PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Several municipal leaders gathered in Presque Isle earlier this month to discuss ways communities could cut costs while continuing to provide quality service to residents.
Present for the meeting were: Jim Bennett, city manager, Presque Isle; Dan Foster, town manager, Fort Fairfield; Michelle McLaughlin, town administrator, Perham; Carolee Hallett, town clerk, Westfield; Cheryl Sperrey, town clerk, Wade; Martin Puckett, town manager, Mapleton, Chapman and Castle Hill; Bev Turner, town manager, Washburn; and Carl Grant, treasurer/tax collector, Woodland.
Bennett served as facilitator for the group discussion, which focused on three areas of interest.
“We have three tasks to accomplish following up from our first meeting (held Sept. 1),” said Bennett.
Those tasks, according to Bennett, include determining what municipal leaders want to accomplish by the next meeting.
“That’s more of an action item. The next is what kind of ‘low-hanging fruit’ can we try to pick off. Some stuff may be in regions, depending on the area we’re in,” he said.
The third item focused on “what other things can we try to set forth/accomplish over the next year,” he said.
“That’s a little higher on the tree but not that complicated. The low-hanging stuff can get going easily enough. The next would be stuff that could be accomplished in the next year but with a little more work,” said Bennett.
Foster said one conversation he had following the first meeting was ways to continue to provide services while cutting costs.
“We talked about if there was something we thought we could do to offer the same level of service but reduce the cost. The impetus of the discussion was we’re losing revenues that has no relationship to how we incur expenses,” said Foster. “The loss of revenue sharing and school spending adversely impacts — affects how we look at revenues.”
“The reason we’re talking is ordinary revenue streams we’ve had no longer are there,” said Foster. “It’s causing us to rethink something we haven’t had a problem with in the first place.”
McLaughlin noted that “with state mandates, we have to do more with less,” but that her office can’t reduce staffing any lower.
“We can’t afford another person. How do you justify doing more with less? They want more stuff done but with less people,” she said.
Foster noted the disparity between communities in the state.
“The problem is the rules and regulations that impact Portland also affect places like Portage. A legal entity (here) has the same responsibilities as Portland. A lot of things may need to be sourced out,” said Foster, adding, “We have the benefit of collective vision.”
Grant said Woodland contracts with Caribou for some services but that increasing costs are becoming a problem.
“We contract with Caribou for ambulance and fire. Their prices keep going up and we’re basically stuck,” said Grant.
The group discussed how each community has handled vehicle registrations and excise taxes in the past and how most of them have relied on other communities, to some degree, to assist in the process.
“I used to help Michelle (Perham Town Office) with excise but am now questioned on why we’re doing for them when they don’t do for us,” said Grant.
Bennett said perhaps municipalities could look at a way to rotate staff, to address manpower shortages.
Following the first meeting, Bennett said public input was positive.
“People were excited — wanted to reach out to help others,” he said, noting City Council has worked to reduce Presque Isle’s municipal staff from 105 to 96 employees in about three years’ time.
“It makes sense to outsource,” said Bennett.
“We’re actually swapping bodies around. The city planner is gone. Dana (Fowler) is running two departments now. Council wants me to hire someone to fill in on the day that I leave,” he said.
Bennett and Martin explained to the group how they combined bids on heating fuel recently, saving money for both communities in the process.
“All three towns are excited about what we could do or share. It could be anything from skill sets from larger or smaller town to low-hanging fruit of having department heads work together. I recently had our treasurer go to another town to help with sending out tax bills. There are things we could do that we aren’t aware of,” said Puckett.
Turner said such efforts could act more as a training opportunity.
“You can almost learn more from counterparts than a trip to Augusta (for training),” said Turner.
Sperrey said currently Wade pays someone to travel for training.
“We pay a girl for gas, a day’s pay. Having a group like this is good,” said Sperrey. “The networking alone works.”
Participants discussed ways to possibly share equipment — from office to road maintenance.
“If you’re down for a long time, it’s good to have an option,” said Grant.
Bennett suggested once communities have finalized their budgets, officials could share lists of items needed.
“We could then come up with a list of items that could then go out to bid,” said Bennett.
Foster said with today’s technology, there should be ways to share services.
“It may not save a whole lot of money, but it establishes a relationship of more interdependence. It’s a great place to start,” said Foster.
Several in the group noted how sharing services would make their jobs easier, since smaller communities tend to have the same individuals doing all the work and quitting isn’t an option.
“One thing that happens in a small office — they don’t pay attention. That’s why I didn’t walk. If I did, where would they be?” asked Grant.
As the discussion drew to a close, the group agreed that sharing services, combining purchases and going out to bid with other communities were areas they’d like to focus on in future meetings.
Bennett said the next joint municipal meeting probably wouldn’t take place until after the first of the year, most likely around February, to allow municipalities time to focus on their respective budgets and upcoming elections.
“We could get together again for a luncheon in early December and we’ll shoot for February for all elected officials to look at again,” said Bennett.
For more information, call 760-2785 or your respective town office.
