Overview of Proposal

The International City and County Management Association with the Water Industry Council proposes to conduct a national series of local and regional seminars for city managers and facility operators to address employee transition issues resulting from the management transfer accompanying a water and/or wastewater public-private partnership. The program would have three coordinated parts:

national experts explaining recent changes in Federal and local rules and regulations which facilitate municipal outsourcing of public water facilities (most which were constructed in part with Federal grants and continue to be subject to Federal oversight);

the new EPA guidelines as detailed in the Guidance on the Privatization of the Federally Funded Wastewater Treatment Facilities soon to be published by the EPA Office of Water;

small "breakout" sessions with panels of municipal and private sector employee peers to encourage questions, provide information and exchange real-life experiences of municipal employees who have transitioned to the private sector following a facility or system privatization.

The employee peer component would address employee concerns such as:

1. job security
2. changes in job responsibilities
3. work related benefits
4. career growth opportunities
5. work demands (hours per week, job responsibilities, etc.)
6. relocation
7. portability of accrued benefits such as:

• pensions
• vacation time
• sick-leave
• seniority

    8. other employee related concerns raised at the seminars or addressed by EPA in the Guidance on Privatization…

Structure of Proposal

We propose a series of 10 one-day seminars, each having approximately 100 registrants. Locations and sequence of the seminars would be determined by the geographical locations most affected by water privatization. These would be determined jointly by the ICMA and the WIC. To encourage attendance of operating personnel and managers registration fees would be minimal and grant funds would be applied to overall seminar costs. Attendance would include:

1. facility operators
2. facility supervisory staff
3. municipal senior management including:

• town/city/county managers
• budget directors

The programs would have three main components:

1. presentations by government and private sector experts
2. peer seminars with an open guided interchange between local municipal employees and former municipal employees who transitioned to the private sector,
3. breakout sessions.

Each of these is discussed below.

1. Defining terms in the industry
2. Myths and misconceptions of public/private operations
3. Managing human resource issues and social impacts (recent case studies)
4. Contract operations transaction structures; private sector approach to water/wastewater operations
5. Future trends of the market
6. Issues facing the public and private sector
7. Implications of:

• Executive Order 12803 (1992), and the
• EPA Privatization Guidelines of 2000
• IRS Management Contract Rules (1997)
• IRS Employee Rights Transfer Letter Rule (1999)
• Selected state privatization legislation

Each of the above presenters will incorporate, into his or her presentation, the changes in transaction procedures resulting from the Guidance on the Privatization... published by EPA.

Peer Seminars

Following the structured presentations and question period, we will have smaller, facilitated, sessions to encourage audience interaction. They may include some role-play, discussion of personal experiences of operators who have transited from public to private sector and an opportunity for organized labor and industry representatives to present their views.

These lively discussion groups often generate the greatest flow of information because questions are frequent and are directed at the issues of greatest concern to the community where the seminar is presented.

In a separate breakout session following the structured presentations and peer program, the new guidelines for privatization will be summarized by consultants selected by ICMA and WIC. Examples of transaction procedure review and some case studies may be presented. Interaction will be encouraged regarding the details of what is required.