ISSUE - MERGING COUNTY AND CITY SERVICES

ISSUE – MERGING CITY AND COUNTY SERVICES

This is the fourth in the series of answers to the questions raised by News & Record Editor, Allen Johnson.

The easy part of the answer to the question about which city and county services should be merged is that we should merge all services where both the city and county can improve efficiency and save money. This, however, is an answer that may be too simplistic. There are services that might be merged but would require changes in state law, or even constitutional changes. An example of this is any proposed merger of the policing duties of the Greensboro Police Department and the Guilford County Sheriff.

There are other services that could be merged through simple cooperation between the city and county governments. I believe that a good starting point would be making a list of all of the services that both governments provide to residents. Once that list is made, some sub-lists could be made. One sub-list would include all services where there is any overlap in the provision of the service, such as common water sources, shared sewer lines, common solid waste facilities, etc. This sub-list would probably include the services that would produce the largest savings from merger as well as the ones that would take the least effort to accomplish. A second sub-list would include those services where there is no overlap in services but where the services provided are virtually identical. Once again, merging these services could produce sizable savings, but the effort to accomplish the merger could be more difficult. A third sub-list would include services, such as policing, where there are known obstacles, other than the level of inter-government cooperation, that would add difficulty to merging the services listed.

The items on the first and second sub-lists should be scheduled for talks with the county in the immediate future. The items on the third sub-list should be tabled until mergers of some of the other services have been accomplished and proven to be real cost savers and efficiency producers for both the county and city.

I believe that the time is well past for animosity between Guilford County and the City of Greensboro. There are many areas where cooperation between the two produces many benefits to both. Economic development is the most obvious. Fortunately, there are a number of examples where cooperation in this area has been beneficial.

Other services provided by the city and county can enjoy comparable cost savings and efficiencies. One party needs to take the initiative. I propose that the City Manager start preparing lists of services of the types that I outlined above (I’ll bet he already has such lists), discuss these with City Council, and make overtures to the Guilford County Manager about engaging in a formal study of merging some of these services. Once the first service is merged, others will follow in due course. But the key has to be cost savings and efficiency – not just merging for the sake of merging.

I welcome your comments.

Also see my web site at www.boyettforcitycouncil.com.