Privatize the AC Fire Department, State Manager Says, and More in Today’s Roundup

Atlantic City Austerity
Emergency manager Kevin Lavin released his final report on the state of Atlantic City at five p.m. on Friday, the same day a Reuters story reported his team had cost taxpayers $2.6 million in the past year with little to show for it. Laving recommended the city privatize its fire department and regionalize the police force with neighboring towns, blaming “parochial politics” for hampering progress, though the Howler notes parochial politics didn’t cause the tax base to fall by $13 billion in five years. It also said the city should sell Convention Hall (or Boardwalk Hall), though not Bader Field on the water authority. Read more here. Lavin endorsed a state takeover of the city, saying he supports “legislative efforts underway in Trenton,” Philly.com’s Andrew Seidman reports, saying sales or privatizations of Bader Field and the utilities authority were among the recommendations, as was a sale of Gardner’s Basin.

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