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City of Novi inventories shared service arrangements

Over the past few years numerous Southeast Michigan communities have been studying the possibility of combining services with their neighbors to facilitate a lower cost structure without sacrificing service quality, especially in the areas of police, fire and dispatch services. The City of Novi retained Plante & Moran to inventory shared services arrangements the City currently enjoys with surrounding communities and other public entities.

Findings show the City of Novi is currently engaged in a significant number of service sharing arrangements with other communities:

• 104 total shared service arrangements
• 44 formal shared service arrangements
• In excess of $12,000,000 worth of services shared
• (Approximately $11,500,000 million associated with infrastructure)

Novi has demonstrated considerable proactive efforts associated with establishing collaborative arrangements with other communities and partners. Examples include:

• Using resources from the State of Michigan, such as: purchasing agreements, the Michigan Criminal Justice Information Network (MiCJIN), Michigan Department of Transportation resources and the State Police.
• Taking advantage of services offered from Oakland County, such as: Access Oakland, CLEMIS, personal property auditing, elections, various fire department resources, and joint purchasing agreements.
• Sharing services with neighboring communities, such as: school elections, Fire Department training, GIS, senior services, youth assistance, and various police services.

As is a best practice, arrangements with an associated cost generally have formal agreements in place. There still may be additional opportunities to build upon the City’s current assortment of collaborative efforts, including but not limited to the following:

• Parks and recreation programs
• Public works services
• Human resource and benefit programs
• Police and fire service
• Expanding and recouping the full cost of dispatch and/or other police services provided to other communities.
• Exploring the following opportunities:
  • Regional transit initiatives
  • Shared training/user group meetings for GIS
  • Neighborhood and Business Relations promotional opportunities
  • Collaboration for Arbor Day and other community events

Overall, the study reveals it is apparent the City of Novi already engages in a substantial number of shared services and collaborative arrangements; however there appear to be additional potential opportunities to evaluate for the provision of shared services in the future. The staff members interviewed also shared several ideas for future arrangements and conveyed the benefits that could be achieved from additional joint projects.

(Presented by Plante & Moran at the July 2, 2007 City Council Meeting.)