The fox watching the chicken coop

I hope the recent movement towards privatization and outsourcing of government operations is not “too little – too late”.

It is important, in my opinion, that great care is used; not only in choosing what to outsource, but also choosing who is granted those private contracts.

For example, this year the Florida legislature is outsourcing the office that keeps track of lobbyists; and, they expect that a new entity could be in place as soon as next summer.

The “Office of Lobbyist Registration” employs three people who handle thousands of registration and financial disclosure forms.

This registration and disclosure process, of course, does not eliminate lobbyist misbehavior — it is, however, a step in the right direction and an important investigative tool when suspicious and possibly illegal activities are uncovered. By its own estimates, it costs about two-million dollars a year to operate.

One of the registered lobbying organizations is the Florida Press Association. They lobby members of the legislature, regulatory agencies and other government officials for the benefit of newspaper publishers and other media groups who often cover the work of lobbyists.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, when the Florida Press Association got wind that lobbyist registration was being outsourced, they came forward with claims that they could run the system cheaper and more efficiently.

So, we are considering hiring a lobbying group to oversee an entity to which it is supposed to report.

Thank goodness there are some lawmakers expressing reservations about this classic example of the fox watching the chicken coop.

Meanwhile, the Florida Senate has opened the bidding process for an outside firm.