Great examples of local collaboration

By John Bebow | Published: March 12, 2009

Three cheers to Traverse City Mayor Michael Estes for innovative thinking in times of crisis…

“I think we have a golden opportunity right now,” Estes told the Traverse City Record-Eagle this week. “You don’t have changes in government when things in the private sector are going gangbusters. When the private sector is going through some consolidation, it’s the appropriate time to also review those services that government provides, and find a way you can take some costs out of the system.”

On the news that city taxpayers spend significantly more per capital for police and fire protection than comparable cities, Traverse City is considering merging its police department with the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Department, and combining fire with Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department.

In fact, public officials in many locales across Michigan are working hard to collaborate with neighboring jurisdictions in ways never realized before. Each week, in Community Conversations across the state, the Center for Michigan hears more examples of great local collaboration. Here’s a quick summary of promising practices we’ve heard in recent weeks…

  • Six communities (Algonac, St. Clair, Port Huron, Lexington, Marine City, Ft. Gratiot) collaborated on a $550,000 tourism campaign to brand the region.
  • The tiny inner ring Metro Detroit suburb of Pleasant Ridge contracts with Huntington Woods for library services, Royal Oak for public works and Oak Park for leaf collection.
  • Lathrup Village contracts prisoner lock-up from City of Beverly Hills.
  • The City of Wayne and City of Romulus came together and purchased a brine production system for converting standard road salt into a brine solution for pre-wetting and anti-icing applications saving both communities money on road salting.
  • In Flint, the four colleges in the area (Baker, Davenport, Mott and the U-M) meet monthly to develop ways to turn Flint into a college/university town with all of the vibrancy that usually accompanies that kind of an environment.

    • Tell us more! Sharing these creative approaches to local problem solving can help all Michigan communities weather this economic storm.

    This entry was posted in Fresh Thoughts, Government Collaboration, The Center at Work. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

    One Comment

    1. Scott Hardy
      Posted March 12, 2009 at 12:55 pm | Permalink

      Before you get to carried away with the RE story I would suggest that you first look into the analysis of how they came to the per-capita claim. While there are slightly over 14,000 city residents in TC the Police and Fire deal with over 30,000 visitors to the city during the winter and upwards of 100,000 in the summer months. The spending needs to be looked at in terms of the number of people served by the public safety community not just the city residents. Saving taxpayers, and I am one in TC, money is great but quick fix solutions like immediate regional consolidation need to be weighed against the impact, wants, and needs of the community being served. In this case it is a far more complicated issue than this proposed solution implies.