Lake Charles Outsourcing Lawn Care To Save Taxpayer Money

The city of Lake Charles will begin to outsource the lawn cutting of city parks.

Drew Marine is reporting that there's high turnover in the city's Parks and Recreation department and this move will save Lake Charles taxpayers some serious scratch!

Mayor Nic Hunter told KPLC:

We had put a pause on hiring those spots until we decided what we wanted to do...the labor market and the labor pool right now in Southwest Louisiana is very tight. With the economic boom, many good things come and another thing that comes is a very tight labor pool and have had some trouble in filling those entry-level positions.

Mayor Hunter also said:

This crew of 7 employees. Labor costs plus equipment, trucks, fuel, is costing the city right now about $230,000 a year. By outsourcing, the company who had the lowest bid came in at about less than $100,000," Hunter said. “That also does not take into consideration any types of workmen’s comp claims or liability claims that may happen with those city employees. If a city employee cuts their finger, has an accident, it’s on the city’s insurance. If that is outsourced to a private company it’s now on that private company’s insurance

The question remains, what is going to happen to the employees that are cutting grass right now?  Do they loose their job?  The answer is no.

Mayor Hunter said that they 2 employees that we doing a 7 man job have already been moved to other departments with the city.

This is a win-win...the employees didn't get laid off and the city is saving a ton of money!  I love it.

The lawn service contract is for 1 year and it will be up for bidding every year between competing companies.