The Problem With Outsourcing Public Engagement

In a piece in Streets MN, Andy Singer questions the trend of cities hiring outside consultants for public engagement events.

Singer describes his own experiences, noting that at a recent event hosted by the City of St. Paul, many of the people tabling for local transit agencies and non-profits were consultants with little to no personal connection to the projects they were tasked with explaining.

“With one or two exceptions, they weren’t even engineers or people who were actually working on the design of the projects. They were just folks who work for planning firms doing public events, or what the industry calls ‘Public Process.’” For Singer, this is problematic because the consultants knew little about the projects they were representing.

For Singer, “Outsourcing to private companies makes it look like you’re ‘shrinking government,’ even though you’re often spending the same or greater amounts of money to pay consultants. Outsourcing also undermines government employee unions, which theoretically keeps wages lower, and it introduces new opportunities for graft.”

Ultimately, Singer writes, “I’m sure there are problems with having agencies do more of their work in-house, but it’s nice to attend public meetings where the people presenting the material actually know what they’re talking about and are aware of the history and politics that surround a given project.”