Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

There has been a lot of debate about property tax cuts, and the special session starts next week.

Tommy took issue with a recent Qunippiac University poll - mostly because they did not provide enough realistic choices to the voters — so I am asking you, Sticks of Fire readers, what would YOU cut?

First, you should realize exactly what we’re talking about. Here are the departments for Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa — and the organizational charts for Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa. Note the County Departments page does not include the Constitutional Officers, nor a few other state-mandated or state created programs the county has to fund.

With that, here are my recommendations:

• 1) Bring all external relations offices under one area, and combine several of the positions, and eliminate the rest. The County has five liaison offices for things such as Asian-Americans and ADA. All of these positions should be eliminated, along with the Neighborhood relations office which is in place to help civic and homeowner associations deal with the County. The City has two areas - Neighborhood and Community Relations and Community Affairs - combine them and reduce staff. Both the City and County have television stations, primarily to cover meetings. They should combine these two services into a non-profit, outsourced - like public access or the education channel.
• 2) Review City and County governments and combine as many areas as possible where both overlap. Solid waste. Road building and maintenance. Water and stormwater resources. Building and fleet maintenance. Planning and growth management. Most of the lower level employees in these departments would keep their jobs, but the upper management staff - the expensive directors - would be out on the street. What about fire and police services? Code enforcement? What about the “back of the house” areas like Information Technology and Purchasing.
• 3) Outsource human resources. The HR departments in both City and County governments are bloated. There are a number of staffing companies in town that could do the job far better. Some components could be transferred to the Civil Service Board (created by the state, funded by the county).
• 4) Where services can be combined, explore outsourcing options. Looking at the above recommendations, why not combine two and three - to say that some services should be outsourced. Facilities management, for example. There are dozens of companies who manage facilities all over the Bay area — surely they could provide services at lower cost than doing it in house.

Still, my ideas may not be the best. Take a look at the links above and review the departments and agencies at the local level — then tell us, which of them deserve to be cut and which deserve protection?

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