Commentary; Posted: 8/13/03

Governmental cooperation essential

Even before Gov. Tim Pawlenty was elected, communities had begun to combine services with one another and with their respective counties to save money. The cutback in state funding that followed Pawlentyís budget cutting has provoked even more talk in communities about sharing and consolidating services.

These explorations should be encouraged.

The latest example in the metro area is the talk between West St. Paul and South St. Paul on merging their paid fire departments to save money on staff and equipment. These two communities are similar in culture and population. Combined the department would serve a population of 40,000.

Whatís significant in this development is the agreement by the two fire chiefs to examine the idea.

Furthermore, in West St. Paul, the city council is looking at the possibility of combining other services including police and parks and recreation.

In Anoka County, four communities also are looking at the possibility of combining fire departments, although that is proceeding at a much slower pace. Mutual aid agreements among fire departments help fight major fires.

Likewise, there is assistance by county law enforcement on investigating major crimes in cities within the counties.

There is evidence that local communities are cooperating with one another jointly to provide some services such as joint purchasing.

A good dollar-saving route for local units is continuing to partner with the counties which have the resources and the willingness to help reduce local expense.

Most local governmental unit officials seem to prefer working with counties and maintaining their identity rather than having an elected Metropolitan Council. The council, however, continues to serve a valuable over-all planning function as well as operating metropolitan systems such as sewer and transportation.

County and city officials are starting to meet regularly to share ideas on cost savings and to implement some of them. In Anoka County, a 25-member Joint Law Enforcement Council meets to go over ways to enforce the law better through more coordination.

Perhaps one of the major cost-savers in law enforcement is the centralizing of the dispatch system. In Dakota County local units of government are connected by radio through the Criminal Justice Integration Network. In Anoka County, there also is a central dispatch system and there are plans to embark on a new 800 megahertz system to be in place by the fall of 2004.

One hallmark of cooperation are the four Olympic-size ice sheets at the National Sports Center in Blaine where four communities along with Anoka County combined resources so each one did not have to build its own rink. The county used its bonding power to finance the project, now being repaid by the individual communities.

Most counties in the Twin Cities area either provide library service or they participate in the funding of it through regional library systems.

Forest Lake, as an example, has merged its long successful public library with the Washington County Library System. For library users, this change has been cosmetic in nature as the library continues to serve its purpose.

Another good example of cooperation is in the area of parks, where cities run local parks and the counties and state operate regional park systems.

It is obvious that all counties are working with communities to cut costs by trying to help one another. Such cooperation is needed in these budget-slashing times to maintain the integrity of local communities. ó An opinion from the ECM Editorial Board. The Forest Lake Times is part of ECM Publishers, Inc., Coon Rapids.

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