MONTICELLO, NY — As part of the 2017 state budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature passed a Shared Services Plan that required officials in counties, towns and villages to find ways to work together to share services and thus reduce local taxes.

Sullivan County Manager Josh Potosek led the effort and came up with a Shared Service Plan which, if adopted and fully implemented, is expected to save taxpayers nearly $1.2 million. The plan was detailed in a press release as follows:

• Sullivan County would perform park-related administrative oversight functions for the Town of Liberty through an inter-municipal agreement, as the town’s parks & recreation director position is currently vacant. The town would reimburse the county $1,000/month ($12,000/year) for this service, while the town board would retain control. Estimated net savings: $80,314 per year.

• Municipalities that currently do not participate in the Municipal Electric and Gas Alliance (MEGA) electricity procurement, and could therefore capture savings by doing so, include the Towns of Callicoon, Delaware, Fallsburg, Forestburgh, Fremont, Highland, Liberty, Lumberland, Neversink, Thompson and Tusten; and the Villages of Jeffersonville, Liberty, Monticello and Wurtsboro. Estimated net savings: $21,000 per year.

• Fallsburg is interested in increasing its police coverage; however, it has not been able to fund this without raising taxes. Sullivan County 911 would take over the three shifts a day of police dispatching through its 911 Center. This would empower Fallsburg to add up to five additional police officer positions. Estimated net savings: $487,000.

• The county is considering the effects of an aggregate agreement with CODE RED, a state-bid vendor offering an emergency notification system. If each municipality were to purchase such software on their own, it would cost them $69,759 apiece. With an aggregate purchase managed by the county, the same system would cost $15,924. Estimated net savings: $53,835.  

• The Sullivan County Office of Sustainable Energy would provide consulting services for initiatives related to sustainability and the Climate Smart Community programs to the Town of Bethel free of charge. Estimated net savings: $3,000.

• Sullivan County would contract with Laserfiche Enterprise Content Management to securely manage and share county/town/village documents, videos, photos and other content using state-of-the-art enterprise document management and cutting-edge business process management tools. Estimated net savings: $386,731. Separately, this initiative could save the Town of Lumberland $28,000 by not having to build a town records storage facility.

The Shared Services Committee will vote on adopting the plan on September 14 at 6:30 p.m.