We hope things start moving more quickly – and soon. This should be a high-profile, top-of-agenda community project with real solutions the public can see being applied.
Sharing services not only saves taxpayers money, it removes bureaucratic hoops and regulations that make it hard to do business with government. It makes government more nimble, able to take advantage of economic development opportunities. This is one of the top tasks public officials must tackle in 2012 – and it is one of the key issues we will follow this year.
Otherwise, we risk ending up with another report collecting dust on a shelf – or a set of recommendations nobody will agree on for fear of losing political turf. That’s happened here before. In fact, it’s happened time and again.
The most recent was a 2006 initiative headed by former Ohio Senate President Dick Finan, then-Commissioner Pat DeWine, then-City Councilman Chris Bortz and former City Manager Jerry Newfarmer. It has produced little, The Enquirer reported last week.
It did get the county and 11 cities to agree on a standardized building permit application. But a lack of cooperation among the county’s 49 cities, villages and townships – “we have far more than ought to exist,” Newfarmer said – spelled failure. As The Enquirer story said, it fell apart mostly because nobody wanted to give up control of anything.
If somebody doesn’t give up something now, taxpayers will be the losers. Local governments will be able to deliver fewer of the services their residents expect. The state budget enacted by Ohio lawmakers last summer, with its massive cost-shifting to local governments, is forcing their hand – many say intentionally.
Ohio Auditor Dave Yost is encouraging local governments to follow suit. His website offers examples, case studies and links for local officials to learn from. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. New York state, for example, has a Local Government Leadership Institute aligned with universities, offering an array of resources for shared-service and efficiency projects.
Northern Kentucky has been ahead of the game, consolidating major departments and functions among cities and among the three counties over the past two decades. Hamilton County has had smaller-scale successes among suburbs. Several have combined police or fire services; Milford and Loveland are sharing a software system; the First Suburbs Consortium is holding talks about ways to join forces on budget items.
The city and county do cooperate on some services, but the big-ticket items remain elusive. A 2010 attempt to even start talking about merging patrol functions of Cincinnati Police and Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department couldn’t get off the ground.
That can’t continue. Tom Williams, Cincinnati Business Committee president and a top backer of the task force, sees it as a rare chance to reinvent government. It is an urgent task, but so far the urgency hasn’t been apparent. Mallory and Hartmann insist that this time will be different. We hope to see that difference soon.
We challenge leaders to step up quickly and do more than talk about saving taxpayer money and improving public services. It’s time to share.
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Quelle/Source: Cincinnati, 14.01.2012
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