The time has come to consider the curious contradictions in Mayor Emanuel’s views of how government can help save or create jobs.
Something’s wrong here, people.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
But at some points we have to wonder whether there’s one standard for the connected well-to-do and another for everyone else.
However, Emanuel claims the city will save $100,000 by farming out the service to NTT while drastically cutting down waiting times and improving service at the call center. He says he doesn’t know how much NTT will pay its employees or whether they will have health benefits.
Well, by that argument, the roughly $45,000 a year the city pays each of the water bill workers can be viewed as economic development money for Woodlawn, South Shore, Englewood, and the other cash-starved communities they live in. In other words, the mayor’s diverting public dollars from the south and west sides—which desperately need them—to Tokyo.
As a result, Sawyer is proposing an ordinance that would require City Council hearings for any proposed privatization deal like the NTT contract. The city would have to justify such contracts in terms of whether they’re really going to save as much as the city says they will in the long run. For instance, how much will the replacement workers earn? Will they be part time or full time? Will they get health benefits? Or will they have to rely on public clinics and hospitals? Will they make enough to money to support their families without getting government assistance? If not, how much money are we, the taxpayers, really saving? And why would we want to subsidize a company that pays substandard wages?
