N.J. Town Could Eliminate Public Works Department

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Here’s one proposal you can bet won’t be replicated in Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s budget, to be rolled out Thursday.

The mayor of Brick Township, New Jersey, is proposing to eliminate the entire 77-person Public Works Department that handles things like “sanitation, street cleaning, road sanding and salting, street signage, police and city fleet maintenance,” according to Atlantic Cities.

The mayor, Stephen Acropolis, thinks the private sector can do things more efficiently.

“It’s very difficult to say that government does anything better than the private sector,” he said. “I can’t think of one off the top of my head.”

Carlisle, like your faithful Inside Honolulu correspondent, is from the Garden State. Will he look home for budget inspiration?

Read the full story, including reaction from the town council president, over at Atlantic Cities: Can a Town Get By Without Its Public Works Department? (hat-tip to Adrienne LaFrance)

(Photo: imageegami/Shutterstock)

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