Last week I reported that Pembroke Pines, Florida is privatizing its building and zoning department. This week, Pembroke Pines officials announced the privatization of adult day-care services. The city plans to save $1.4 million through contracting with Easter Seals South Florida to take over its adult day-care facility, according to this Miami Herald article (emphasis mine):
A private company will take over adult day-care offered through Pembroke Pines’ popular adult day-care center, one of several city functions jettisoned to the private sector to save money this year.
Pembroke Pines commissioners selected Easter Seals of South Florida on Tuesday to provide the service, which provides activities for the elderly along with a separate offering for those with Alzheimer’s disease.
Easter Seals South Florida operates several clinics for the disabled in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. It beat out one other company, SarahCare.
City staff estimated that outsourcing the day-care, along with other elements of the Southwest Focal Point Senior Center, will save Pines $1.4 million. The 52,000-square-foot facility at 301 NW 103rd Ave. serves 2,500 registered clients, according to the city, with 78 percent of those clients living in the city. […]
The money hunt began earlier this year when Pines realized it faced a gap of about $30 million in its main operating fund. To bring that number down, Pines commissioners decided to outsource several city services, including a number of senior center programs and the building department. Those moves helped bring the deficit down to $23 million, a number commissioners will tackle in upcoming budget workshops.
Pembroke Pines officials are modeling what many other state and local policymakers should be doing right now—tapping privatization to help reduce the price of government and stretch increasingly thin tax dollars.