County Executive Chris Moss has unveiled a new way of administering “Shared Services” in Chemung County.
On June 27th, Vincent Azzarelli, the Chemung County Public Information Coordinator, held two public hearings for county legislators and members of the public to announce and roll out the proposed “Shared Service Opportunities” that the Moss Administration is offering to municipalities in Chemung County.
Legislator Rodney J. Strange is very impressed and strongly supportive of this new plan and believes it is the true meaning of “Shared Services” that has been totally lacking in previous so-called county/municipal shared service agreements in the past.
“For the past eight years that I have served on the legislature, we have had multiple “shared service” agreements put before us and approved. Almost every one was one sided and only beneficial to the municipalities that the agreements were with. Chemung County very rarely received any benefit with these agreements. They were almost always the county taking over the cost of the service and providing it with minimal financial contribution from the municipality, if any at all. Some municipalities did pay a fee, but it was not fair, equitable or equal throughout the county among all municipalities. They were NOT a “shared service” in the true definition of the term. One municipality in particular where this was not the case, is in the Town of Big Flats where their agreements with the county have proven to be financially cost effective. A few of these shared service agreements stretched some departments so thin in both manpower and equipment that they had a hard time getting their own work done for county residents. Many legislators in the past questioned the previous administration as to the benefit the county would receive from these agreements. “Shared Services” should and must be a two way street. Both parties should get a benefit from the agreement in some way. Basically, what happened in the past, was just a county takeover of the service for the benefit of the municipality. I supported these agreements because I knew exactly what we were doing, helping out our local municipalities with county tax dollars. The county was financially able to fund these services for our municipalities and with the sales tax redistribution change, I believed we should help whenever we could. It was always clear to me that in most cases they were never a shared services in any way, shape or form. I’m not against these type of deals, but we need to call them for what they are and not label them as “shared services” as they were presented as such. This new plan to offer options to local municipal governments with these new shared service opportunities is exactly the way we should be administering a shared services plan. The options and services in the plan can also be added to in the future should a new service be needed and cost adjusted if necessary. In the past, many local elected officials felt they were being forced into shared service agreements by the previous administration. This plan does not force anyone to enter into a shared service, these are only offered as an option should the municipalities seek to take advantage them” – Legislator Rodney J. Strange
You can read the 42 page plan below: (It may take a few seconds to load) Use up & down arrows on top left hand side of box to change pages.
Presentation pdf (1)