I'm sorry BBQ...and my apologies to the rest of you, as well. I made the mistake of not doing enough independent research, something I've encouraged everyone here to do.

The thoughts that I arrived at relative to privatization came from a recent meeting of the Civil Discourse club here in TV. I am aware, of course, of the problems that have been encountered with the Chicago parking meters, the Chicago Skyway, the Indiana Toll Road, etc. Those problems--the rapid and dramatic increase in tolls and costs to the taxpayer, and the now-reported unbelieveable returns being "earned" by the private sector on those deals--I know first hand. But I recall some discussion of Sandy Springs during the recent meeting, which I recalled as being very negative. There were other contributors in the meeting. One, a retired employee, related the disastrous experiment with outsourcing building maintenance at one of the big upstate New York state universities and how the deal had to be reversed at great expense to the college.

I recall during the discussion in the meeting being irritated that in some of the examples that didn't work, the taxpayers weren't benefitted as they expected and the investors and investment bankers who put the deals together "got rich and got out". The Chicago parking meter deal was particularly egregious. I remember thinking that relying on elected officials and civil servants to negotiate deals with investment bankers was a mismatch of the first order.

But in response to the criticism of my post above, on doing the independent research I've recommended to all, I've found that the Sandy Springs example is actually a positive one. I'm sorry again to have been misleading. I promise never to make that mistake again.