Commentary: Consider outsourcing city services to the private sector

At this point, arguing over the dangers and unintended consequences of any Banning Ranch development is pointless. As is rehashing the countless stories of how the residents of this neighborhood have been misled and ignored by all those who stand to benefit by their vision of progress.

As a middle-class, private-sector worker, my single largest annual household expense is taxes, the same taxes that fund the city, and the same city that is my single largest threat to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Considering the large salaries and stylish office space near Fashion Island, one would expect the quality of work on our behalf to be nothing less than spectacular. Instead, we have to continually donate what little valuable free time we have to community organize and attend City Council meetings to express our outrage to people who have already made up their minds to sell us out.

This is all horribly reminiscent of the Flint, Mich., water, just that in our case it will be our air. Banning has a 100-year history of oil exploration spread over 400 acres. When they start to move that soil, it is perfectly positioned at the beginning of our steady inland ocean breeze to blow dangerous particle matter inland, potentially affecting tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people in Orange County. They will be waking a sleeping “dirty bomb.”

The only solution to this terrible problem is to pull it out by its roots. Therefore, I have pledged my support behind an initiative to outsource the Newport Beach City Hall administration to the private sector. To me, we have zero downside risk, and the worst private contract would be a huge improvement.

For more information about outsourcing of city government, see the New York Times article on the success of the outsourcing of Sandy Springs, Ga., and the Los Angeles suburb, Maywood: nyti.ms/1nYKvJa

ROBERT ORBE lives in Newport Beach.