Local Government Collaboration

The Regional Chambers Government Affairs office is actively engaged in promoting local government collaboration and cooperation in the Mahoning Valley. During the past three years, the Regional Chamber initiated efforts to form collaborative groups in both Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Mahoning County Metro Leaders Roundtable

Why was the Roundtable formed: To foster discussion on how local government leaders can develop relationships, form trust and work together in various ways and share information and services to save money and improve the economic vitality of the area. When was it formed: March 2008 and consists of government leaders from Mahoning County Commissioners Office, Mahoning County Sheriffs Department, cities of Youngstown, Canfield and Struthers, villages of Poland and New Middletown and townships of Poland, Coitsville, Boardman, Austintown and Canfield. Who leads the group: Boardman Trustee Brad Calhoun is chair of the group. Boardman Township Administrator Jason Loree is vice chair. Tony Paglia, Regional Chamber vice president of Government Affairs, facilitates the groups activities with the assistance of Shari Budge, Executive and Government Affairs Coordinator.

Goals of the group:

1. Develop trust, openness, and a commitment to work jointly to solve common problems. 2. Commit to meet on a regular basis. 3. Be willing to embark on a long-term effort to improve cooperation across jurisdictional boundaries and explore common problems. 4. Be creative and innovative in identifying solutions to these problems, and to take the political risks associated with doing things differently. 5. Work towards regional collaboration, which is defined as efforts to look beyond community boundaries to partner with other communities in sharing resources and talent.

Items that the Roundtable have worked on since March 2008:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Joint purchasing/Purchasing consortiums (several presentations) Storm water management districts Health insurance consortiums IT service sharing Utility aggregation 911 consolidation

7. Efficientgovnow collaborative grant program 8. Energy conservation initiatives 9. Land use planning 10. Grant writing 11. Joint fire districts

Examples of successes:
1. Mahoning/Youngstown Regional Information Network. Involves a collaboration of Mahoning County, the cities of Youngstown and Canfield and Boardman, Austintown and Canfield townships. The network of six local and regional governments is connecting to available multicounty broadband networks for the purpose of providing three primary services: Access to critical information assisting law enforcement agencies; General IT Services/Shared Services; Disaster Recovery Services. Substantial gains in cost savings and service provision can be achieved through sharing common services among governments. 2. Boardman-Austintown-Canfield Regional Storm Water and Water District. The three communities have formed a regional storm water and water district that will deal, first with storm water flooding problems and eventually deal with drinking water supply and cost. 3. Gas and Electric aggregation: Through information sharing, many of our roundtable members put utility aggregation issues on the ballot. The ability for a local government, representing all of its residents and businesses, to negotiate a price with utilities has resulted in significant savings for customers. The impetus for the actions came from Roundtable information sessions. Before we had our sessions, Trumbull and Mahoning counties had the least number of communities doing utility aggregation in NE Ohio and probably the whole state. Now, just about every community is involved. 4. Joint Fuel Purchasing: After several informational meetings regarding ways to reduce gasoline and diesel costs through the bidding process, some Mahoning County governments have actually signed MOUs with Trumbull County, which approved a joint purchasing contract for gasoline and diesel fuel in Aug. 2010. Those governments, including the city of Youngstown, are piggybacking off of Trumbull Countys price. 5. Joint communications equipment purchasing: The large townships of Boardman and Austintown jointly purchasing communications equipment for their police and fire departments.

They plan to create a joint dispatching district to operate their 911 centers and hopefully bring in other county PSAPS into the district.

Trumbull County Roundtable

Why was the Roundtable formed: This was renewed effort to gain commitments from local elected officials to work together on meaningful ways to collaborative, cooperate, share services and find ways to reduce the costs of government in Trumbull County. When was it formed: September 2009 and consists of government leaders from Trumbull County Commissioners Office, Trumbull County Sheriffs Department, Trumbull County Engineers Office, Trumbull County Planning Commission, the cities of Warren, Cortland, Niles and Girard and the townships of Howland, Champion, Warren, Liberty, Vienna and Brookfield Who leads the group: Tony Paglia is the group facilitator with assistance from Shari Budge. Goals of the group: 1. Develop trust, openness, and a commitment to work jointly to solve common problems. 2. Commit to meet on a regular basis. 3. Be willing to embark on a long-term effort to improve cooperation across jurisdictional boundaries and explore common problems. 4. Be creative and innovative in identifying solutions to these problems, and to take the political risks associated with doing things differently. 5. Work towards regional collaboration, which is defined as efforts to look beyond community boundaries to partner with other communities in sharing resources and talent.

Items that the Roundtable has worked since September 2009:

1. 2. 3. 4. Joint purchasing of fuel, road equipment and materials. Health insurance consortiums Efficientgovnow collaborative grant program Energy conservation initiatives including replace streetlights with LED lighting. 5. Streamlined site plan review process 6. E-government.

Examples of successes:

1. Gas and Electric aggregation: Through information sharing, many of our roundtable members put utility aggregation issues on the ballot. The ability for a local government, representing all of its residents and businesses, to negotiate a price with utilities has resulted in significant savings for customers. The impetus for the actions came from Roundtable information sessions. Before we had our sessions, Trumbull and Mahoning counties had the least number of communities doing utility aggregation in NE Ohio and probably the whole state. Now, just about every community is involved. 2. Joint Fuel Purchasing: After several informational meetings regarding ways to reduce gasoline and diesel costs through the bidding process, Trumbull County Commissioners sought bids and approved a new gasoline and diesel purchasing contract. The accepted bid is expected to save county departments between 10 and 30 cents a gallon. In addition, local governments and school districts are piggybacking off of the countys price. Expected savings annually would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. 3. Joint Road Materials and Equipment: The Trumbull County Engineer has instituted road materials and equipment purchasing programs that will permit local governments to bypass their own bidding and utilize the countys price for materials and equipment, thus providing savings. 4. Unified Site Plant Review Commission: County officials have worked to streamline the process for developers to work through the site plan review process in the county. All county officials and departments involved in issuing permits and reviewing plans will work through the commission to streamline and expedite site plan reviews to make the process business friendly.