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Case studies of collaboration that works
Kent State looks at several examples of government collaboration, explains the problems and how they were overcome: http://www.kent.edu/cpapp/index.cfm
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Rate your community's chances
Wondering if a Local Government Innovation Fund grant or loan is coming to your community? Here's how the applications will be scored: http://development.ohio.gov/Urban/documents/Scoring2312.pdf
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Yost provides toolkit
Ohio Auditor is offering tips and instructions for leaders to reduce the size of local government entities. Here is Yost's news release with a link to the toolkit.
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Due diligence with education survey
I have seen no evidence of governments rushing into collaboration. If anything, there has been criticism of working too slowly. Almost everyone I talk to emphasizes that creating shared services is hard, time-consuming work. I can't cite any examples, but I'm sure some officials have looked at areas for possible savings and found none. (Politicians are never likely to point out their failures!) Nevertheless, if you strive to find all areas of possible savings, it seems you also wind up making some false starts. Here's an example of looking for exisiting ideas and fishing for others. The attached document was sent by the state to educators to gauge attitudes toward collaboration. How would you answer?
Thanks to Randy Cole for sharing this.
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Coming stories look at Collaboration
Expect two collaboration stories this week. One that is already finished and slated for Tuesday (no guarantees, this is the news business after all), looks at a technology network that could link municipalities throughout Northeast Ohio. Tallmadge thinks it will allow it to save more than $100,000 over five years.
The other story is an update on the county's effort to collaborate on paving projects. The numbers are just now coming in and most say they expect savings but can't say how much. County Engineer Al Brubaker expects to do it again next year on an expanded basis.
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