Editor’s Note: This is the third of four columns Chuck Hage is writing on his experience as a Cooperstown village trustee. After money and time, his third topic is: Accountability.
The functions of village government can be grouped into administrative (finance and accounting, public safety, justice), operational (water and sewer, maintenance of streets and buildings, parks, library) and developmental (projects to create new facilities, programs of community development).
The first important observation about Cooperstown government is that all village job descriptions currently are administrative or operational; none are developmental. Likewise, nothing is currently budgeted or spent for development except for projects funded with federal and state monies.
There is no organizational structure for development and nearly all property taxes are presently consumed by administrative and operational work.
That means the public sector at best is standing still.
In a community blessed with wonderful environment and enviable legacy, in which private institutions have created and sustain high standards of economic and social health, the public sector misses opportunities for enhancement.
Streets and trees should be in better condition, garbage collection and sidewalk plowing could be provided, and restoration of the village hall is overdue. We should think not only in terms of better services, but also better use of our assets.
Doubleday Field and the adjoining expanse of asphalt from Chestnut Street on the west to Willow Creek on the east are tarnished treasures longing to be polished. Main Street waits year after year to fulfill its potential while the public and private voices debate. Lower Chestnut Street, an ugly entrée to a beautiful village, begs for a facelift. And Grove Street offers some of the last raw material left within the village.
Cooperstown government is relatively large; it has grown considerably in the last decade and is oversized by any measure, especially when considering a concurrent decline in the number of village residents.
Total employment compensation has become a large percentage of the annual budget as public salaries and benefits have increased, here as elsewhere. Clearly this trend needs to be reversed, and one way to do it starts with acknowledging that some functions of village government can be performed under contract.
From time to time the village should obtain bids to perform various administrative and operational functions. Bids provide benchmarks for cost and quality of performance and are a basis to decide whether to streamline an existing function or award a contract to perform it.
Unless village government faces these kinds of “make/buy” (employ/contract) decisions, it cannot claim to have found the best deal for taxpayers.
For as long as it continues to do everything internally without competitive exposure, it will tend to run a job protection program and not fully serve taxpayers.
We realize this when we identify villages, similar in size and complexity to Cooperstown, that function very well with very small staff and a simple organizational structure.
There is no penalty for copying excellent governance; it’s a doorway toward quality services plus savings that can be applied to capital development without raising property taxes.
“… the leaders who will deserve praise in this new era are those who develop a hybrid politics that persuades a majority of voters to cut where we must so we can invest where we must.” Thomas Friedman, Cut Here, Invest There, NYT 12/25/10
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