An analysis of "outsourceability" of public services

The objective of this paper is to explore the possibilities of applying outsourcing and public private partnership into an existing city organization. City of Sandy Spring, a newly incorporated city in Georgia, United States... [ view full abstract ]

The objective of this paper is to explore the possibilities of applying outsourcing and public private partnership into an existing city organization. City of Sandy Spring, a newly incorporated city in Georgia, United States outsourced entire city hall operation to private sectors, and only few public officials and elected officials focus on decision making. Although this innovative approach caught wide and strong attentions from public management community around the globe, many concluded that such can be only applied to new cities, but not to existing cities. While many cities in Japan are facing a strong pressure to reduce their fixed cost such as personnel expense, most of them have been reluctant to apply such a method to their own organization. One of the main oppositions is the claim that the acts take place in local government office are the exercise of public authority, thus public officials are obligated to prosecute them. Another claim is that most duties are better understood and carried out by public officials than employees of private sectors. Thus outsourcing has been limited only to some field operation (generally blue-collar works) and some services carried out in the city hall. This study tried to differentiate the scope of duties that can be outsourced and should remain within the public prosecution through questionnaires and interviews to city officials in a common-sized city in Japan. This study indicates that by analyzing public services in detail, there are only small portion of services that deemed to require public authority or public expertise, and a considerable portion of services are considered “outsourceable.” This study compares the outsourcing methods used in other cities for the analysis of pros and cons. Finally this article also points out the challenges of such a study and issues in application.