SLT city manager talks about consolidating services

Dear Publisher,

As I mentioned at our recent public workshop on the new RDA Project Area last week, it is time for STPUD and city officials to seriously explore developing joint facilities and exploring the option of a merger and consolidation of services. While we could have done so earlier, it is never too late.

STPUD and City government should not be or appear to be competing. We both have valuable services needed by our customer base.

Do we have to have two “city halls”, two corporation yards, two road maintenance crews, two finance operations, two clerical staffs, etc.? How much can we save by consolidation of services and maybe even agencies? Is it possible that by coordination and consolidation of services and agencies those taxpayers in the county and city will benefit in their pocket books by avoiding yearly utility rate and other fee increases? Is it possible that with one-stop district and city permitting as part of an overall efficiency improvement plan for our organizations, we can better serve our customer base and reduce our overall operational costs?

We will never know unless we take a serious look at this option.

There are examples of this going on all over California as noted in the article below. Has our time arrived?

Dave Jinkens, city manager South Lake Tahoe