When to Share or Consolidate

Cities are experimenting with shared services agreements or consolidation strategies to better serve residents, reduce costs and increase efficiency

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What Happened?

Cities nationwide are looking into different variations of shared services agreements or consolidation strategies to better serve residents while reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Shared services and consolidation is a hot topic as budgets remain tight while public demand continues to grow.

New Jersey

Officials in Highstown and East Windsor are discussing a possible merging of services with regard to law enforcement duties. The two municipalities are considering creating a shared services agreement that would, in essence, outsource Highstown’s police department to the East Windsor Township, the Times of Trenton reported.

Both localities are facing lawsuits from police officers, as ongoing contract negotiations leave many departmental costs unknown. The mayors of both municipalities are comparing police department resources to see if there is enough overlap to cover both locations with one agency.

Currently, East Windsor has 44 sworn police officers on staff, while Highstown employs 10 active officers. East Windsor allocates $7.5 million of its annual budget toward police-related costs and Highstown spends $2.2 million. Highstown is a notoriously small municipality in New Jersey, and East Windsor is considering the shared services agreement so long as there is a tangible financial benefit and improvement in services to residents in both communities, Times of Trenton reported.

Cincinnati

The Greater Cincinnati Water Works, the Metropolitan Sewer District and the stormwater utility in Cincinnati, Ohio, have recently undergone a consolidation of administrative their administrative functions. By merging all three agency’s administrative tasks into one office, Cincinnati is projected to save $55 million within the next 10 years, WVXU reported.

Because the savings predicted are significant, the city is also looking into the integration of fleet management, operations and security of the three agencies.

Peoria

In the past election, voters in Peoria, Illinois, approved the consolidation of city and county election commissions. The Peoria County Election Commission was created to replace the Peoria City Election Commission and the part of the Peoria County Clerk’s Office in charge of polling locations throughout the county, Chillicothe Times Bulletin reported.

The consolidation strategy calls for the establishment of a countywide entity with five commissioners: three from within Peoria and two from elsewhere in the county. All commissioners will be judge-appointed. Because the county is required under state law to provide space for the city’s election commission, the consolidation is expected to save taxpayer dollars while improving efficiency, Chillicothe Times Bulletin reported.

Central Falls

In Central Falls, Rhode Island, the local school district recently consolidated two positions to generate $55,000 in annual savings.

The school department’s information technology administrator used to outsource the city’s computer services needs to an independent contractor. The city has terminated the contract with the contractor and, instead, called upon the school department’s IT administrator to spend 10 hours a week working on city computers. In addition, the school department’s human resources director will perform city services for 12 hours per week, the Providence Journal reported.

As part of the agreement, the city of Central Falls will pay the school district $35,000 annually for services of its human resources officer and another $20,000 annually for its IT administrator. The consolidation is projected to save a total of $56,000 in costs per year, the Providence Journal reported.

Sharing Big and Small

Gov1 has followed the growing trend of shared services and consolidation strategies designed to save cities significant money.

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