Neither Goldsmith nor his former aides responded to interview requests for this article.
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Fantauzzo, at least, says that Goldsmith eventually backed off of his harshest privatization efforts. "His folks approached us, and wanted to discuss a change in their position away from privatization," he says, instead setting up a system that would allow existing city workers to bid against private firms for contracts. "The numbers showed what we knew all along: The problem wasn't that we had too many front-line workers. We had too many middle managers and bureaucratic bloat. For every two guys we had filling a pothole we had two guys watching them." The end result, he says, is that Indianapolis ended up with fewer middle managers but a larger union workforce after Goldsmith's tenure in City Hall.
Still, by the end of his eight years in office, Goldsmith could brag that he had successfully reduced city worker headcount in departments other than police and fire services by 40 percent. The result, he claimed, was $190 million in savings. But according to Miller, there were no independent audits made of these claims. His own research of city fiscal records found that any savings were offset by nearly $300 million in extra spending on private services.
New city, new landscape
It's not clear precisely what Goldsmith's New York agenda will be. As deputy mayor for operations, he's been charged with direct oversight of police, fire, transportation, sanitation, buildings and environmental protection. While Goldsmith's rhetoric certainly shows signs of having been tempered by his Indianapolis experience--when he recently visited Memphis to promote privatizing sanitation services there, he made a point of selling it as a way to cut bureaucratic overhead, not union jobs--he remains an unabashed advocate of the beneficial powers of market-based competition.
Fantauzzo insists that Goldsmith is flexible enough to adapt to new situations. "New York is not Indianapolis," notes Fantauzzo. "The challenge for Steve will be figuring out how to engage frontline workers in an honest discussion about how the work can be done better. And then engaging top departmental leaders in how to effectuate some of those changes. It's an easy philosophy, but much easier to say than do."
Andrews is less optimistic. "If he moves into privatization with the same style as he moved here," she warns, "you could be in for a rocky run."
