Cooperation and consolidation could be money-savers
The Hollister City Council did the only thing it could do this
week and approved the first phase of City Manager Clint Quilter’s
laundry list of cuts in city services. Now it’s time to take the
next step, and begin a discussion about how to cope long-term with
a chronic lack of funds.
Cooperation and consolidation could be money-savers
The Hollister City Council did the only thing it could do this week and approved the first phase of City Manager Clint Quilter’s laundry list of cuts in city services. Now it’s time to take the next step, and begin a discussion about how to cope long-term with a chronic lack of funds.
One good idea that needs resurrecting is service consolidation.
Quilter developed the list of cuts following the failure of the Measure R ballot initiative last November. Measure R would have imposed a temporary 1 percent sales tax addition within the city limits.
Given a looming financial crisis, cuts are the most expedient way to cut costs. Further, it’s appropriate that the council not micromanage, but rather depend on administrators to give the best advice available and act on it.
Now’s the time to see how best to serve the people of Hollister and environs. In a community of roughly 37,000 people dominating a countywide population of some 55,000, consolidation seems a workable approach to ensuring adequate services.
The cities of Hollister and San Juan Bautista joined the county for animal control services many years ago. The Hollister and county libraries were consolidated. San Juan Bautista depends on the county Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement. The city privatized refuse collection, turning a growing expense into a profit center in one year’s time. But in the 1980s, when visionary city council members began a discussion about consolidating fire services and perhaps even following the city of Campbell’s lead in creating a single public safety department for law enforcement and fire protection, the outcry from union groups and self-interested bureaucrats doomed the idea.
The vote Nov. 7 made one thing clear: on the heels of a drastic increase in public utility fees, voters want to see some creative solutions before they tax themselves further.
City and county leaders have been trumpeting a new era of interagency cooperation lately. If that’s the case, the time is ripe to set aside a petty empire or two, and manifest some cooperation that saves us all money while preserving essential services.
Of course, it will not work in every case. The county and cities are charged with different roles. But now is the time to find out where it will work, and to set about making it work.
