“Commonsense Outsourcing Standards” (AB 1250) would protect taxpayers by requiring counties to clearly demonstrate that a proposed outsourcing contract will result in actual overall costs savings and also to show that the contract does not cause the displacement of county workers.
California State Senate Governance and Finance Committee passed AB 1250 on July 12, but the bill still needs our support before it can become law.
SEIU 521 members went to Sacramento on August 21 to support AB 1250 and tell our state legislators to vote YES. See the pictures on Facebook here. The Senate Appropriation Committee will vote on the bill on August 25, and legislators need to hear from you. Call your legislators and tell them to support AB 1250!
Read the op-ed to the Mercury News by Riko Mendez, SEIU 521 Chief Elected Officer: “SEIU-backed legislation won’t stop counties from working with nonprofits, it will protect consumers”.
Letters to the editor by SEIU 521 members and county workers:
Bakersfield.com: “AB 1250 means accountability, transparency for county contracts” by Michael Calderon
Fresno Bee – “AB 1250 provides common sense standards” by Henry Lopez
Mercury News – “Workers stand together to improve services” by wRen Bradley (Second Letter)
Read the SEIU California Press Release here: SEIU California Applauds Senate Committee Moving Good Government Bill for Local Government Forward
Continue to support AB 1250:
1. Call or email your legislators to ask them to support AB 1250.
2. Sign the petition.
3. Get your coworkers to sign the petition to support county jobs and responsible contracting policies.
For more information, check the myths and facts about AB 1250.
County governments and county workers provide critical services that keep our communities healthy, clean and safe, from 911 dispatchers, public health prevention to child welfare services. They also provide quality jobs to our diverse community members that include quality health care and living wages. When counties do contract out, the result is often lower quality services and low paying jobs that exacerbate income inequality in our community. That is why we are supporting new legislation, AB 1250, to ensure that county jobs are protected and if contracting out does occur then we can ensure it results in quality jobs and quality services.
We need to let our county and state elected leaders in the Senate know that they need to support AB 1250. AB 1250 doesn’t stop counties from contracting out with private entities or nonprofits. All of the standards in the bill have been abided by the State of California for 35 years. At the heart of this bill are very reasonable standards already in place for state agencies, school districts, community colleges and libraries to create basic good government practices in relation to contracts for these public agencies. That’s why we are perplexed by why the counties are fighting so hard to be exempted from these SAME STANDARDS. AB 1250 would simply extend these protections to county contracts, workers and services.
We need to come together to tell our board of supervisors and state elected officials that public workers and the clients they serve deserve the same protections as those of the state, schools, community colleges and schools.
What can we do?
1. Call or email your legislators to ask them to support AB 1250.
2. Sign the petition.
3. Get your coworkers to sign the petition to support county jobs and responsible contracting policies.
For more information, check the myths and facts about AB 1250.
What is AB 1250, Commonsense Outsourcing Standards?
In the last 8 years, billions of dollars of services have been “realigned” to the local level from the state, but the basic outsourcing safeguards in place at the state level for 35 years did not get updated. As a result, for a growing share of our taxpayer dollars and public services, there is no accountability and little transparency, opening the door to potential fraud and abuse.
“Commonsense Outsourcing Standards” (AB 1250) would protect taxpayers by requiring counties to clearly demonstrate that a proposed outsourcing contract will result in actual overall costs savings and also to show that the contract does not cause the displacement of county workers.
We believe that outsourcing public service work should only be done with the utmost caution, transparency, and due diligence to ensure that our communities and taxpayers benefit.
SEIU 521 members from San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Fresno, and Kern Counties showed up on May 16, 2017 in Sacramento to protect county jobs from harsh cuts in state funding, and to support AB 1250, a bill that aims to increase accountability standards when cities and counties attempt to contract out our members’ work.
Click here to learn more.
SEIU 521 Members in Sacramento on May 16, 2017
