Factors influencing privatization of urban solid waste collection: some evidence from Spain

In this paper we analyse some of the organisational aspects of the urban solid waste collection and, in particular, the privatization modality of contracting out. We start by discussing some of the theoretical aspects of contracting out. We then specify and estimate an explanatory model on a sample of municipalities that we surveyed. Our purpose is twofold: on the one hand, we identify the economic factors at work when deciding to contract out the service and, on the other hand, we analyse the role of ideological factors in choosing between the public production of the service or contracting it out. The results show a significant effect of the demand for waste collection on contracting out. There also appears to be a neighbouring effect as the municipalities close to other cities that contract out are also more prone to do so. Finally, the decisions to contract seem to have been motivated by pragmatic rather than ideological reasons.

Does partisan alignment affect the electoral reward of intergovernmental transfers?

[spa] En este trabajo analizamos la hipótesis que las transferencias asignadas a los municipios políticamente alineados generan un mayor apoyo político que las transferencias asignada a los municipios gobernados por la oposición. Para contrastar esta hipótesis utilizamos datos de las transferencias recibidas por 617 municipios españoles procedentes de dos niveles de gobierno superiores (Regional o Autonómico y Supra-Local o Diputaciones) durante el período 1993-2003, así como datos de los votos obtenidos en las tres elecciones celebradas en los diferentes niveles de gobierno durante este período.

Documentary material relating to the history of Iowa - Volume 2, 1896.

Benjamin F. Shambaugh edited and compiled documents and publications for this book on the history of Iowa. This volume 2 is concerned with the history of local political organizations and documents illustrative of the development of local government in the Territory of the Northwest from 1787 to 1800, in the Territory of Indiana from 1800 to 1805 and in the Territory of Michigan from 1805 to September 6, 1834.

Documentary material relating to the history of Iowa - Volume 3, 1896.

Benjamin F. Shambaugh edited and compiled documents and publications for this book on the history of Iowa. This volume 3 is a continuation of volume 2 which is concerned with the history of local political organization from 1787 to 1834. Documents are illustrative of the development of local government in Iowa from the establishment of the Territory of Wisconsin in 1836 to the revision of the statutes of Iowa in 1842-43. It includes documentary material from the Louisiana Purchase, the Territories of the Northwest, Wisconsin and Iowa; the Convention of 1857; the Iowa Constitution of 1846 and the Ratification of Constitutional Amendments.

Cedar-Iowa River Rail Transit Project Feasibility Study, November 9, 2006

Five Seasons Transportation & Parking (FSTP) and the Johnson County Council of Governments (JCCOG) are interested in evaluating the feasibility of prospective passenger rail service(s) that would operate over existing trackage of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway Company (CRANDIC), seen below left, and/or the Iowa Interstate Railroad System (IAIS), seen below right, connecting Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and the Amana Colonies. To perform the study, FSTP and JCCOG selected R.L. Banks & Associates, Inc. (RLBA) as Prime Contractors, HNTB Corporation (HNTB) and Snyder & Associates, Inc. (Snyder) as Subcontractors, hereafter Consultant Team. Both railroads participated in the study and contributed time and resources, as did many local government and civic organizations. The purpose of the study is to determine whether it is feasible to establish regularly scheduled passenger rail service and/or special event excursion rail service, in conjunction with the Five Seasons Transit system, Iowa City Transit, East Central Iowa Transit, Coralville Transit and the University of Iowa CAMBUS.

Factors influencing privatization of urban solid waste collection: some evidence from Spain

In this paper we analyse some of the organisational aspects of the urban solid waste collection and, in particular, the privatization modality of contracting out. We start by discussing some of the theoretical aspects of contracting out. We then specify and estimate an explanatory model on a sample of municipalities that we surveyed. Our purpose is twofold: on the one hand, we identify the economic factors at work when deciding to contract out the service and, on the other hand, we analyse the role of ideological factors in choosing between the public production of the service or contracting it out. The results show a significant effect of the demand for waste collection on contracting out. There also appears to be a neighbouring effect as the municipalities close to other cities that contract out are also more prone to do so. Finally, the decisions to contract seem to have been motivated by pragmatic rather than ideological reasons.

Transportation Coordination in Iowa, December 14, 2012

The 2012 Iowa Code section 324A.4, subsection 2, states the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) “shall biennially prepare a report to be submitted to the general assembly and the governor prior to December 15 of even-numbered years. The report shall recommend methods to increase transportation coordination and improve the efficiency of federal, state, and local government programs used to finance public transit services and may address other topics as appropriate.” Iowa has long been a leader in transportation coordination, from designated public transit agencies covering all 99 counties with little duplication, to requiring any agency receiving public dollars for the provision of transportation to first coordinate with the local public transit agency before providing the transportation on their own, to the creation of the Iowa Transportation Coordination Council. Coordination allows Iowa to provide much needed transportation services to the citizens of Iowa with the most efficient use of public funds. Coordination has been an important topic in Iowa for many years, but during these times of economic constraint and restraint and Iowa’s changing demographics, coordination of transportation services becomes even more critical.

