Municipal governments on both sides of the river were really hitting the books, studying hard and participating in class, earning them an A grade for the last half of 2007 in Consolidation 101.

Lewiston and Auburn made remarkable progress in 2007 toward finding ways to work together to save money.

In a report issued Dec. 27, Joint Services Coordinator Stephen G. Eldridge said city departments, in joint meetings, had identified ways to save at least $1.86 million per year by restructuring for greater efficiency.

We emphasized the words “at least” because of the initial nature of Eldridge’s report. He and two members of the Citizens Commission on Lewiston Auburn Cooperation said Wednesday that as the two cities actually begin restructuring, additional savings are likely.

The report, according to Eldridge, used a “bottom-up approach.” Teams of two or three staff members from each city’s municipal departments, including department heads, met on an average of every other week to talk about combining services and saving money.

They even worked out models showing how their consolidated departments would look and work. Plus, they put their calculators and spreadsheets to work determining how much money the two cities were likely to save.

Since personnel costs are the largest single component of most municipal budgets, they also produce the largest potential savings, according to the report. While duplicated jobs would be eliminated, that would be done through attrition, with no current employees losing their jobs.

There would also be some cost increases, particularly in bringing some Auburn workers up to Lewiston’s generally higher pay scales.

But beyond gradually eliminating duplicative administrative jobs, the department teams generated some creative ideas for working better and smarter. For instance, the Public Works Team suggested specializing by having one municipal garage work only on heavy equipment, while the other repaired only smaller vehicles.

The Auburn Fire Department might, for instance, save money by having its mechanical work and pump testing done in-house.

A consolidation might also allow the two cities to buy tools and equipment jointly. For instance, buying a single garage sweeping machine could save $35,000 for each city.

As we begin a new year, the next step in this process belongs to the city councils – and public – on each side of the river.

The money-saving ideas in Eldridge’s report are only recommendations. Putting them into action will require leadership and political will from elected leaders.

For 2008, we will make two of our own recommendations:

First, that the Lewiston and Auburn city councils begin work immediately on implementing the ideas in the report.

Second, that the school committees in both cities immediately seek funding – or budget money – to hire their own joint services coordinator and begin the long process of consolidating services. If there is money to be saved in consolidating municipal services, there is as much or more that could be saved in our school budgets.