I read the article and am familiar with iXP (derived from the consulting group having 9 founding partners) assuming administration for a few communications centers. If you look at the funding, the per capita breakdown per employee comes down to just under $80k, but that fails to take into account operation and administration costs - the return on investment to iXP, and any other charges that Lawrence may have included in their spec. Wish I could find that. Things like, does iXP have to rent the facility (seems there was a debacle in Northampton County, PA at Blue Mountain Control years ago with this kind of privatization), do they pay for the costs of maintenance and monthly recurrings for connectivity and E9-1-1? Stuff like that whittles down the salary pretty quickly. I do expect there to be conscientious people who work there, at least initially, but the thing to look at in this environment is retention rate. Are the employees hired provided with what it takes to retain them. Superficially, that might seem like "we pay you enough to stick around," but it also includes intangibles like adequate training, a support mechanism for various emergencies (EAP, CISM program, etc.), having good medical benefits, having the ability to maintain dialogue with... someone... both in the corporate strata and in the served organization, and so forth. The sign of a sinking ship is when everyone starts bailing. Then the integrity of the organization is going to be difficult to shore up.
My other concern with privatization is one of accountability to the public. A for-profit entity has one goal, and one goal only: profitability to its shareholders. In this case, is the venture creating recurring revenue for the partners? A municipal, county, state, or special district entity is responsible to the taxpayers through its board of governance. Have a problem? Go to the mayor, a councilman, or a board of directors member. In a private entity, problems might be dealt with as a matter of detente rather than mutual cooperation, and every decision will be weighted against impact to the bottom line. That latter thought has been encroaching into the public sector, too, but the thought that a taxpayer has immediate access to his or her elected officials - and can exercise the right to remove them with their vote - is more appealing than suing iXP and the Township to compel change if it were needed.
But, ehhh, what do I know?