Ed. Note: This is the second in a series of subcommittee reports issued to the Steering Committee studying city-county unification.)

This report represents a summary of the work completed by this Unification Subcommittee on Information Technology and Finance.

Committee members participating included: Mary Blowe, City of Winchester; Tom Lloyd, City of Winchester; Angela Jones, Winchester Star; Barbara Van Osten, Frederick County; Cheryl Shiffler, Frederick County; Sharon Kebler, Frederick County; Mike Phillips, Frederick County; Benny Tyson, Frederick County; Jim Riley, Steering Committee.

The purpose of the Sub-Committee was to 1) review current systems in place, 2) review functions/responsibilities, 3) identify areas of consideration, and or decision making required if the City and County indeed unified.

The Sub-Committee met on three occasions: 1/25/07, 3/29/07, and 5/17/07. Each meeting was well attended by the leadership and staff of the respective County and City departments.

Discussion was very open, objective and thoughtful. This process of system review and “thinking out of the box”, as to what a unified system would look like and require, will indeed add insights and discussion internally, within each department, whether unification occurs or not.

The series of topics and discussion/analysis focused on the following areas:

• Review of current department systems, FTE’s, hardware and software.
• Review of departments 3-5 year plans, of resource/system investment and development.
• Review of County and City Departmental accounting and IT responsibilities i.e., schools, sheriff, jails, DSS, etc.
• Analysis of key questions to be answered or decisions to be made when unification occurs.

These key areas of local government function, accountability, planning and reporting are essential to the daily operation of all aspects of each local government. Each system must remain fully functional, and cannot be “unified” independent of an overall local government consolidation.

From an economic standpoint each of the four departments are “stretched” thin. There are already lean and mean, but very professional and cost-effective. Therefore, there would not be a significant unification operational cost savings. In fact, the initial cost of unification actions including purchase of new software and hardware updates, as well as cost of training and the operation of redundant/backup systems, would for a 2-3 year period be greater than the current cost of the separate systems.

The following represents a series of key/pivotal questions that would need to be answered when unification occurs:

• What form of government will the consolidated Frederick County/City of Winchester operate under?
• Will the method of tax collection be done semi-annually or monthly for personal property taxes?
• For employee benefits – will the employees with richer benefits be reduced, or will the employees with lesser benefits be increased? Depending on the answer, what is the fiscal impact?
• Do both localities process payroll semi-monthly? Frederick County currently does not have a holding period on payroll, does the City?
• Are the procurement requirements for both localities consistent? If not, will they be made uniform and what about jobs in progress?
• Would fee-for-service (revenue) be implemented in Frederick County (EMS)?
• Would Frederick County change to bi-annual budgets or would the City change to annual budgets?
• What constitutional officers in the departments of the Treasurer and Commissioner of Revenue would be the selected constitutional officer?
• How would two different tax rates be blended? Would this blended rate represent an effective tax rate increase on the taxpayers of either locality?
• What happens to funding streams for law enforcement? Example: The City has a police department; the County has a sheriff’s department. What is the impact of converting to one form?
• What happens to existing service contracts? Each locality could have different vendors for like services.
• If we revert to a County, will the City loose any taxing powers? If so, what is the impact?
• Will there be an assessment or upcoming infrastructure needs?

In closing, the Committee and I see this as a valuable process and experience. The leadership of each team has reaffirmed their professional commitment to collaboration and sharing whether there is unification or not of the local government.

David M. Ziegler, IT-Finanace Sub-Committee Chairman