NJSSA ELECTS LEADERSHIP TEAM FOR 2010

Morris County Shared Services Coordinator Linda Murphy was recently elected President of the New Jersey Shared Services Association, a NJAC affiliate group. The organization’s leadership for 2010 is as follows:

President, Linda Murphy (Morris)
Vice President, Gary LaVenia (Burlington)
Secretary Treasure, Stephen Callas (Monmouth)

North Trustee, Mary Beth Stull (Hudson)
Central Trustee, Cherron Roundtree (Union)
South Trustee, Gina Santore (Camden)

Chair, Best Practices Committee, Margaret Maxwell-Mood (Salem)
Chair, Education & Website Committee, Mary Beth Stull (Hudson)
Chair, Legislative Committee, Gina Santore (Camden)

Below are the results of a statewide survey of shared services between counties and municipalities.  Please not that the information below was provided by county shared services coordinators.  Counties that are represented in this memo are those for which information was available at the time of the survey.

 Atlantic County 

• Animal Control
• 911 Centralized Communications
• County Record Retention for Municipalities
• Countywide Fleet Maintenance
• Countywide Fleet Purchasing
• Annexation of Municipalities (Corbin City/Upper Township)
• Feasibility studies on Police Protection Mergers
• Countywide Tax Assessments and Revaluation
• Countywide Stormwater Maintenance and Compliance

 Burlington County 

• Provide Central Communications
• County Library System
• Recycling Program
• County Landfill
• Police and Fire Training Center
• County Health Department
• Regional Planning and Economic Development (including GIS)
• County Animal Shelter
• PARIS Grant initiative for county/municipal records storage
• Programs and services offered by county to municipalities:
  • Free grant writing for all Share Program & Economic Development/Redevelopment
  • Free feasibility studies w/county consultants (currently studying impact on small towns of state police patrol surcharge)
  • Free credit courses through bimonthly Shared Services seminars
  • Municipal Apartment Condominium Collection Services (MACCS) – 11 towns participate in consortium for collection of solid wate
  • Free in-kind professional services for engineering, property valuation, economic and redevelopment projects
  • Ongoing analysis of shared services opportunities
  • Vehicle wash facility

Camden County

ADMINISTRATION
• Election services
• Notary Public registration
• Business trade name registration
• Will probate
• Guardianship administration
• Records assessment, management and retention
• Cooperative purchasing program for office supplies

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• Pooled financing
• Regional planning
• Economic development promotion: tri-county summit
• GIS (Geographical Information Systems)
• Customized training programs
• Customized job search assistance, job fairs for unemployed, education and training workshops, transportation assistance by One-Stop Career Center

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND PROTECTION
• Mosquito control
• Tonnage recycling grants provided to municipalities as incentive to reduce landfill waste at county landfill
• Collection & disposal of household chemical waste, paint, batteries
• Collection & disposal of household computers and electronics
• Cooperative purchasing program for energy
• Preservation of open space and farmland through funding provided by Open Space and Historic Preservation Trust Fund in combination with municipal funding
• Watershed protection
• Camden County Green Initiative
• Litter clean-up and enforcement

PUBLIC HEALTH
• Regionalized health services
• Children’s services: immunization programs, WIC
• Substance abuse: drug treatment referrals, intoxicated driver resource center
• Mental health
• Community health: communicable disease control, disease control, public health nursing, nutrition, dental hygiene services, flu shots, health screenings for AIDS, blood pressure, breast cancer, cholesterol, diabetes, pre-natal care and vision
• Board of Social Services, medical and financial assistance, food stamps, transportation
• Senior and disabled programs: Medicare education, constituent services, transportation resources
• Environmental health: food and restaurant-related services and inspections, air and noise pollution, emergency response to hazardous materials, inspection of septic/water/sewer systems, solid waste inspections, kennel/pet shop inspections, nuisance complaints, rodent/insect control and extermination
• Routine inspections of local measurement equipment such as gas pumps, supermarket scales and lumber yards to ensure regulatory compliance and peace of mind for residents conducted by Office of Weights and Measures
• Animal control, animal shelter

PUBLIC SAFETY
• 911 emergency telecommunications for police, fire, EMS
• Police Academy
• Firing range
• Police protection for County Park System
• Police services: criminal transportation, criminal identification, K-9, SWAT and Bomb Squad (Sheriff’s Office)
• Crime prevention: child fingerprinting, child car seat inspection
• Probation
• Fire Training Academy
• Emergency management
• Emergency preparedness training for county and municipal staff, elected officials and public safety personnel
• Public safety ID cards
• Household shredding to prevent identity theft

PUBLIC WORKS
• Emergency response
• Ongoing routine road repairs and improvements
• Winter road maintenance services
• Salt storage and snow plowing
• Bridge repair
• Safety upgrades
• Countywide storm and wastewater management planning
• Planning

QUALITY OF LIFE
• Park system
• Year-round concert series
• County Library System
• First-time homebuyers program
• Veterans affairs
• Discount program for veterans, seniors and public safety personnel
• Senior day care
• Senior ID cards
• Mr. Fix-It program for seniors
• Ramp program for disabled
• Senior and disabled legal workshops
• Constituent services
• County stores to provide services throughout county
• Passport services
• Will and living will clinics
• Hispanic affairs
• Wedding services
• Speakers Bureau
• County ID cards
• E-government online services

COUNTY-TO-COUNTY
Camden County spearheaded the Tri-County Economic Development Summit with Burlington and Gloucester counties to promote the region and to conduct feasibility of wi-fi service for tri-county region. The provision and expense of Medical Examiners Office is now shared by Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties

MUNICIPALITY-TO-MUNICIPALITY
Camden County continues to look for cost-saving measures to decrease the tax burden on county and municipal taxpayers. Shared Services Office provides educational forums and technical assistance to municipalities and is currently assisting in feasibility discussions with five adjacent police departments to streamline and improve delivery of police services, transition to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) from analog for county telephony and provision to other local government units and cooperative purchasing.

