Shared Services

Another item that is a hot topic in my home state of New Jersey is that of Shared Services.  For those of you not from this part of the USA, we have little thing here called “Home Rule”, which states that any town, no matter how small, has the right to its own police/fire/EMT/etc.  For a state with 566 towns (And here I’m using “Towns” to mean all types of municipalities.  There are five types of municipality in the state—boroughs (250), cities (52), towns (15), townships (246), and villages (3). New Jersey, the fourth smallest state, is 8,722 square miles, meaning the average land size of a municipality in the state is only 15 square miles.) this is a huge drain on our economy.  That means that we have >500 police chiefs in this state.  Wow.

What we really need to do is remove the services that all towns need and have them dealt with at the County level, of which there are 21.  Just brainstorming, this is what we would have at the County level rather than in the municipalities:

·         Police (under the existing County Sheriff’s office)

·         Courts

·         School District

·         Fire/Emergency Medical

·         Waste Disposal

·         Water & Sewer

·         Transportation (Mass Transit & Road Maintenance)

·         Tax Assessment/Collection

·         Animal Control (Including Shelters)

·         Parks & Recreation

Does this mean that areas like Newark or Camden would get the less service from the police, because they are more densely populated and don’t have control anymore?  Nope.  In fact, it means that police would be able to be moved from some of the areas of lower crime into areas of higher crime.  We could also be able to rotate duty areas so that you don’t have to deal with burn out.  What do you think a current Newark officer would say if he was told that he/she was to patrol the city for a two week period and then have two weeks working in Millburn?  Sounds like a great way to relieve workplace stress to me.

I suppose you’re wondering what would be left to do at the town level.  Plenty, as a matter of fact.  Each town would still have its own Planning/Zoning commission, so they could determine the look of each town.  They would also have their own financial department, which would get fed taxes from the County based on population & size of the town, but they would also be able to levy fees of their own.  An easy example of this would be beach badges (yes, for those of you out in the rest of the world, we actually charge people to go onto the beach).  Since not all towns would have need of things like this, it would remain at their level.

This isn’t only about cost savings, mind you.  This set-up would also be hugely more efficient on all levels.  Even if no one lost their job and were just reorganized under the county banner, you would see a streamlining effect almost immediately.  The county would be able to negotiate contracts with outside vendors from a much better position than a small town would.  Then there’s the improvement in the schools, with the reduction of the top-heavy management and more funds available for the teachers and needed supplies.

“Well, why hasn’t it been done yet?” you ask?  Pride.  Pure, unadulterated, “this is my sandbox and no one else to play in it” pride.  With the state of things today, I really hope that the politicians in this state wise up and realize that this would be better for everyone.  It sounds like we’re moving in that direction, for what the Senate President and Governor are saying, but it’s not quick enough, IMHO.