Park Service controversy over outsourcing

Two weeks ago, the administration's attempt to expedite outsourcing faster was rejected by the House. During the summer, it also voted to withhold funding necessary to complete studies to identify categories of workers in dozens of different agencies.

Now the Republican-controlled Senate appears poised to resurrect the plan. Free-market proponents such as the Cato Institute are calling upon the OMB to stand its ground and carry out an attempt to streamline government that failed under the Clinton administration.

Rather than retreating from outsourcing, Chris Edwards, Cato's director of fiscal policy, says the administration ought to take outsourcing one step further by fully privatizing thousands of civil-service jobs, from Park Service rangers to air-traffic controllers. In recent decades, the Park Service already has privatized 60 percent of its former workforce by contracting out concession services such as hotel, restaurant, and gift-shop operations.

Mr. Edwards is convinced that not only does the private sector possess employees who can competently deliver services, but once taxpayers realize how much can be saved, the controversy will go away.

He blames unions for throwing up roadblocks to bringing legitimate scrutiny to jobs that are either unnecessary or held by workers who should be dismissed but who hide behind the protection of civil-service laws.

Park Service Director Fran Maniella, a booster of the plan, admitted that attempts to downsize government, based on quotas, could set back efforts her agency has made to hire more minorities.

Critics who view OMB's plan to use outsourcing as misguided point to employees such as Colon as an example of the value that an older, experienced worker can add.

At the San Juan National Historical Site, Colon's job description masks the fact that this Puerto Rican native is revered as a walking encyclopedia when it comes to 16th-century masonry, one of the defining features of the federal landmark. During the 1990s, Mr. Colon, a 21-year agency veteran, began pioneering a new method of wall repair, based on old traditions, that has saved the Park Service huge sums of money.

"In historic properties like San Juan, most people given the title 'maintenance employee' are mistitled and ought to be called 'preservation specialists' to reflect their real knowledge that is irreplaceable," says Bob Dodson, the site's assistant superintendent.

Even the average Park Service "custodian" is a person who usually has extra training, he adds. "Employees cutting the grass at national cemeteries aren't running through the rows of headstones with weed whackers to get the job done as fast and cheap as possible. Instead, they use care. Maintaining a hallowed place like that takes skill and years of experience," he adds.

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