Gloucester County 

• Emergency Management, regionalized EMS program (estimated savings for municipalities: $2.6 million)
• Education – county Special Services School District and Institute of Technology share administration, equipment, facilities and staff.  This year they will share a school board. 
• Storm water management – county and municipalities shares planning, equipment, materials and buildings
• Health Services
• Animal Control
• Medical Examiners
• Tax Assessor (under consideration)

 Hunterdon County 

• Tax Assessor (between Clinton and Tewksbury)
• Recycling (between Lambertville and West Amwell)
• Field Maintenance (between Hampton and Hampton School District)
• Police Services (between Lambertville and East Amwell)
• Hearing Tests (between Hampton School District and Hampton Borough)
• Personnel (between Hampton Borough and Hampton Water Company)
• Leak Detection (between and Clinton and Bloomsbury)

 Mercer County 

• Cooperative Contract Purchasing System
• Recycling
• Emergency Management
• Emergency Communications System upgrades for Municipalities (county is upgrading local systems, including radios and dispatch systems)
• Police Academy (for county and municipal cadets)
• Dispatch (for six municipal fire companies)
• GIS and Aerial Pictometry (for land use planning and interactive mapping)
• Records Management (ongoing planning to make county regional hub for records storage, management)
• E-recording (for County Clerks and County Board of Taxation)
• Equipment Inventory (database to encourage and manage equipment sharing between municipalities and county)
• Equipment and Safety Training Consolidation (to coordinate safety training for municipal public works personnel)
• Vehicle Wash Facility
• Transportation (Mercer County Transportation Service provides service to most municipalities for public and private schools)
• Transportation for seniors (non-emergency transportation for seniors throughout county)

 Middlesex County 

• Planning documents and reports available to municipalities upon request
• Aerial Photography
• Demographic Data
• Project-related maps
• Access to county facilities for municipal meetings, functions
• Special Operations Response Team (law enforcement)
• Gang Intelligence (law enforcement)
• Law enforcement support (county agents to assist municipal law enforcement)
• Video Court
• Clean Communities
• Labor Assistance Program
• Color Guard (for funerals, parades, etc.)
• Storage of public records
• Economic Development (no formal relationship with towns, but county and municipal officials work frequently with each other on economic development planning)
• Emergency Management
• Bridge Inspection Services
• Engineering review and site planning
• Design and construction of traffic signals and roadway improvements (upon request form municipality)
• Storm water management
• GIS services (to all 25 municipalities)
• Aerial imagery and Pictometry
• Land-use planning
• Medical examiner
• Public Health (between county and 20 municipalities)
• Law Enforcement
• Solid Waste management
• Transportation (share certain facilities)

 Morris County 

• Countywide Communications Center for public safety and emergency management (for 15 of 39 municipalities)
• Records management
• Health Services (for all municipalities)
• Cooperative Pricing Council
• Equipment/Vehicle sharing
• Public Works Equipment Sharing (programs allows towns to rent form county equipment that they may need for public works.)
• Police and Fire Training (for all municipalities)
• Educational workshops (for county and municipal managers)
• Capital financing (through Morris County Improvement Authority)
• Joint Insurance

 Salem County 

Salem County opened its shared services office last year.  It is presently engaged with all municipalities in various feasibility studies to share services.

 Somerset County 

• Emergency Management
• Police Dispatch
• 911 Emergency Dispatch
• Consolidation of Public Works Facilities (several towns and county are currently studying feasibility of consolidation their public works departments, functions and assets)
• Green Tool Kit (a step-by-step planning tool for municipalities to green their facilities and make more efficient their energy consumption)
• Jointly-owned parks (three towns in Somerset share ownership and responsibility for a skate park)
• Shared Maintenance Supervision (several local entities have agreed to share maintenance for various facilities)

 Sussex County

• Health Services
• Winter road maintenance
• Fueling agreements
• Salt and grit storage and loading
• GIS services
• Senior programs
• 911 emergency dispatch
• Employee assistance program sharing
• Purchasing co-ops (with Morris County)
• Joint court services
• Traffic light maintenance
• Library services
• Workers Comp insurance
• Police services (sheriff to municipalities)
• Prescription plan insurance
• Law enforcement psychological exams
• Training
• Equipment use
• Gypsy moth control
• Planning
• Animal control
• Recycling
• Tax assessor
• Tax collection
• Chief financial officer
• Prosecutors Office Narcotics Task Force
• Meals on wheels (with Passaic)
• Construction officials
• Zoning enforcement
• Proposed Shared Services
  • Meals on Wheels (with jail)
  • Regionalized police
  • Police contract for services
  • QPA services
  • Insurance
  • Fleet maintenance
  • Vehicle washing
  • Guard rail install and repair
  • Radio maintenance
  • IT Service
  • Web hosting
  • Facility cleaning services
  • Records purging, management, archiving
  • EMS services
  • Commercial Drivers License drug testing

 Union County 

• Union county provides workshops and consulting to municipalities on how to share services.