For the first time in years, Lansing may send a little bit more money to local governments.
Still, communities are finding new ways to collaborate, combine operations, and pinch pennies — just as many business and government leaders have urged for years.
Numerous Oakland County communities are considering combining police departments. “It’s just good government,” Bloomfield Township Supervisor David Payne tells the Free Press.
In Ferndale, they’re using more efficient lightbulbs. In Dearborn Heights, the mayor challenges utility bills the same way savvy consumers do. And, the Detroit News reports, in Warren, the new mayor decided he could do away with the tradition of having a publicly funded chauffeur.
Imagine how all Michigan local governments might be incentivized to save if revenue sharing from the state required such collaboration.
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When I think of creative collaboration I think of all the groups, organizations, governments, businesses and dedicated individuals who are pulling together for nature through the capacity-building programs of the Stewardship Network. Our local collaborative conservation communities (called Stewardship Network Clusters) allow people to pull together for nature in special places close to their hearts and homes.
The Stewardship Network connects a broad range of groups, rallies volunteers, and fills the gaps in today’s preservation efforts. Every day, we’re out on the land and on the web — making connections, providing hands-on training, building relationships, sharing information and tools. We strengthen the effectiveness of the people and groups that protect our natural areas – improving our land, our water, and our communities, together.
http://www.stewardshipnetwork.org
In 2007, three years after receiving 501c3 status, the Stewardship Network partnered with over 55 groups and had more than 3,000 participants at our events. Creative collaboration is the solution to making our individual and collective efforts to protect Michigan’s natural lands and waters more effective, more inspiring, and more fun.
Our five local collaborative conservation communities, Stewardship Network Clusters, held 85 events at 35 unique field sites lake to lake across the southern half of the lower peninsula. Our mission to increase capacity to care for natural lands and waters through collaboration, cooperation, education, networking, and training is met with a hunger for more. As one Michigan Department of Natural Resources official recently said, “The Stewardship Network is one of the few rays of hope in an otherwise gloomy conservation forecast.”
With resources stretched in every aspect of caring for our natural areas, Michigan is demanding this model of making the whole of natural areas protection more than the sum of its parts.
I think that is a Spectacular idea.
I think there is a common thread here with the numbers of small local governments in Michigan, the numbers of various charities, the numbers of School districts, the numbers of churches etc.
The thread is that people generally dont like to work together for the single reason that they often have a common goal with subtle nuances of differentiation and small groups like to have a singular identity by nature and do not want to give up certain specifics to be “stirred” into the pot with bunches of others. People like to have their own identities so they can point to themselves as superior.
Churches you’ll notice so many that are so close in both beleifs and practices but dont combine because of some small differences they cant resolve.
Politics you’ll notice that both parties almost always have the same goal but have such a hard time working together in compromise because of some key differences in their agenda that one side’s policies will hurt the other’s side.
Same with school districts to a slightly different extent.
I think school systems should have more efficiently combined resources at the top and for support systems. I dont believe in small towers of power all over the place doing the same thing but with subtle differences. I think we have PLENTY of research about Education that can point to core sets of procedures and methods to get the best combined set of experiences and foundations laid out for students at every school in the state at every grade level.
I understand there are key differences in demographics and cultures between school systems and some things should always be left up to the local schools in determining their best methods. And of course each school’s staff input should be used in cases where policies arent working. But we should save money by not allowing each school district to be its own near autonomous little nation. It costs us taxpayers too much.
And what about childless taxpayers? many of them dont like to keep paying higher and higher taxes to keep funding things like each school’s personal olympic swimming pool or great new football stadium, or neat new school building that doesnt house any more kids than before like mine just did a couple years ago. These are great things, but only when a community hard hit can really afford them.
And shouldnt these systems be required to save up money for improvements or remodeling like everyone tells us consumers should be doing?
But thats just schools. This topic spans all local services. I think people want to see a very clearly published Electronic PDF of the expenditures of their local township/ city/village/ county etc for each dollar spent, so we can have some transparency. Any government employee’s salary should be also made available at anytime. Its what should be expected when you are hired to be a PUBLIC SERVANT.
The one thing i think is a bad idea is to cut police/dispatch/fire rescue services or employees out if at all possible. Those are the number one priority, in my opinion, of any local govt employee.
We should also be able to see the agenda and results of all local committees and commissions. The public should be shown what our local leaders are up to in a transparent way. When they are doing great we should know that so we can thank them and complement them in person. When they are wasting our money, we should know that and get rid of them or set a new agenda.