Pomona : Cleaning Contracts Rejected

The City Council has rejected two proposals that could have saved the city as much as $156,000 by contracting with private firms for street-sweeping and janitorial services.

Prompted largely by concern for the 14 employees that would have been laid off or demoted, the council voted 3 to 2 to retain the city’s street sweeping program and 4 to 1 to maintain in-house janitorial service.

About $23,000 would have been saved if the city had opted to contract out its street sweeping program, which now costs about $343,000 a year to operate, said Ben N. Minamide, public works director. All four employees in the program could have been subject to 5% to 10% pay cuts, he said.

In addition, the city could have saved $3,600 to $133,000 by contracting for janitorial service, which now costs $370,000 a year, Minamide said. Under the contracting option, 10 custodians with an average of 12 years service to the city would have lost their jobs, he said.