County Administrator Jason Molino presented for Legislature review the draft Tompkins County 2019 Shared Services Plan, as prepared by the County’s Shared Services Panel and County Administration. After receiving feedback from the Legislature, the plan will be returned to the Shared Services Panel for review and approval, prior to submission to the NYS Department of State by the end of the year.
Added to the draft plan is the new position of Flood Resiliency and Climate Conservation Engineer with the Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District, funded by Tompkins County as part of the 2020 County Budget—a position estimated to produce $130,000 in first-year savings, since municipalities would not have to individually contract for required engineering services for local soil and water conservation projects. Other elements included in the plan are study of a back-up Dispatch Center with Cortland County (estimated $75,000 in savings); shared town/village recreation services (Town of Ulysses and Village of Trumansburg - $23,720 in savings); expansion of the Greater Tompkins County Municipal Health Insurance Consortium by at least two municipal members - $50,000 in savings); and a County-funded short-term rental data partnership: subscription to private data on short-term rentals, for the shared benefit of municipalities the County’s Finance Department and Department of Planning and Sustainability, and the Strategic Tourism Planning Board – $35,200 in estimated first-year savings and $7,000 in estimated savings for bulk purchase of the data.
Administrator Jason Molino noted that while he believes the recommended initiatives are valuable and attainable, as in 2017 the Panel did not find any new initiatives that would produce significant, recurring new property tax savings, beyond Tompkins County’s many large long-standing shared services initiatives.