Collaboration in LaCrosse pays off

Published - Friday, September 28, 2007

Collaboration could save local governments money, officials say

By REID MAGNEY / La Crosse Tribune

City, county and school officials said Thursday they're working
together to save taxpayers money.

While the savings haven't been totalled and aren't huge, officials
said collaboration during the past year is resulting in better
services to residents.

La Crosse Schools Superintendent Jerry Kember said local leaders hear
complaints about property taxes, and want to find ways to save money.

"Maybe all this conversation about taxes, if nothing else, is causing
organizations to say there isn't enough to go around and there never
will be, so maybe we ought to be talking more," Kember told the
Tribune's Editorial Board.

"We've got a lot of common departments, so why don't we pull together
and see how we can be sharing services, collaborating more, talking to
each other, trying to get some efficiencies and hopefully save the
local people some money, too, and maintain quality of services,"
Kember said.

County Administrator Steve O'Malley said they're also doing joint
purchasing, getting discounts for larger volumes of items like paper,
garbage bags and cleaning supplies.

Mayor Mark Johnsrud said the three have started working together on
some personnel issues, including recruiting and training.

It's unlikely, however, that the three would be able to combine their
human resources departments because of the multitude of different
union contracts with different benefits, said O'Malley.

The city-county-schools collaboration is in five main areas: buildings
and grounds, purchasing, client services, personnel, and
communications and planning.

Johnsrud said the communications and planning work really paid off in
response to last month's flooding.

Departmental staff in those five area meet monthly, and O'Malley,
Johnsrud and Kember meet quarterly to discuss collaboration progress.

The officials said they're open to adding to the collaboration group,
including higher education, schools and neighboring municipalities.