CHENANGO COUNTY – Despite the findings in a study released in April that encouraged consolidation or shared services between the towns of Norwich, North Norwich and the City of Norwich, local government officials can’t seem to agree on a course for moving forward.
The Division of Local Government is holding a series of workshops around New York to discuss the Department of State’s shared municipal services program, which would provide funding for a consolidation study. But with few local leaders planning to attend the workshop, the issue of government efficiency might be at a standstill.
City of Norwich Mayor Joseph Maiurano will be attending a workshop on Oct. 22 in Binghamton. He said he hoped the workshops will open the door for discussion of shared services efforts. “The key to consolidation is opening the door,” Maiurano said. The mayor explained he hopes the workshop will provide some ideas. “We need to start talking and keep an open mind. The time has come to start looking into the future and asking where we see ourselves,” Maiurano said.
The mayor said consolidation or shared services could benefit all of the parties involved. “You can’t develop without water and waste water,” Maiurano said. “The airport and the industrial park need to be hooked up if you want to bring in businesses. There are a lot of issues as you get more developed.”
Town of North Norwich Supervisor and Chairman of the Chenango County Board of Supervisors Richard Decker said he thought the word ‘consolidation’ scared people away from the idea, but he acknowledged the need to explore ways to become more efficient. “Any information we can pick up for the future we have to look at,” Decker said.
While consolidation may not be in the immediate future of Chenango County, Decker said there is room for shared services, and despite the current standstill, he said “there is absolutely the possibility of shared service here. It all depends on how serious we want to get.”
Despite the difficulties that have ensued, Decker said he feels out of this study, the towns have gotten an idea of how they can help each other in the future. “Our fire contracts and ambulance contracts work well. We have to look to the future and find other things that could work. Hopefully we’ll find a reason to sit down at the table.” Decker said he was interested in the workshops, but was not sure he would be able to attend.
Town of Norwich Supervisor David Law said he had not planned on attending any of the workshops because he doesn’t feel there is anything he can get out of it. “We’re already working with the city on our water hook-ups ... We have our fire contracts in place. There’s nothing really that we can learn,” Law said.
As far as the Local Government Efficiency Grant Program is concerned, Law said he is “not really interested. We’re working with the city as best we can. I don’t see the benefit of consolidation.”
Law said he is not alone in his opinion, citing a report on the web site of the New York State Association of Towns. The report, titled “Government Efficiency, The Case for Local Control,” contests the Division of Local Government’s findings, saying, “It was apparent from the beginning that they harbored an underlying assumption that larger, more regional governments would result in less expensive and more efficient government for the residents of New York State. Based on our observations, this assumption runs contrary to findings of previous commissions and private organizations that have promoted regionalism as a means to lower property taxes.”
Law said he thinks the town works very efficiently. “My goal, since I came in, is to have zero tax increase, and things look good this year,” Law said. For that reason, Law said, “consolidation is more beneficial to the city than to the town.”
“I look at a lot of those [municipalities] that have consolidated, and most don’t have the rural life we have here. It’s a different picture.”
Although he is not an advocate of consolidation, Law said there are areas at the town, city and county level where shared services may be pursued. “I’m a big advocate of one Chenango County law enforcement agency. I think we’d all benefit from that,” Law said.
Although the City of Norwich Supervisors, James McNeil (Wards 1, 2 and 3) and Linda Natoli (Wards 4, 5 and 6) will have no official input in the matter, they both explained their feelings on the issue.
“I always felt we should explore consolidation, because the county is oversized. We don’t need all of these duplicated services,” Natoli said. “We don’t know how much money could be saved unless we look at it.”
McNeil said consolidation is a huge leap, but advocated looking at shared services. “We need to start in small, simple ideas,” he said. “If we start with baby steps with a few things, we may come to a point, only after small continuous steps, where we get close to considering consolidation.” McNeil said he hoped to go to one of the workshops, but will be unable to attend since they are all held on work days. Natoli said she is considering going to one of the workshops.
While the local officials all seem to have a different idea of what should be done to move forward, Decker said, “We all have to answer back to the people who put us in these positions. We need to listen to what the people are saying and respond to their problems in a timely manner.”