Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson is again asking to privatize work usually done by municipal employees because the city’s offered wages have not kept up with inflation, resulting in a worker shortage. The move to privatized labor amounts to a 183% cost increase for the same work.
Bronson introduced a memorandum to the Anchorage Assembly seeking approval of a contract that would pay private workers at least $55 more per hour than municipal workers due to a staffing shortage in the city’s maintenance department. It’s on the agenda for the Tuesday night Assembly meeting.
The $1.55 million contract to accessorize police vehicles would go to Alaska Safety Incorporated, the only bidder. The memorandum states the city does not have the staff to do the job in-house.
“(International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547) believes this is due to the wages and benefits currently being offered to Fleet employees,” IBEW attorney Justin Roberts wrote in an email to the Assembly and administration. “IBEW has been arguing for years that the Fleet employees are paid significantly below market rates.”
According to Roberts, wages for municipal maintenance and equipment technician workers who would normally perform the job range from $19.08 to $29.56 per hour. The private contractor would charge $85 per hour.
The Bronson administration has repeatedly failed to adjust wages to inflation, causing employee shortages. Last summer, a union representative warned the administration that its wages for winter road maintenance employees were not competitive. The administration did not adjust and was caught short-handed during the first several snow storms. Snow removal in December and January failed spectacularly and was costly. Private companies were paid more than $100 per hour, while paying municipal employees just over $22 an hour.
By contrast, the Anchorage International Airport raised wages by 30% to ensure that they could handle winter road and runway maintenance at the busy airport.
This is the latest in a string of contracts that the administration has handed out to private companies at higher costs. A few weeks ago, the municipality contracted over $2 million worth of professional accounting services due to vacancies in the city.
Update: The Assembly rejected this contract on a vote of 10-2, with several members saying that they would rather put the funds towards investing in the Municipal workforce.
