Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2010

CONTACT: Arnold Weinfeld
League Foundation President
Michigan Municipal League Foundation
(517) 908-0304; aweinfeld@mml.org

Michigan Municipal League Foundation, State Create Program to Help Communities Share Services

Shared Public Service Initiative Launches July 1

Lansing - The Michigan Municipal League Foundation has partnered with the state of Michigan and other organizations to launch a new initiative that provides funding and encouragement to local governments and school districts looking to share services.

Beginning July 1, communities throughout the state will have the Shared Public Services Initiative program to help them on collaborations, said Grandville Mayor Jim Buck, chairman of the Michigan Municipal League Foundation. Other program partners are the Michigan Townships Association, Michigan Association of Counties, Michigan Association of Regions and Intermediate School Districts.

“In these economic times, Michigan communities are looking at every way possible to save money. Many of them look at sharing services as a way to save, but there are various obstacles in their way,” Buck said. “This initiative helps reduce some of the challenges and makes sharing services easier and more affordable.”

Carol Steffanni, the initiative’s program director and director of the Strategic Initiatives Office in the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget, explained the program set out to address some of the issues local governments have when looking to share services. The key issue that came up was the lack of funding to hire consultants to help in the process. Consultants are often needed to help in everything from analyzing the business case for sharing services to forming the actual plan.

“Governor Granholm wanted to find a way to help local governments and schools as they worked to reduce costs and continue services for today and into the future,” said Steffanni. “The success of this initiative is based on operational ownership at the local level working through the Michigan Municipal League Foundation and the Intermediate School Districts and Planning and Development Regions. All decisions pertaining to local services will be made by the local entities.”

Under this initiative, communities or schools identify a shared service opportunity with the assistance of their regional planning agencies, councils of government or intermediate school districts. The local governments then send a pricing request for a business case and implementation plan proposal to the Michigan Municipal League Foundation. Each participating local unit of government will need its council or board to approve proceeding with consultant services. For those that proceed, the Michigan Municipal League Foundation will pick up 50 percent of the cost of the technical assistance, with the remaining 50 percent of the cost to be split among the participating local communities.

“The Foundation wants to help the communities, but it’s also important for the communities to be invested both conceptually and financially,” said Arnold Weinfeld, president of the Michigan Municipal League Foundation and director of the League’s strategic initiatives.

The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments also has formed a checklist of questions that communities can use when looking at collaboration. The checklist and an operations manual will be available on the Shared Service Initiative’s website, scheduled to go live July 1, at www.michigan.gov/sharedpublicservices.

But the initiative goes beyond technical assistance. The website also will have a Yellow Pages-like tool listing services provided by the public sector that can be purchased or used by local governments and school districts, in such areas as information technology, accounting and purchasing, Steffanni said. The website also will contain examples of shared services from around the state so would-be collaborators can view best practices and what has worked along with the issues that had to be overcome. In the future, it will also have a social networking component for communities.

View an article about this program from Crain's Detroit Business.

For details contact Arnold Weinfeld, League Foundation president, at (517) 908-0304 or aweinfeld@mml.org.

The Michigan Municipal League Foundation was organized in 1991 to enhance and develop leadership in local government. The Foundation serves as the fundraising arm of the Michigan Municipal League and is a registered 501-(c)-(3) charitable organization.

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