Supporters of the privatization plan contend that the union is less interested in how the landfill employees were treated than in opposing privatization. City and county officials in Hawaii are dismayed by the state supreme court decision. The public-employee union has interpreted the ruling to mean that all service contracting must cease. Local officials hoped the state legislature would pass legislation to resolve the status of current contracts before it adjourned in May, but the house and senate could not agree on the terms of a bill. The public-employee union has filed suits against local officials who have not terminated contracts with private service providers.
Some officials have no choice but to cease the delivery of certain services.
A number of Hawaii state legislators support a comprehensive bill authorizing local governments to pursue public-private partnerships. Public Employees Also Protected in California, Colorado In California the courts have long held that the state constitution prevents the state government from contracting out any job that can be performed by civil servants. To legally contract out a service, the government must show that the contract will save money, cannot be performed by civil servants, or is an entirely new service. A recent state supreme court ruling held that the California Department of Transportation violated those guidelines by issuing contracts for entire projects, when parts of each project could have been performed by civil servants. Colorado's state constitution provides similar protection for state employees, stipulating that no function performed by a state employee can be contracted out to the private sector.