And speaking of Pac-man….
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Here’s a little something I found in the Syracuse Post-Standard. It’s about the town Supervisor in Clay, NY, who wants to merge the town’s police dept with the county sheriff’s dept. It would seem that a lot of villages/towns/counties in NYS are looking at consolidating as an option for getting out of financial crises. It’s one of those choices that makes many cringe. One word that comes to mind is,” resistance”. Here is a similar article from Syracuse.com, and one more, here :
Clay, NY - The Town of Clay town board has scheduled a special meeting at 2 p.m. today (March 25th) to discuss calling a public hearing regarding potential consolidation of the Town of Clay Police Department with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office.
A public referendum on the consolidation proposal will be scheduled in early June, Clay Supervisor Jim Rowley said. If approved, consolidation could happen by July 1.
Rowley said the move will save Clay taxpayers about $1 million in the first year with no cut in police services. The Sheriff’s Office will provide two dedicated patrols, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to Clay. That’s the same coverage currently provided by the Clay Police Department, Rowley said.
A couple of days ago, I addressed the issue of consolidating services and metro-government. Apparently, others are seeing this option as a viable way of preserving services while cutting costs.
County Executive Joanie Mahoney praised Rowley for initiating the conversation. Her director of intergovernmental affairs, Ben Dublin, has been working on the merger since Mahoney’s second day in office, she said.
The plan calls for the sheriff’s office to provide two patrol cars in Clay, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Rowley said. “That’s currently what our existing police tries to do, so there’s no cut in service, which is what we wanted,” he said.
Joanie Mahoney-gotta love that name! (Glad she just assumed office-wouldn’t want her jumping into the Republican fray for congress in the 25th)
Wasn’t there a huge uproar when Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson wanted to merge some services with the county to save everyone money?
I guess it is more acceptable for suburbs to merge their services with the county, but not if the city wants to do it.
Have you examined the claim of saving $1million? Is the Onondaga County Sheriff going to hire six or eight additional deputies and buy 2 new patrol cars? If so how much will that cost? Who will pay that cost? If the Sheriff is going to use existing resources, what part of Onondaga County will now get less Sheriff service due to the shift?
Appropriate consolidation of certain services may (MAY) save some money but it almost always means less service. Its not a magic bullet.
The Onondaga Sheriff will take over Clay’s cars (just repaint them), and all but 3 officers will laterally transfer to become Sheriffs and cover the same area. The 3 officers will not lose their jobs, they can also transfer over to the county, but will go into existing openings available.
The Town of Clay will pay OCSO for the exclusing availability of those 2 patrols that will replace exactly what the Clay PD has been doing all along.
Same service, less money. Win-Win for Town of Clay!
Thanks ProMerger. Good info. Now, I just hope Mr DiCaro sees this.
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