Prevailing idea: Cut city’s costs

Wow. We could save $1 million by simply removing the prevailing wage law on some services, if not all of them? Think about that: No cuts in services, city employees or benefits -- just a simple change and we save money.

What is the concern? If you ran a business, big or small, and your financial person told you a simple way for you to save a significant amount of dollars without changing the business environment, would you do it? Of course you would.

Supporters state this protects the middle class employee’s quality of life. That seems more like gouging the pockets of Huntington Beach residents of all classes and nothing more, except it also lines the pockets of union leaders.

The quality of life for every Huntington Beach resident is affected, whether they are low-, middle- or upper- class, because services are being performed fewer times per year due to the high cost. Think about it -- extra dollars due to reduction in cost of services can mean an increase in service, such as tree trimming and removal, street sweeping three times a month instead of twice a month, and so on.

Really, the services that were listed are nothing out of the ordinary. It is basic maintenance that every city and even homeowners associations incur. So if Irvine does not have the prevailing wage law, then how come the city in general appears in better condition?

And please do not say it’s newer: Irvine has been around a long time. Councilwoman Debbie Cook’s comment, “cheap is not necessarily better,” is way out in left field. We are not talking about buying a product like the new $1.39-million Huntington Beach Police helicopter, with hopes of selling the older one for $350,000.

We are talking about basic services, and the money to pay for these services that comes from every Huntington Beach resident. The money comes from our pockets through the city tax imposed on us in our utility bills (electric, gas, water and trash and even cell phones). So I ask Cook and other City Council members to please be very careful how you spend our money. Spend it wisely and remove this law.

In general, services can have a wide range of costs, depending on the bidder. But having a prevailing wage law seems to remove the competitiveness in searching for the best services at the lowest cost -- not necessarily the cheapest service, but a combination of the two. Hence, “a balance,” as stated by Cook.

The process for services should be no different than obtaining several bids on a project for your house. It’s a service on a much smaller scale where one usually discards the highest bid. Think about this: How different can our streets look if the service cost 20% less? Not much. If Cook’s concern is about the quality of service and whether it is being performed properly, we should have our parking patrol follow the sweeper and report back.

Huntington’s government really needs to find ways to save money and use it wisely. This change is a no-brainer. We need our streets resurfaced instead of continuous patchwork; sidewalks are in desperate need of repair; trees need to be trimmed and/or removed that have damaged our sidewalks and in some cases our streets.

Huntington Beach is starting to show its age. If our long-term goal is to make Huntington Beach a resort-style town, then we need some TLC to get there.

* CHUB DOMOTOR is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to “Sounding Off” e-mail us at [email protected] or fax us at (714) 966-4667.