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Reader Not a fan of “Shared Services”

Ridgewood _Police_cars_theridgewoodblog.net

file photo by Boyd Loving

Reader Not a fan of “Shared Services”

1. I’m not an employee.

2. “Shared Services” is NOT competition.
Competition is one thing (and good BTW).
“Shared Services” is the opposite.
It is giving up control of the services to a non-competitive organization with no vested interest in providing the best service for RW.

With privatization, you have competition and incentive to do a good job or get replaced.
With a local single government service you have the interests of a single municipality as your primary focus.

With shared services you get the worst of both worlds…
– no competitive incentive
– split loyalties and focus.

What happens is that we would just wind up subsidizing the “other town” and getting worse service due to resource sharing.

Privatize – sure
Shared municipal services – NO WAY.


5 thoughts on “Reader Not a fan of “Shared Services”

  1. I am not an employee either, But I have had access to discussions with those in a position to make decisions regarding shared services.
    Towns around ridgewood do not want partner with ridgewood because of use vs cost “ratio” ridgewood is larger and busier than most towns surrounding us and as a result would stand to benefit more from a shared service agreement, so, many other town officals feel they would be subsidizing ridgewood. I’ve heard another town offical say ” why would we merge with you we’re in exellent shape and you guys don’t want to hire anyone”

  2. Point well taken…

  3. I say no way to privatize. the crews we have now know the town very well , and they know how to do the job in a fast and right way. we just need some more workers. I do not need some people in town that don,t care about us or the town .that is what you get when you sub work out. people when you privatize you give up 95% of the village’s power. and then the service go’s right down. I know i seen it over and over, so to #1 no we will not let this happen.
    thanks the village people of nj .

  4. Shared services are a reality in NJ and Trenton intends to mandate this approach in appropriate situations, or municipalities risk losing aid comensurate with the savings they would have realized, esspecially when it involves multiple municipalities. We would be wise to open our minds to the changing dynamics.

    Nonetheless, not every service is appropriate for sharing agreements and it is not the right solution for everything.

  5. o k start with the fire dept’s in n j.

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