This changed in the 80s and 90s with deregulation. Some of them even turned into growth stocks or did other financial fuckery that made investors money at the cost of rotting out the business.

End of the day, local municipal utilities or co-ops almost always deliver a better level of service at a lower cost. Smaller scale makes field service more efficient and reduces overheads like executive compensation. One municipal utility I’m familiar with has a civil service scale for all staff — the head guy makes $140k.

that was my interpretation (from the context) anyways... maybe i’m wrong ^^;

not my experience. Most government entities try to raise as much money as possible to protect their jobs and raise their salaries. gettingthe job done right is not remotely near top of the list. See SFMTA or MTA (new your public transportaion) as 2 examples. Or watch IKIRU to see the same attitude in Japan. Yes it's a movie but it rings true to people's experience that goverment never tries to "getting their job done right"

The Berkeley campus is up against the East Bay hills and so there are trees all over near the campus.

Compare how cops act (who are damn near impossible to fire and have a local monopoly) with how private security acts (who can be fired on a moments notice and who's customers are not locked to a particular provider).