Public ~vs~ Private.
It’s an interesting question and the answer is constantly changing. Every private contractor will tell you they can do better than Municipal Employees and can show you an endless stream of powerpoint slides proving their point.
The reality, however, is quite often very different. An example from the city of San Diego:
The evidence is in. Given the chance, city staff can figure out how to do their work at a lower cost than private, for-profit companies can.
via City, workers both win with open competition | UTSanDiego.com.
Muni-Workers ‘beat out’ private contractors four times running in providing services and saving money.
The article goes on to list several other examples where municipalities have brought services back in-house and saved money at the same time.