OETA Story on Claremore, Oklahoma Government Outsourcing aired on 07/06/09 Tuesday, October 19, 2010

This is astory that aired on OETA Public Television's The Oklahoma News Report in Tulsa Oklahoma as reported by Cathy Tatom and photojournalist Edwin Wilson. For more information or to contact us, please go to www.oeta.tv The verbatim script follows below... THE CLAREMORE CITY GARAGE IS A BUSY PLACE. Charles Scuggins/Trash Truck Driver: "The maintenance man is putting hydraulic oil in my hydraulic oil system that's used to compress and pack our trash as we pick it up." AS SOON AS IT'S TOPPED OFF, THE DRIVER GIVES THE LIFT A QUICK TEST THEN HE'S BACK OUT ON THE ROAD AFTER JUST A FEW MINUTES DOWN TIME. OVER HERE A FIRE TRUCK IS GETTING A SMALL OIL LEAK FIXED BEFORE IT REQUIRES MAJOR ENGINE WORK TO REPAIR. Paul Casey/Service Technician: "We work on everything the city has from lawn mowers to the trash trucks to the street department trucks." A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO CLAREMORE OUTSOURCED ITS FLEET MAINTENANCE TO A COMPANY CALLED FIRST VEHICLE SERVICES TO CUT ITS VEHICLE MAINTENANCE COSTS. THAT COMPANY PAYS FIVE TECHNICIANS TO WORK ON THE CITY'S 250-PLUS VEHICLES IN THE CITY'S OWN GARAGE. Cassie Sowers/Claremore: "Our very first year of doing this back in 2007 we saved about $80000." THE INITIAL SAVINGS WAS BOOSTED BECAUSE THE CITY SAVED ON PERSONNEL COSTS. THIS YEAR THE CITY EXPECTS OUTSOURCING TO TRIM VEHICLE MAINTENANCE COSTS BY AROUND $30000. THE ROGERS COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE HAS MORE THAN 30 VEHICLES. UNTIL A MONTH AGO NONE HAD REGULAR SERVICING. WORK WAS DONE WHEN A CAR ...



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