What Happened?
The Village of East Syracuse launched a study to identify what service sharing options were available to the city to help reduce costs without sacrificing quality of life to residents. The study investigated the feasibility of consolidating six service areas through a formal shared services agreement or consolidation strategy with the Town of DeWitt.
The Goal
The Center for Governmental Research managed the East Syracuse Study, exploring the potential for savings through the merging of assessment, code enforcement, courts, planning and zoning, parks and recreation, and snow removal services with DeWitt. The study will examine how the cities currently function, what options are available for change and how best to implement the solutions with minimal disruption to current service delivery.
Study Findings
In terms of property assessments, the Village of East Syracuse could have its role be absorbed by the Town of DeWitt. Operationally, most of the functions have already been taken over by DeWitt personnel, thus creating minimal disruption to current activities and protocol:
- Three options have been presented to improve code enforcement activities: status quo, village opt-out and consolidation with DeWitt. The opt-out option would have East Syracuse reduce personnel as certain tasks would be performed out of the county or state office. The consolidation strategy with DeWitt would generate the greatest savings for East Syracuse and require an agreement between the two cities.
- East Syracuse and DeWitt each have a municipal court that work closely and already share services. If East Syracuse merged its courts with DeWitt, the village would dissolve its court and the court system could become more streamlined and efficient.
- The parks and recreation departments at each municipality could become fully consolidated, or merge certain services. The shared services proposal could generate small cost savings, while full consolidation would likely increase savings. ‘
- East Syracuse and DeWitt have volunteer-run planning and zoning boards that could be reduced in size if merged into one entity.
- For snow removal demands, the two cities are considering full consolidation or merging of snow removal for roads only. Combining the departments may generate savings, while shared services may increase personnel demands with little payoff.
Funding The Study
The study was funded by the New York State Local Government Efficiency Grant Program, which aims to offer technical and financial assistance to municipalities embarking on projects to reduce costs through shared services, cooperative agreements, consolidations or other similar strategies. Projects and studies funded by the grant program include:
- General government initiatives
- Organization of governmental agencies
- Charter revisions
- Educational mergers
- Consolidation of municipal utilities
- Shared services for public safety
- Agreements surrounding public transportation and roadways
At the start of the year, New York announced $4 million will be awarded throughout the state through the Local Government Efficiency Grant Program to aid in the reduction of municipality costs and increased use of shared services. In 2012, the program funded initiatives expected to generate $45 million in multi-year savings. More than 350 projects have been funded since the program launched, projected to impact $550 million on future local cost savings.
Teamwork
Gov1 has followed other stories of consolidation and mergers to cut costs and improve performance of public services.