PORT ANGELES — Why buy two road graders when only one is needed, Clallam County commissioners and Port Angeles City Council members asked themselves.
Both governments need a road grader, but neither uses it heavily.
Instead of two $50,000 purchases, the city and county could share the cost of buying and maintaining a single grader,
“We need to eliminate redundancy,” Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones said during a rare joint meeting of county commissioners and the council in the county seat.
The topic: Saving money by combining or sharing services that are currently duplicated.
The city and county already knew about 11 areas of cooperation, and a committee made up of city and county elected officials and staff members identified eight additional areas where they may be able to combine for additional savings, Jones said.
The areas where they already cooperate include the county jail, where the city pays a fee to house prisoners; District Court, which provides municipal court services to the city under contract; Lincoln Park, which is owned by the city but used by the county as a fairgrounds; and the shared PenCom 9-1-1 dispatch center.
Since the commissioners and council asked the their department heads to examine ways to combine services, they and employees of counterpart city and county departments have met to brainstorm.
The first meeting between the city and county information-technology departments started out somewhat awkwardly, said Debbie Earley, the county director of IT.
However, with a table full of technology geeks and the urging of their bosses, conversations quickly turned to the challenges each faced with respective systems, and ideas flew back and forth across the table.
“A lot was solved over lunch,” Earley said.
At first, employees didn’t feel comfortable talking without their bosses’ explicit permission or direction, she said.
Since then, city and county IT employees meet regularly, she said.
The example comes from the top.
“Kent [Myers] and I have a standing meeting already,” Jones said of the city manager.
“We meet every Thursday.”
Given economic realities, there isn’t much choice, said Yvonne Ziomkowski, city finance director.
“Alone we will not sustain — we have to work together,” Ziomkowski said.
Simple moves, such as a shared surplus equipment auction, would increase the number of items offered, attract more bidders and bring in higher bids, she noted.
A joint purchasing agreement between the city and county can lower the overall cost by paying one shipping fee and by purchasing in larger bulk volumes, Myers said.
Instead of hiring a Seattle-based archaeologist for county projects, the city offered the hiring out of the services of the city archaeologist, Derek Beery, who already knows the area, he said.
“The cost savings need to benefit both organizations,” said City Council member Brad Collins, himself a retired city department head.
Law enforcement
Another idea to explore is the integration of law enforcement — not just Clallam County and Port Angeles, but other agencies in the county, the group agreed last Tuesday.
“There are five sets of management, five sets of organizations and rules,” Jones said.
The study group didn’t want to take on a study for such a huge undertaking at this time, he said.
“We will evaluate it on its own at a later date,” he said.
With finite revenue sources but infinite requests for services, Jones said it’s important to eliminate redundancies.
Some changes may not be feasible, either politically or legally, Commissioner Mike Doherty said.
Communities have pride in independent authority, he said.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.