Jason A. Wach
What if I told you that every man, woman, and child in Bal Harbour, Golden
Beach, Bay Harbor Islands, Surfside, and Sunny Isles Beach could save
$ 400 every year by uniting into one city called, perhaps, The City of
East Beach? The amount is a guesstimate I derived from the budgets of
each of the local governments. Only years after the creation of East Beach
would the true savings be known. If you wanted to know right now whether
the true figure was closer to $ 300 or $ 500, unfortunately it would probably
involve hiring a team of consultants. But, the savings are real!
How do I know? As the choreographer Diego Salterini once said, "everything
has been done already;there is nothing truly original". He's right.
I know that consolidation of small government bodies is difficult, but
potentially a big-time money saver, because the State of New York has
been pushing the consolidation of Towns, Villages, and School Districts
created in the time of the horse and buggy. Now that a twenty-mile distance
isn't an obstacle to communication anymore, it's obvious that combining
two highway departments with five employees each makes sense in terms
of saving money and improving service. In New York, State Comptroller
H. Carl McCall office issues what it calls ($MART), or State Comptroller's
Municipal Advisory Review Team reports. One such report identified over
$ 500,000 in cost savings were the upstate Towns of Canadice and Richmond
to consolidate. It identified cost avoidances in, for instance, construction
of new town halls and consolidation of justice courts. One result of such
programs was the consolidation of the police forces of the Town of Warwick,
New York, and the Village of Warwick, New York. So, I figured, what's
good for the snowbird in its New York summer life must be good for it
in its Florida winter stay.
When in the vicinity of Bal Harbour, Surfside, Bay Harbor, Sunny Isles,
and Golden Beach, my eyes often catch the lettering on the vehicles of
public servants such as police and street maintenance. What stimulates
me to think is that often I see, for instance, a Golden Beach police officer
in Sunny Isles, where I figure that absent some special arrangement, that
police officer can't serve the public until she drives the half mile distance
back into Golden Beach. Then, I think, that wouldn't be a problem if you
just combined Sunny Isles and Golden Beach! And, wouldn't we at least
save the cost of the Golden Beach police dispatcher in a combined Town?
In New York, they have been able to avoid layoffs in consolidations of
government by offering retirement incentives and transferring people whose
positions were eliminated.
Also, I noticed that Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor, and Surfside all have Municipal buildings to house governmental departments, all three within possibly a mile or two of each other. Isn't it what they call a "no brainer" that a hot issue in government would be reducing utility bills, repairs and maintenance, etcetera etcetera by combining the three modest-sized governmental units?
I'll admit that the issue may have been raised without my noticing, but I follow the news closely enough to know that consolidation isn't a recurring issue in local elections.
Should it be? At the risk of being proven wrong by professionals who have devoted their lives to running local governments, I decided to conduct a study. Of course, we at the JewishXPress encourage a response by local government. The question was, what would be the possible cost savings of the creation of the City of East Beach from Bal Harbour, Surfside, Bay Harbor, Sunny Isles, and Golden Beach?
First, the intangible factors. Would the civic pride of residents of Surfside make them fight the loss of their identity when swallowed into East Beach? More importantly, is the one-on-one contact that a Golden Beach resident can now avail themselves of with their Village Hall more important to them than reducing their tax bills? And, does Sunny Isles really have the right to make decisions which may increase traffic congestion, which will affect every Golden Beach resident because of the proximity? Or, should Golden Beach be given a voice in the combined City of East Beach when Sunny Isles increases its population density?
I concluded that people would sacrifice their civic identity to save money, and vote to create the consolidated City of East Beach. Also, that these Villages and Cities are so close to each other, that one united government can best make decisions for the common good.
Next, the number crunching, which for some strange reason no one but myself at The Jewish Xpress sees as a spiritual experience.
Even arriving at ballpark figures is really tough. Yes, it is apparent that taxpayer money could be saved by combining what is called the Executive Departments (similar to the President of the United States), the Legislative Departments (similar to Congress), the Finance Departments (accounting), and the Legal Departments. Then, it's equally apparent that projects like the Bay Harbor Causeway will probably cost the same no matter what. How much could East Beach save by consolidating buildings? That's a tough one, but I'm sure there would be savings. Since new buildings are often paid for with debt and the payments spread over, say, twenty years, the savings would also be spread over twenty years. How much could be saved in the area of consolidated Water and Sewer departments? I don't know. I do know that so many consultants will be brought in to a project like this that it may wind up being called a "welfare act for consultants".
After poring over the figures for hours and hours, I arrived at a savings of $ 400 per resident per year.
How can we make The City of East Beach a reality? My belief is that we
can do it by making consolidation of government an issue in every election
from this day forward!