What Happened?
A number of consolidation announcements were made over the last few weeks, in which cities and towns merge or “regionalize” services or departments to save money, eliminate duplication, and better serve residents.
So What?
These incidents sometimes provide ideas, ammunition, or insight to Gov1 readers as they consider their own consolidation agendas. An overview of some of the recent moves is below:
Inspection Services in Chicago
Chicago’s mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has been surprisingly progressive and active recently (this month alone, he backed decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, proposed changing gun ordinances, and announced a private infrastructure fund) announced that he would look to combine nine inspection offices so business can have several inspections conducted in one visit. Mayor Emanuel told a Chicago chamber event that businesses should “focus on your customers and not City Hall.” The mayor has also launched a trial program that will reduce inspections for restaurants and stores with good inspection records.
Other communities, like Youngstown, Ohio, and Kinston, North Carolina, have also looked at merging inspection departments. Still others have eliminated inspections divisions and folded them into other departments, which was the story in Wichita, Kansas, and Paducah, Kentucky. In some cities, like Kenosha, Wisconsin, inspections departments were combined with several others to create new groups; there, three units—the Department of City Development, Neighborhood Services, and the Inspection Department—were merged to create a new Community Development and Inspections Department.
Polling Stations in New York
Cayuga County in New York, which includes the city of Auburn and nearly two dozen other towns and villages, consolidated polling stations for its federal primary; the 23 municipalities will utilize six polling stations. The move saves money, and accommodates recent low voter turnout throughout the county. Election commissioners have said that the consolidation may be a small inconvenience to some voters, but should save approximately $20,000. Voters can request absentee ballots if the consolidation of stations becomes an obstacle to vote.
Consolidated voting centers have been utilized elsewhere in New York, including Canton. In fact, the trend of consolidating polling places is not new, and is utilized throughout the country; recent consolidation has been reported in Texas, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Nebraska, which eliminated 32 percent of polling locations. One election official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Gov1 that municipalities need to consider balance when making decisions about consolidating polling stations. “You need to balance community needs, projected turnout, financial demands, and the potential for long lines,” she said. “And the proper individuals, whether they be party chairs or election officials, need to be involved in the decision-making process from the start.”
High Schools in Minnesota
Though not technically “departments,” we wanted to include the recent news of another school consolidation, this one between the towns of Montgomery, Lonsdale, and Le Center, Minnesota. The new “Tri-City United” high school is close to completion, and should house approximately 600 students in the fall.
Myriad school mergers have been completed or proposed across the U.S. recently, including schools in Kentucky, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, and elsewhere. Though this topic merits its own coverage entirely, there are a few resources worth mentioning for readers. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association published a 2009 study on school mergers that looks to answer key questions, such as, do mergers save money, and do they improve student achievement? The Illinois Statewide Schools Management Alliance also published myths and facts about forced school consolidations. Opportunities and obstacles were also provided in a research brief by the Mass. Department of Education. Though those documents are clearly local in nature, they may include general arguments or ammunition applicable to a broader base. A more specific school-merger briefing from Tennessee in 2005 is, obviously, outdated, but infuses some interesting national data to the debate. If you’d like to see a sample cost-savings study from a merger, see this one from Ontario, or this presentation from North Carolina.
Town and Village in Wisconsin
Last on tap this week in the “consolidation” category: the merger of two communities. The town of Lisbon, Wisconsin, and the village of Sussex are considering—among other things—a merger to address an eroding tax base. According to officials, consolidation would create greater efficiency in government services, and resolve important differences. For example, village residents pay a municipal tax rate of about $4.73 per $1,000 assessed valuation; town residents pay only $2.96 per $1,000 assessed valuation.
Other communities have similarly pursued or considered town mergers recently in Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere. If you’d like to see analysis data on town mergers, have a look at this regionalization and merger analysis for two towns in Massachusetts, or this study on a three-way town merger in New York.
As usual, Gov1 will continue to track consolidation matters, which you can find in the left-hand column of our Web site, under “Hot Topics.”