Twin City Times- Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Mayor's Corner #55
The last two weeks I have written about the death of Consolidation of Services between Lewiston and Auburn. The silence about the issue has been deafening.
I have heard nothing publicly from taxpayers or former and present members of commissions who have worked tirelessly on consolidation efforts. Editorials on the issue have been mediocre at best when they appeared at sparse intervals. I suspect they will be strong when the ill effects of inaction are realized. My response will be to the “watch dogs,” where were you when we needed you?
Strangely enough, I got an e-mail from Thomas J. Christoffel, AICP, Editor of Regional Community Development News, Regional Intelligence-Regional Communities, LLC out of Front Royal, Virginia. He informed me that Google’s Blog alert had sent him to the post on my blog, www.LarryGilbertMayor.com, because of the term “regionalization.”
Christoffel said my article of last week should be useful to subscribers of Regional Community Development News, so he will include a link to it in the October 10, issue. It can be found at http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/ He said that in the past five years he has included many clips of news articles about regionalization in Maine, other states and other countries. He professes the following: “Acknowledge boundaries. Work across them. Think local planet, act regionally.”
Our cities work across our boundaries on a daily basis. For example we have the Auburn-Lewiston Airport Committee, Cable TV Advisory Committee, Community Forestry Board, Joint Downtown Planning Advisory Committee, L-A Transit Committee, Lake Auburn Watershed Protection Commission, Lewiston-Auburn Water Pollution Control Authority, 9-1-1 Committee and of course the Citizen Commission on Lewiston-Auburn Cooperation. Why is it that when them come together from both communities, they work well together towards one goal? I suspect that it is because they see themselves as one for the common good.
Aside from these commissions and committees, city departments work well with each other. They know that when they need help, they can call on their counterparts across the river to be of assistance.
When we have commissions, committees and city departments that can and do work well together, why can’t consolidation take place in light of realizing some $2.7 million in savings? By the way, these figures came directly from the department heads of both communities. Why can’t it happen? What is causing these efforts to fail? Is it parochialism? Is it the loss of control/power by elected officials? Would it help to have the mayors and city councilors of the two communities go on retreat together with the help of a facilitator to truly focus and communicate together on the issue?
Why must the Androscoggin River separate us? Citizens of Lewiston-Auburn truly see these two cities as one community. The river is crossed back and forth on our bridges by thousands daily. Residents conduct business on both sides of the river. The river should not be viewed as what separates us, but rather what connects us.
We are in dire economic times. The economy is going to cause us to find efficiencies or reduce services. We already have a roadmap to realize efficiencies and savings, yet we choose not to follow it. It is beyond my comprehension to see resistance from implementing the recommendations that one commission after another have recommended.
On the national level we see corporations merging together for their survival. They either join together to survive or die separately. Is this what we want for our two cities? I think not, but unless someone acts to make these things happen, we will see our services significantly reduced to survive or taxes rise beyond our ability to pay. We are there now, with many working poor and those on fixed incomes.
Locally, we see the consolidation that is occurring with our Catholic Parishes in the Twin-Cities and throughout the State. We will see churches closed as we can no longer afford to keep them all open with the cost of maintaining them financially. You can only operate at a deficit for so long.
Recently, it was reported that five daily newspapers throughout the state will be sharing stories. They too, are looking for efficiencies.
Finding efficiencies resulting in savings is the imperative of our economic times. The sooner we realize it and respond accordingly, the better off we will be in providing necessary services at a cost that is manageable.
Much like what we have seen on Wall Street these past two weeks, the question to the Administration is why didn’t they see it coming? Well, we all saw it coming, yet we all chose to ignore it. We lived beyond our means and we were lulled into believing that the payment would never be due.
Well, we are here. The payment is due because of the poor economy. Let us not make the same mistakes in governing our communities that the Administration and Congress have. A mayor may see the economy as a problem but is inhibited from acting due to the charter restraints. This is why I have written about the problem of failing to consolidate our services in order to realize the necessary savings that we so desperately need.
Only the governed can demand action. As I said last week and I continue to say, it is in your hands folks! Don’t let complacency control you. If you do, we will only realize at the local level what happened nationally. We must be smarter than that!