Iowa Workforce Development Annual Report Fiscal Year 2013

The past fiscal year brought some improvements in the Iowa economy that should position the state for stronger hiring in the year ahead. The housing market is on solid footing, and hiring is broader in scope, including a number of the service-providing industries that had been on hold for some time. State and local government fiscal conditions have also stabilized due to a rise in tax revenues. This means that government cutbacks will be less of a drag on overall job growth. During FY 2013, Iowa’s non-farm jobs advanced by 19,200 (+1.3 percent) compared to 23,000 (+1.6 percent) for the prior fiscal year. Although manufacturing continued to post the largest over the year job gain at close to 5,600, job growth shifted away from manufacturing to the service providing industries by mid-year. Annual job gains of 2,000 or more were reflected in professional and business services, education and health, leisure and hospitality, retail trade and financial activities. Statewide non-farm employment averaged 1,517,700 in FY 2013, the highest level achieved since the record of 1,524,800 in FY 2008.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module I - Basic Introduction to the Use of International Units of Measure, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 1 - Basic Introduction to the Use of International Units of Measurement. This module is designed for use by all levels of personnel, primarily office staff, and provides a basic background in the use of metric measurements in both written and oral communications.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module II - Construction and Maintenance Operations and Reporting, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 2 - Construction and Maintenance Operations and Reporting. This module provides hands on examples of applications of metric measurements in the construction and maintenance field operations.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module III - Road and Bridge Design, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 3 - Road and Bridge Design. This module provides hands on examples of how to use metric measurements in the design of roads and structures.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module IV - Transportation Planning and Traffic Monitoring, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 4 - Transportation Planning and Traffic Monitoring. Hands on examples of applications of metric measurements in the development of planning reports and traffic data collection are included in this module.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module V - Motor Vehicle Licensing and Enforcement, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 5 - Motor Vehicle Enforcement. Examples from Iowa and Federal Motor Vehicle Codes are used as examples for hands on training for the vehicle enforcement type personnel using this module.

DCI Voter Fraud Investigations Report, May 8, 2014.

In March of 2012, the Iowa Secretary of State’s office compared Iowa’s voter registration records with the driver’s license record s of individuals that identified themselves as non-citizens with the Iowa Department of Transportation. After comparing those records, the Iowa Secretary of State’s office found that more than 3,000 individuals registered to vote that had previously identified themselves as non-citizens. More than 1,000 of these individuals had also cast a ballot. The Iowa Secretary of State’s office was not given timely access to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE)database, and therefore was unable to determine if any of these individuals had become citizens before they registered to vote or cast a ballot. On June 21, 2012, the Iowa Secretary of State’s office entered into an agreement with the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to review potential election misconduct crimes and improve the administration of federal elections. Over the last two years,DCI agents have reviewed thousands of instances of possible election misconduct. DCI’s review included cases referred by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office as well as by other state and local government agencies.

Electronic Bulletin Board System, HR-345, 1998

The primary objectives of the Electronic Bulletin Board System (BBS) project were to: (1) Provide an electronic communication tool which would link city and county engineering offices to each other and to other governmental agencies for messaging and data sharing; (2) Provide a dial-up site for reference information or files accessible on-demand; and (3) Provide a "stepping stone" to the world of electronic data transfer, recognizing that most local government employees face a huge complex of technology with limited knowledge of computers and communications tools. The system was designed to be as simple as possible, and to require minimal equipment and software cost to the users. The original system was an Apex 386/25 computer with MS-DOS 5.0 software and the final configuration was an HP Vectra XM Pentium 90 with MS-NT 3.51 and Mustang - Wildcat 5.0 software. The users of the BBS were county engineers and their staff, offices in the central office of the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) and Resident Construction Engineers at the Iowa DOT. Much of the activity was between the county engineers, and their staffs, and the Iowa DOT offices with which they have ongoing business activities. The BBS contained files for mapping, Internet e-mail service, Accident Location Analysis System (ALAS) data, Iowa DOT bid lettings, and Autocad and Intergraph maps and standards. The 800 line calls were recorded and gave the best indication of the usage and the trends that were being followed. The usage tended to be higher in the winter months when design activities are occurring and lower in the summer months when the construction is in progress. The project was judged a success. The BBS did provide a "stepping stone" to the world of electronic data transfer.