South Suburban LWV Groups Hold Privatization Consensus

On Saturday, April 21, 2012, the League of Women Voters of Homewood-Flossmoor Area, Palos-Orland, and Park Forest Area, following several months of study, held a consensus meeting at the Homewood Library on the privatization of government services. 

Privatization is defined as "the transfer of government services, assets or functions to the private sector." There are those who believe that this transfer to the private sector will provide increased efficiency, better quality and innovation in services and savings in financial cost. Others worry that the private sector mandate to make a profit can endanger public safety and reduce services or increase costs to consumers and governments through poorly written contracts. The purpose of the LWV study was to take a good look at it from various viewpoints and then come to a consensus about the topic.

During these past few months, Palos-Orland member Chris Slowik wrote three special "Issue Briefs," summarizing the findings by the various members of the committee during their research and study. These briefs were electronically sent to members of the three leagues.  

In Brief #1, Ms. Slowik reminded members how LWV conducts a study:

"In order to advocate publicly on an issue, LWV must conduct a study. First, there is the selection of the issue, followed by the comprehensive study of that issue.  Part of the study is a consensus on where we stand on the issue and forming the League position. The third part of the process is the use of that position to influence public policy. The purpose of the study is to educate our members so that they can be informed participants in the consensus and so they are prepared to discuss the issue while advocating."

Members of the committee studied privatization of public services in the federal government, in other states as well as Illinois, and at the local level to determine if "going private" is really saving money or improving services. Through their research it was found the most popular services for privatization are corrections programs and services, education, health and human services, personnel programs, and transportation programs. While most agencies expect to have cost savings with privatization, most have no idea what those savings are. By examining some examples of privatization by federal, state and local governments, we sought to identify strategies to ensure transparency, accountability and protection of the common good.

At Saturday's consensus meeting, Maureen McSherry of the H-F League served as moderator. Mary Lubertozzi, Jan Moore, and Barb Sturgess of the Park Forest League took part in the presentation. Ms. Lubertozzi clarified what we were to do in the study; Ms. Moore spoke of some advantages and disadvantages (or pros and cons) of privatization; Ms. Sturgess explained the best practices of privatization.  After that, H-F League members Sharon Cooper and Maureen McSherry gave reports on the results of their interviews with local officials about their experiences with privatization of a few services.

Once the overview was completed, the LWV members broke up into groups by League, in which they proceeded to work their way through a series of consensus questions relating to privatization.  The results from these consensus questions will then be sent to LWVUS by May 1st and they will be collated and an official position formed, based on the results of the study. 

Anyone who is interested in reading more about the Privatization Study is encouraged to log on to the LWVUS website.