🔒Ideas for savings plentiful

It's time for Connecticut's Municipal Opportunities & Regional Efficiencies Commission to reach higher for municipal savings, a Connecticut town leader told colleagues at Hartford Business Journal's third annual Municipal Collaboration Summit.

The MORE Commission has done well getting people to share ideas since it was re-established in 2013 and laying the foundation for future efficiencies, but ideas so far are generally considered low-hanging fruit, said John Elsesser, Coventry town manager and president of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns (COST).

“I think it's time to build a ladder or some other means of climbing higher to get to the ripe fruit that we know is at the top of the tree that's lit by the sun,” Elsesser said.

“I don't think anyone really believes that the status quo is a viable option anymore,” he said, offering some ideas where savings might be obtained.

They include:

• Regionalizing assessments — He noted each town has its own assessor's office, many of which buy software from the same company. That software could be purchased once for a region and in-house staff could shift from area to area for assessments rather than hiring outside contractors for the task, he said.

• Regionalizing and consolidating public safety answering points, or PSAPs, but he said police chiefs have raised legitimate concerns about prisoner handling if emergency dispatch stations are dark. Someone needs to watch inmates, he said, suggesting perhaps state judicial marshals could instead pick up and hold prisoners.

• Consolidating the tracking of land records. Coventry, for example, joined other towns in bidding on a land-record system that was beneficial, he said.

• Shifting voter registration from part-time registrars of voters to town clerks, who already provide much of that function.

• Examining state functions towns could assume. “We sell fishing licenses for the state …,” he said. “What other things should towns maybe do?” Perhaps towns, already linked to the Department of Motor Vehicles, could assume some of its tasks and do them better.

“What MORE needs to do is tell a story of success,” Elsesser said. “We have to share the stories of what's working and we're not good story-tellers.”

There's also a need for more good data to drive decisions, he said, adding “it can't be ad-hoc and it can't be sensitive to political and popular issues only. The time for hard decision-making is here.”

State Rep. Jonathan Steinberg (D-Westport), who is House chair of the MORE Commission, said there's been significant progress creating incentives and opportunities for municipalities to start collaborating. Many formerly skeptical municipal leaders see the benefits of collaboration, but MORE must do a better job communicating and engaging Councils of Government, he said.

“If we're going to move this forward, the COGs need to be effective partners,” Steinberg said.

The more towns that collaborate, the bigger the savings, he said.

“So when you want to keep your mill rate down, you want to keep from raising taxes, you want to show to your citizenry that you're being as efficient as possible, now's the time to get on board because it will be easy to blame the state for failing to give you municipal aid going forward, but it's still going to be on municipalities to figure out how to balance their budgets,” Steinberg said.

Read more

After GE, CT needs spark to end economic blackout

Seeking accord - Lawmakers push for budget pact; biz frets over mandates

Leveraging technology as a competitive advantage

State has role in boosting affordable, high-speed Internet access

Municipalities wary of larger state role in transit-oriented development