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You can request a model law from the menu below to present for adoption by emailing Heather (heather@jointhecampaign.com) You will need to have completed our online Citizen Legislator class, and filled out our Answer the Call online application to receive our support, guidance and empowerment tools.
Below is a menu of 20 local government cost-savings model ordinances offered by the Citizens' Campaigns Law and Policy Task Force. The first 10 model proposals are to cut costs in school district budgets and the second 10 model proposals are to cut costs in municipal govenment.
10 Model Proposals to Cut Costs in School District Budgets
1. Authorization and requirement for Superintendent to conduct open competition for health insurance with disclosure of broker and consultant charges and commissions required.
2. Energy Audit of School Facilities
3. Shared services agreement with municipality for field maintenance and other recreation areas.
4. Enter into a regional purchasing co-op for goods and services such as fuel, paper, and other materials.
5. Shared services agreement with municipality for shared IT services.
6. Outsourcing vehicle maintenance to a company specializing in government fleet maintenance.
7. Shared services agreement with municipality for Before/After School Programs and Summer Programs
8. Shared services agreement with neighboring school district for bus transportation
9. Join an Energy Consortium
10. Shared services agreement with municipality for road services such as paving and snow removal.
10 Municipal Cost-Cutting Reforms
1. Becoming part of or forming a regional dispatching service thereby saving funds in the area of dispatcher services. Or if your municipality still uses police officers as dispatchers and there is strong resistance to using regional dispatching move to using civilians as dispatchers. Montgomery Township is saving between $600,000 and $750,000 annually from the full regionalization of their 4 dispatcher services: 1) police 2) fire 3) EMS 4) 911.
2. Eliminating benefits for part-time elected officials and professionals. In health insurance costs, this would be a savings of between $12,000 and $20,000 per person depending mainly on whether the benefits were individual or family. (If co-pays are required those numbers would be somewhat reduced.)
3. Sharing of computer administration (network administrator) between the municipality and the school board-- share the cost of the contract. Savings in the $60,000 to $70,000 range depending on the size of the municipality. Formation of an on-going committee to explore potential cost-savings by implementing other shared service arrangements between the municipality and the school board.
4. Perform Energy Audits of municipal, school board or county governments.
5. Sunshine On-Line to include budget summary, top 10% or salaries or top 5 salaries for each department whichever is greater, overtime per department and all labor contracts.
6. Merge Zoning Board and Planning Board for towns with less than 15,000 residents as permitted by the Municipal Land Use Law and condense redevelopment authority functions in the governing body and planning board.
7. Contract with County Road Department for municipal road repairs, saving significant costs associated with bidding and private contractor oversight.
8. Contract out Vehicle Maintenance. Montgomery estimates they are saving about $200,000 annually by contracting out to First Vehicle Maintenance-a company that specializes in servicing government fleets as opposed to having an arrangement with a local garage or doing it in-house.
9. Reducing the number of weekly trash pickup days after the summer months (Memorial Day-Labor Day). This initiative can save towns thousands of dollars, since it reduces the money spent in fees for waste removal and frees up workers for park maintenance with less overtime costs.
10. Form Mayor's Task Forces on: (1) Municipal Service Efficiencies and (2) Community Service Supports.
Government Accountability Reforms
1. Pay to Play Reform
a. Professional Contracts
b. Bid contracts
c. Redevelopment Agreements
d. Board of Education agreements
e. Planned Development Agreements
2. Competitive Negotiations for Professional Service Contracts
3. Ban on Fundraising on Public Property
4. Requirement for Developers to Disclose Political Contributions
5. Model Municipal Political Party Constitution
Submit a Cost Savings Idea in the Local Government Cost-Savings Forum
Do you have your own idea for reducing municipal waste or inefficiency? If so, share your idea with the Citizens' Campaign. If its no-blame, and adoptable at the local level, then post it in our local government cost savings forum. The local government cost-savings forum is available to through Google Moderator. The Task Force on Law and Policy will periodically select a proposal which is unique, effective and applicable to multiple municipalities for development into a model law.
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