Local officials attend workshop encouraging shared services
CHENANGO COUNTY – Representatives from the City of Norwich and the Town of Plymouth were the only local government officials who attended a workshop Wednesday to discuss the Local Government Efficiency Grant Program.
In April, the Division of Local Government released a study that encouraged the City of Norwich, the Town of Norwich and the Town of North Norwich to look at shared services or even consolidation. However, local officials cannot seem to agree on how, or if, they should proceed.
The workshop, held in Binghamton, was the tenth of 15 workshops held throughout the state. While the program was primarily held to provide information on the LGE Grants, the program also was intended to emphasize the importance or reducing costs through shared services.
“It’s important and vital for governments to work together,” said Lawrence Brinker, director of government relations for the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce. Brinker explained that in New York State, there are 1,607 general purpose local governments, and when added to the number of special purpose governments, school districts and other taxing agencies, New York has a total of 4,250 local government entities. “Now is the time to start thinking about sharing services and taking advantage of what this grant has to offer,” Brinker said.
The LGE Grant Program is currently in its fourth round. Previously known as the Shared Municipal Service Incentive Grant, more than $27 million has been awarded to New York municipalities in the last two rounds, and according to state officials, the savings generated by the grant is currently over $245 million. “That’s a good return, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what we could do,” said Deputy Director of State Robert Elliott.
Three panelists, from municipalities which had already received funding as part of LGE program, told the crowd about their experiences.
John Burin, the manager of the City of Elmira, explained that shared services in his area was a necessity. When Burin took the position of city executive, he said the city had a $3 million deficit on a $26 million budget. Their debt was also out of control, and while the city was sharing services with the county and surrounding towns, more needed to be done. “The mayor and I decided we had to take a business-like approach to the problem. Our concern was on reducing costs and the efficiency of government. We had to reach out and share services,” Burin said.
The Elmira executive explained that often in these situations, there is a power struggle. “People are turf oriented, but we took the approach that we were not going to allow that to happen. We approached it in a business-like way.”
Burin said they simply looked at the services they had and where they would like to be. “We had the staff do all the work for us, and we kept the politicians out of the room and away from the table until we had something that made sense, and we delivered that to the officials,” Burin said. The city was able to consolidate services for tax collection, highway departments and information technology, and their long term plan includes the municipal co-location of police and fire departments.
“You need to take the politicians out of the room and look at every service as a business transaction. Does this make sense to go down this road?” Burin said.
Paul Nelson, the director of Community Development in the Town of Union, explained that the Town of Union, the Village of Endicott and the Village of Johnson City put together a unified comprehensive plan and discovered areas where the taxpayers wanted to see shared services. “Consolidation is a bad word, but with costs rising, we wanted to look at what services we wanted to investigate for consolidation or shared services,” Nelson said.
Nelson explained ideas were identified during the comprehensive plan and a survey was sent to residents in the municipalities, and a large percentage returned the surveys wanting to see more shared services.
Schuyler County received a grant for $100,000 for a shared records maintenance facility. Records Management Director Kathy Walruth explained that more than four municipalities are utilizing the shared records facility. “We’ve already saved over $200,000, Walruth said. “You don’t really lose positions with shared services (...) but it does save money.” Schuyler County just received another LGE Grant for a shared highway department.
“This is a bottom up process. It needs to start with the municipalities and build on their expectations. This is about communities working together to save money and provide a better product,” Elliot said.
Additional LGE workshops are being held over the next two weeks in Syracuse, Amherst, Jamestown, Stony Brook and Hyde Park.
In April, the Division of Local Government released a study that encouraged the City of Norwich, the Town of Norwich and the Town of North Norwich to look at shared services or even consolidation. However, local officials cannot seem to agree on how, or if, they should proceed.
The workshop, held in Binghamton, was the tenth of 15 workshops held throughout the state. While the program was primarily held to provide information on the LGE Grants, the program also was intended to emphasize the importance or reducing costs through shared services.
“It’s important and vital for governments to work together,” said Lawrence Brinker, director of government relations for the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce. Brinker explained that in New York State, there are 1,607 general purpose local governments, and when added to the number of special purpose governments, school districts and other taxing agencies, New York has a total of 4,250 local government entities. “Now is the time to start thinking about sharing services and taking advantage of what this grant has to offer,” Brinker said.
The LGE Grant Program is currently in its fourth round. Previously known as the Shared Municipal Service Incentive Grant, more than $27 million has been awarded to New York municipalities in the last two rounds, and according to state officials, the savings generated by the grant is currently over $245 million. “That’s a good return, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what we could do,” said Deputy Director of State Robert Elliott.
Three panelists, from municipalities which had already received funding as part of LGE program, told the crowd about their experiences.
John Burin, the manager of the City of Elmira, explained that shared services in his area was a necessity. When Burin took the position of city executive, he said the city had a $3 million deficit on a $26 million budget. Their debt was also out of control, and while the city was sharing services with the county and surrounding towns, more needed to be done. “The mayor and I decided we had to take a business-like approach to the problem. Our concern was on reducing costs and the efficiency of government. We had to reach out and share services,” Burin said.
The Elmira executive explained that often in these situations, there is a power struggle. “People are turf oriented, but we took the approach that we were not going to allow that to happen. We approached it in a business-like way.”
Burin said they simply looked at the services they had and where they would like to be. “We had the staff do all the work for us, and we kept the politicians out of the room and away from the table until we had something that made sense, and we delivered that to the officials,” Burin said. The city was able to consolidate services for tax collection, highway departments and information technology, and their long term plan includes the municipal co-location of police and fire departments.
“You need to take the politicians out of the room and look at every service as a business transaction. Does this make sense to go down this road?” Burin said.
Paul Nelson, the director of Community Development in the Town of Union, explained that the Town of Union, the Village of Endicott and the Village of Johnson City put together a unified comprehensive plan and discovered areas where the taxpayers wanted to see shared services. “Consolidation is a bad word, but with costs rising, we wanted to look at what services we wanted to investigate for consolidation or shared services,” Nelson said.
Nelson explained ideas were identified during the comprehensive plan and a survey was sent to residents in the municipalities, and a large percentage returned the surveys wanting to see more shared services.
Schuyler County received a grant for $100,000 for a shared records maintenance facility. Records Management Director Kathy Walruth explained that more than four municipalities are utilizing the shared records facility. “We’ve already saved over $200,000, Walruth said. “You don’t really lose positions with shared services (...) but it does save money.” Schuyler County just received another LGE Grant for a shared highway department.
“This is a bottom up process. It needs to start with the municipalities and build on their expectations. This is about communities working together to save money and provide a better product,” Elliot said.
Additional LGE workshops are being held over the next two weeks in Syracuse, Amherst, Jamestown, Stony Brook and Hyde Park.
dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.
Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far
jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.
So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that
Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks