Regional collaboration growing, reports say; UB projects reveal strong interest in cost-effective ef

Western New York governments and other public-service entities have an "impressive and encouraging" record of cost-effective collaboration and a growing interest in more such efforts as an approach to building a stronger region.

Those are the conclusions of two reports released last week by the Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth at UB. One of the reports details outcomes of a municipal-school district collaboration project conducted over the past year in northern Erie and Genesee counties. The other summarizes ongoing collaborations among governments in nine Western New York counties.

"These reports are valuable not only because they offer models that area governments can use and replicate," said John B. Sheffer, II, director of the institute, "but also because they give encouragement that if we now go about the task of regional cooperation in an even more deliberate and aggressive manner, it can really add up to something substantial in terms of the costs, efficiency and competitiveness of the region in the 21st century."

The Municipal-School District Collaborations Program was conducted in the 60th State Senate District with funds provided by Sen. Mary Lou Rath, chair of the Senate Committee on Local Government. In two rounds of incentive grants under this program, a total of eight partnerships between municipalities and school districts received support for collaborative efforts.

Spurred by these incentive grants, the five projects funded in the first round of the program have achieved significant successes in terms of improved efficiencies and cost savings. For example, an effort jointly conducted by Byron-Bergen Central School District and the Village of Bergen in Genesee County anticipates that, by purchasing its electric power from the village, the district can realize annual savings of $175,000.

In another project, the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Union Free School District and the Town of Tonawanda jointly developed a natural-gas fueling facility, saving $300,000 in construction costs for a separate station and vastly improving fueling efficiencies for both the town and the district.

Both projects were initiated with program grants of $20,000 or less.

"These are the kinds of results we hoped for when this project was launched," said Rath. "The Municipal-School District Collaborations Program has been so successful that we have initiated a statewide pilot based on the same model."

The second report released by the institute contains the results of a survey conducted last fall in Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Genesee, Livingston, Wyoming, Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua counties. More than 100 municipalities responded, reporting some 264 intermunicipal arrangements that, in some cases, extend back to the 1800s.

"That's just the total for about 37 percent of the municipalities surveyed," Sheffer said, "which tells us that even this active picture of collaboration is just a fraction of what's going on out there."

Kathryn A. Foster, UB professor of planning who conducted the survey, noted, "What's so striking is not only the impressive number of intermunicipal arrangements, but also their breadth. You name the service, some municipality in Western New York is providing it collaboratively. Even services that many believe will never regionalize, like police and planning, are represented in some of the reported collaborations. And 97 percent of the respondents reported either steady or growing interest in collaboration with other municipalities and service providers, as compared to five years ago."

Collaborations reported in the survey included joint efforts on public-works projects, public safety and other key services. In addition to success stories, the report includes detailed lists of specific collaborations and partners listed by each municipality that responded.

Sheffer believes that the two reports clearly indicate both a basis for, and a continuing interest in, shared services.

"We at the institute believe these reports clarify a key point: Not only is regionalism not a new and radical idea, it's something that's been going on here for over a century in some cases, and local governments are eager to do more of it.

"The important task now is to both understand and accelerate the effort. For the Buffalo-Niagara region to be competitive, we must pick up the pace of regional initiatives."

Copies of both reports are available from the Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth at 829-3777.