If the city of Menlo Park privatizes its Burgess child care programs, it would be “nuts” to transfer operation of the programs to a private contractor before May 2007.
That’s the consensus of a citizen task force formed to advise the City Council on the matter, a conclusion reached when the task force met for the first time on May 31.
At the insistence of the council majority, the city is fast-tracking the process that could lead to privatizing its preschool and after-school programs, except for those in Belle Haven, leaving open the possibility that a new, private operator could be in place by next January.
“That’s nuts,” said task force member Jennifer Lombardi, whose children are not enrolled in the city’s programs.
“If their first priority is the child, they’re not going to (change operators in) January,” she said during last week’s meeting — a sentiment shared by others on the city-appointed panel called the Child Care RFP Review Committee.
Such a quick transfer, they agreed, would be too unsettling for the children, and too disruptive to a program designed to provide a stable and sound educational environment for the 18-month to 11-year-old participants.
The task force was formed to help city staff put together an effective “request for proposals” — or RFP — to send out to child care providers interested in taking over the city’s programs now being operated out of the new, $3.4 million Menlo Children’s Center. The city is expected to submit a proposal of its own to show it can compete with private bidders.
The task force is also supposed to help review the providers submitting proposals, with members sitting in on the interviews, said Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour.
At its first meeting last week, the task force reviewed Ms. Seymour’s draft RFP.
Although the council has not decided to privatize the child care programs, at least two members of the council majority — councilwomen Mickie Winkler and Lee Duboc — have indicated they’d like to see the programs privately operated.
City staff had originally estimated that the process required to study the issue and, possibly, turn over the programs to a private provider would be lengthy, making it likely that no decision would be made until after the November election. But the council majority in May pushed a timeline that could mean negotiations with a private contractor could begin in September, and privatization of the services could occur by January.
The seats of the council’s majority members — Nicholas Jellins, Ms. Winkler and Ms. Duboc — are up for election in November.
Council members Kelly Fergusson and Andy Cohen tried unsuccessfully to persuade their colleagues to slow down and wait for the results of a study the council commissioned to assess how efficiently the city’s programs are run.
On the fast track
The emphasis on speeding up the process of sending out RFPs and reviewing potential child care services operators — a fast-track process strongly pushed by council members Winkler and Duboc and endorsed by Mayor Jellins — appears to be having consequences.One is that Ms. Seymour was unable to find all nine members to sit on the task force in time for its first meeting last week. By Tuesday morning, only seven members had been named. Later in the day, an eighth member had been appointed, but the final member was yet to be named by the Almanac’s press time.
Another problem was that Ms. Seymour was unable to complete the RFP draft that was to be reviewed on May 31 until the day before, giving task force members little time to review the 10-page document.
“Being prepared for this meeting was a challenge for me” because of the Memorial Day weekend and other responsibilities she needed to tend to, Ms. Seymour said.
The fast-track process also may mean that a number of task force members will miss the critical August meetings at which firms submitting proposals will be discussed, then interviewed. Several task force members said they will be out of town that month — traditionally a time when many people go on vacation.
Members
Members of the task force, as of late last week, are:** Kristen Anderson, Redwood City’s child care coordinator, chosen by city staff.
** John Boyle, a Menlo Park Budget Advisory Committee member, chosen by random drawing from among BAC members volunteering for the task force.
** Sally Cadigan, former Child Care Coordinating Council resource and referral director, chosen by city staff.
** Richard Cline, Parks and Recreation Commission member, chosen by his commission colleagues.
** Mike Gardner, parent of a Menlo Children’s Center (MCC) preschool student, chosen by random drawing from among MCC parents volunteering for the task force.
** Kirsten Keith, parent of a Burgess school-age student, chosen by random drawing from among program parents volunteering for the task force.
** Scott Leslie, supervisor of the city of Pacifica’s Child Care Services, chosen by city staff.
** Jennifer Lombardi, parent of a preschool child and a school-age child who are in programs other than Menlo Park’s, chosen by city staff.
