The Aberdeen City Council agreed Wednesday night that Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Cosmopolis should proceed with considering ways to consolidate services.
A letter detailing the plan was signed by Mayors Erik Larson, Jasmine Dickhoff and Frank Chestnut.
“It has been an ongoing topic over the last decade or so and has come up multiple times,” Larson said before the meeting.
He said various proposals over the years that didn’t reach fruition have included centralizing various service departments and even combining the cities into one municipality.
“If there’s a way for us to provide a better value for the taxpayers and maintain the same quality of services,” Larson said, “then it’s something we want to try to achieve.”
The process would require what Larson described as hard data and information that’s not only “qualitative but quantitative.”
“Are there any savings? Are there examples we can pull from that would fit for our area?”
It’s anticipated that not every action would be to consolidate this department or that service. Some services might need only to increase cooperation, Larson explained.
Health and safety were cited as being of major interest to the city leaders.
“It is imperative we have that we have a unified emergency management system that is responsive to both the day-to-day public safety needs of our communities and to the increasing challenges posed by rising costs and diminishing revenues,” the letter stated.
Other possible joint efforts among the three cities would be regional branding, increased collaboration for job creation and economic development, and streamlining and bringing consistency to the cities’ municipal codes, zoning and permitting processes.
Larson also emphasized that the goal “isn’t to consolidate positions, but to provide a uniform product of high quality.”
A task force not officially sanctioned by the cities’ governments began looking into such cooperative endeavors and held a couple of meetings over the summer, said Aberdeen Council member Alan Richrod, a group organizer.
Council member Tim Alstrom said the three mayors coming together to support such joint actions is important.
“For this to play out, it has to start at the top,” Alstrom said. “If not, it’s a wasted effort.”
First actions by a task force would be to create a time table, work plan and budget, along with a list of departments and services of high priority to be considered for consolidation.
Hoquiam council members approved the letter on Monday. The Cosmopolis City Council meets next week.
“Ego is why these efforts have failed in the past,” Dickhoff said on during this week’s Hoquiam City Council meeting.
Larson agreed with Dickhoff’s assessment and acknowledged that longtime “healthy rivalries” will continue, but both say the past conflicts that hampered the process shouldn’t arise this time around.
“We each have respect for what each city provides,” he said. “(The cities) helping each other grow will improve quality of life as a whole and strengthen the Grays Harbor area.”
