What Happened?
Springfield, IL, recently finalized plans to consolidate its public police garages and overall fleet in the hopes of saving $1.3 million annually.
So What?
As many municipalities look to share services and make better use of resources to combat budget restraints and piling debts, consolidation strategies are growing in popularity. Springfield officials must prepare the facility to support a variety of garage tasks, and formalize agreements with local unions managing the city’s fleets. New contracts will be negotiated between the city and a number of unions to discuss changes to operations now that the garages are being downsized.
Springfield is taking out a $1.3 million loan to purchase the new facility, support equipment, training materials and building resources to make improvements. The building used to be a concrete wall factory and is well-designed to support fleet maintenance demands. The city assessed its current police garage at $300,000 to help lower the cost of the consolidation. Once the consolidation is finalized, all other garages will be used for storage and the police facility will be sold.
Why Consolidate?
Springfield is opting to downsize its fleet to reduce the number of administrators required to manage the departments and make it easier to monitor fuel use and vehicle performance. The current fleet maintenance system is less than efficient, while developing a centralized fleet could save the city up to $1.3 million annually.
Prior to the consolidation talks, Springfield’s maintenance garage was divided up into several locations, each servicing a different department – public works, fire, police, and city water, light and power. The model is now obsolete as city government departments are no longer managed by individual officials, and can be maintained effectively with less manpower and infrastructure. The city plans to reduce overall operational expenses while streamlining tasks for a more efficient use of resources and staff.
Sewer Merging Up For A Vote
In Southern Marin County, California, voters held a special election to determine how four sanitation districts will be managed in the future. Officials are proposing the consolidation of the Alto, Almonte, Homestead Valley and Richardson Bay sanitary districts into a single entity to lower costs and increase government oversight and transparency.
The sewer consolidation could help local districts respond to increased demand for services and prevent common problems when heavy rainfall fills up pipelines. In January 2008, the local community endured two large sewage spills that sent to 2.4 gallons of raw sewage and almost 1 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the bay. The incidents resulted in $2.6 million in fines and fees that could have been avoided with a larger sewage treatment plant that is included in the consolidation strategy. The consolidation would not relinquish local control over sewer rates, but prevent burdens from exceeding what each community is capable of handling through careful planning and increased access to extensive resources.
Other Consolidation Efforts
Gov1 has followed similar measures taken to merge resources and manpower at the local level. Fire departments are enjoying reduced operational costs, while municipalities are functioning more efficiently with less expenditure.[/dw-post-more]