 800 police officers. We have private groups raising money to provide the police with bikes, weapons, body vests and other equipment because the geniuses around the horseshoe really do believe that we can have an effective police department with no people, no equipment and no resources. Other City departments fare even worse. Just look at the overall condition of our park system, Code Compliance, Library and most other departments.

Here is the REAL DEAL! At the City level, the majority of contracts do not go to Dallas-based businesses. The majority of the businesses that have City contracts do not pay decent wages or benefits to their workers. The majority of owners of theses businesses could not survive if they did not have these lucrative contracts.

The private sector claims they have expertise the City does not have. However, if you look at who they hire, most of their workers have significant City and other government experience. One reason these people leave the City is that they are not allowed to show their expertise and professionalism. Many times, they are not recognized for what they know. Yes, there really are "non-money" incentives as to why people choose to stay or leave a job.

These are things your City Council and City Manager know but will not tell you. What is worse, the City has created an advisory committee on "privatization" that asks all of the WRONG questions and looks at all the wrong numbers.

Therefore, by extension, if you take into consideration the number of outside contracts and the number of workers who are associated with those contracts, the true number of workers employed by the City of Dallas increases 3 or 4 times. Sadly, we taxpayers, do not receive the value of their efforts since most are not in Dallas and most do not earn enough to make ends meet. Now, the owners of these companies do very well!

Do you think that the Privatization Committee ever looks at these factors as a cost to the City? Or, that when many of these contractors default, the City has no way of collecting on the unfinished or poorly done work?

When the City tells us they are doing things more efficiently, I want to know why over 50% of the annual budget is spent with outside contractors and vendors. The math just does not add up! My source for this outrageous is found on the back of many City employee's business cards.

With a $1.2 billion annual budget, how can we send out $600 million and still run the City?

One of DallasArena.com's favorite Council members is a big supporter of private sector contracts. My question to him and his kind is a simple one. How can any business be effective and viable when it sends more than 50% of its revenues out the door?

I insist the number is more than 50% because after salaries, utilities, equipment, law suits, and other fixed costs, there is not a lot of money left over to actually RUN the City.