What Happened?
A task force was created to conduct a study analyzing the pros and cons of a merging various departments between the city of Lincoln and Lancaster County in Nebraska. The Consolidation Task Force examined a variety of issues over a 10-month period and is now recommending the two entities move forward with consolidation efforts to save money and increase efficiency.
The Goal
The Consolidation Task Force is composed of private residents and former politicians from Lincoln and Lancaster County. The task force was created to research different strategies for consolidating law enforcement, infrastructure, legal and clerical departments between Lincoln and Lancaster County, and determine possible challenges and expected savings in the short and long term.
While investigating the departmental consolidation efforts, however, the task force realized combining entirely may offer greater benefits to each community long-term compared to merging individual departments. The task force strongly supports the combining of city and county departments for law enforcement, attorney’s offices, public works and clerks’ offices.
The recommendations, however, may generate stronger results for residents if they lead to larger consolidation efforts in the future such as a city-county government with broad home rule authority.
The Consolidation Task Force has offered officials a list of short term recommendations for departmental mergers, as well as guidance for future studies to determine which model for providing services will create the highest savings with the most benefits.
Immediate and Moving Forward
According to the Consolidation Task Force’s report, there are many immediate mergers Lincoln and Lancaster County can launch that will increase efficiency, as well as larger long-term strategies in the future. The task force’s immediate recommendations include:
- Formalize shared services between Lincoln Police Department and the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office such as training, maintenance and support staff
- Merge Lincoln juvenile law violations to the County Attorney’s Office and split the costs equally
- Consolidate maintenance, sign-making, land surveying and street services between Lincoln and County public works and engineering departments
- Combine clerks’ offices between city and county
In the future, the task force suggests Lincoln and Lancaster County officials consider:
- Creating an umbrella public safety entity for all law enforcement and security measures
- Expanding consolidation of the court system for more efficient sharing of information and resources
- Combining public works and county engineer’s offices once a unified county/city government is created
Lincoln and Lancaster County has already successfully launched 43 interlocal agreements and six joint departments to cut costs and increase service delivery efficiency. These mergers have involved health, planning and emergency management departments. Based on past experiences, the task force members are calling upon city and county officials to not only research implementation models further, but also gauge staff and public sentiment on the consolidation measures. Public support should be obtained before moving forward with any long-term merger plans. Furthermore, it is important to establish organizations to brainstorm how new structures and entities will be organized and governed to accelerate decision making without disrupting current operations.
Teamwork is Key
Gov1 has reported on many consolidation considerations as well as the various studies conducted to determine potential savings.