Start by consolidating health departments, and then move forward

Consolidating Youngs- town’s health department with the Mahoning County General Health District, as you urged in a recent editorial, would be a significant first step in streamlining our city’s government to the benefit of taxpayers. Such an arrangement has been in place for about a year between Akron’s and Summit County’s health agencies and reportedly is working as planned.

You state it well that “duplication of services is a waste of limited resources” and “layer upon layer of public entities competing for the shrinking pool of taxpayer dollars is no longer sustainable.”

Keeping the ball rolling, here are a few more cost-saving ideas our area government leaders might consider:

Within City Hall there are departments for purchasing, human resources, payroll, finance, risk management, information technology, etc., while these same routine administrative functions are going on in the Mahoning County offices just a block away. Could the city and county centralize and pool these similar tasks and share the cost? If this works, neighboring towns and townships might join the consolidation and also save money. Other duplicate departments within the various government layers include planning, engineering, building inspections, zoning, road maintenance, fire service, facilities management, litter and recycling and emergency dispatching.

The layers of diverse courts and law enforcement present a special challenge, and it takes justice system consultants to advise on realignment of this sector. But it is being accomplished by progressive governments in many states.

A city of our population (66,000 and falling) does not need seven wards, each with a council person costing $28,000 a year plus family plan health insurance at $1,335 per month. A charter review commission should be appointed with a priority of redistricting the city and reducing the number of wards to five. This alone would save nearly $90,000 a year.

Our parks department has been only vaguely accountable for years. Even former Mayor Jay Williams described the 1939 charter amendment creating parks and rec as “outdated and functionally obsolete.” He admitted that the $3.3 million-a-year operation is “plagued by numerous deficiencies.” Yet it has without an official director for four years. Meanwhile, priceless assets such as Stambaugh Golf Course, Wick Park and four others, our new swimming pool, seven ball fields and kids’ summer programs could be at risk because of questionable oversight and tenuous finances.

Mill Creek MetroParks has the governance, professional staff and ample public tax support to step in and turn things around. Youngstown State University also might want to partner in by contracting with MetroParks to offer courses in parks and recreation management and use Youngstown’s facilities as course labs.

It seems redundant for the city to operate an economic development department. (Annual budget nearly $200,000.) We already have the Port Authority, the Regional Chamber, the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corporation, Team NEO and a number of other public and private organizations pursuing companies and jobs for us. And who supports all this overlapping? The taxpayers, for sure, directly or indirectly.

Vindicator correspondent in Columbus Marc Kovac defined our ongoing dilemma perfectly when he wrote recently: “They (the governor and legislature) are not going to send more money to local governments. Something will have to be done to help school districts, cities, townships and counties better control their costs.”

I expect some of my suggestions will be dismissed as unachievable or politically naive. My intention is to bring awareness and stimulate thought. We’re in urgent need of fresh ideas and new approaches. Welcome, all.

John J. Gillespie, Youngstown