Local Government: Merger or Consolidation

This weekend both Madison newspapers covered the issue of local governments working together to provide better services at reasonable costs.  The Capital Times covered the merger of several fire departments. Merging Fire Departments Tough, but Payoff is Good:

Despite a national buzz in recent years about the benefits of cooperation, those who have tried it know that any government consolidation is an arduous process. But for fire departments, who would be asked in merger to blend something much more personal than trucks and stations and nozzles, the idea is particularly challenging.

On Sunday, the Wisconsin State Journal examined 'renting services.' Small Town Faces Big Police Decisions:

DEERFIELD - In a move some say strikes at the heart of what it means to live in a small community, the Village Board is considering disbanding its police force and contracting with the Dane County Sheriff's Office to patrol the village.

Both articles focus on the emotional issues, loss of community identity and tradition.  Both articles focus on the economic benefits and the hope that the pooling of resources will provide higher levels of service.

Here is what is missed in these discussions:

• In consolidation or merger, one of the parties often uses the resources of the other to cover administrative expenses, and does not provide the expected level of services. To offset this, the provider should err in providing higher levels of service.
• In merger, the objective of services is often forgotten. Combined with the fervor of merger and the loss of administrative responsibility, major functions wither and the community suffers.  A perfect example of this is the merger of the Dane County and City of Madison Health Departments.  The loss of public health nurses devoted to Madison neighborhoods is devastating.  Their loss of participation the Neighborhood Resource Teams is one reason that gang and violent crime rose so rapidly in the last three years.
• There is the cherry-picking.  The urban center, Milwaukee, Madison, Oshkosh, and Green Bay has to provide a full compliment of services.  Madison taxpayers do not have the right to opt out of the highest level of fire service for high rise buildings, the Civic Center, Monona Terrace, or the extraordinary cost of dealing with drifters, most with emotional or drug dependency problems, who collect on State Street. Yet adjacent communities can pick and choose which services to share.

In anticipation of the critic who says Madison does not have to take care of the drifters, I remind you that more than one arson fire was started by a drifter who was purchased a bus ticket to Madison by another local unit of government and disappeared into the night.