Contract city

Contract city is a term used in the U.S. for a city which provides municipal services by contract with another unit of government, public agency or private organizations.

Cities of all kinds have entered into contracts for non-core governmental services, such as facilities and grounds maintenance, auditing, legal counsel, road construction, garbage collection, water and waste water treatment, engineering services, and others. Contract cities are unique in that they rely primarily on the private sector to provide public service delivery, while the public sector maintains oversight. Public officials are specifically responsible for writing, signing, managing and enforcing contracts.

Contracting for services has been accomplished in several different methods. In the traditional method, franchising, a private company has a franchise, or legal right, to perform certain public services previously done by municipal government. Another method is for the city to contract with its county government or neighboring cities.

In 1954, Lakewood, California became the first contract city. The previously unincorporated area was facing a hostile annexation from adjacent Long Beach, California, and residents favored local control while maintaining the existing services provided by county government. The so-called Lakewood Plan has been the foundation for most new cities incorporated since then.

Over the past ten years there has been a significant increase in the number of contract cities. Several that have received prominent attention from the media include:

• Sandy Springs, Georgia^[1]
• Centennial, Colorado^[2]
• Maywood, California^[3]
• Dunwoody, Georgia^[4]

In contrast, independent cities are cities which provide basic governmental services themselves, without contracting. (This usage is not to be confused with the more common usage of independent city as a city that is not part of any county.) Most older cities are independent cities. In practice, many cities are hybrids of both. For instance, they may directly operate parks programs, but contract for police and fire. Most contract cities do their own land use planning, since cities were incorporated to exert local control over land use.

External links

• Contract City history
• California Contract Cities Association
• Independent Cities Association
• Reason Foundation, Local Government

References

1. ^ http://reason.org/news/show/public-private-partnerships-fo-1
2. ^ http://reason.org/blog/show/centennial-colorado-incorporated-an
3. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/business/20maywood.html
4. ^ http://reason.org/news/show/reason-foundations-23rd-annual