San Diego County's Innovation Program: Using Competition and a Whole Lot More to Improve Public Services

This report focuses on the lessons learned during the first year of welfare-to-work managed competition in San Diego County, California, where for-profit, non-profit and government organizations competed for welfare-to-work case management service...

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By

William B. Eimicke

Director, Picker Center for Executive Education

Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs wbe1@columbia.edu

This report focuses on the lessons learned during the first year of welfare-to-work managed competition in San Diego County, California, where for-profit, non-profit and government organizations competed for welfare-to-work case management service contracts in an effort to cut costs and improve the quality of services. The lessons learned from San Diego are used to make recommendations for other jurisdictions that may consider introducing competition to the public sector. Innovation

SanDiegoInnovation