Suffolk County, NY - Sept. 13, 2018 - Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone today announced that the Suffolk County Shared Services Panel voted to amend its Shared Services Plan so that additional school and fire districts will be able to participate and potentially achieve savings through new service offerings. Significant savings will continue to be expected through cooperative procurement, which now includes more than 70 local governments in the cooperative — with several dozen more possible by early next year, including library districts.
“Today is another step forward towards fulfilling our obligation to achieve millions in savings to the taxpayer through new technologies and collaboration,” said Suffolk County Executive Bellone. “I thank each of my fellow Panel members for their vote of confidence in this comprehensive plan that will ensure that we can provide services in the most efficient manner without sacrificing the quality that our residents have come to deserve and expect."
The annual meeting of the Panel convened at West Sayville Golf Course, a requirement under New York State Law whereby elected officials from various Towns, Villages, school districts, and special districts vote to adopt amendments and resolutions. Suffolk County will formally submit its application to the State to obtain matching funds achieved following the close of the County 2018 fiscal year.
The Panel received an update on progress made towards the anticipated launch of the SuffolkShare web portal, a multi-functioning tool that will assist local governments with the facilitation and management of purchases of goods and services between municipalities and the private sector. It will also enable municipalities to share information about the services they perform and shop for the services they need. A number of shared services will be accessible through this portal, including recycling services, marine equipment, street sweepers, road resurfacing crews, senior and youth health care and emergency management.
The Suffolk County Shared Services Plan, known as SuffolkShare is a comprehensive 11-point plan that provides a modern inter-municipal framework among participating municipalities to enhance service offerings and improve the ability for local governments to collaborate, implement and augment their programs and initiatives. The plan includes designing a virtual municipal service store, establishing an intra-county procurement consortium, offering an assortment of inter-municipal services with participating municipalities, and providing a certification function to identify and quality savings achieved by the use of the shared services program.
To date this year, several million dollars in shared services savings have entered the pipeline. These include but are not limited to the following projects:
- $7.4 million through a partnership between Suffolk County and the Village of Westhampton Beach on sewer infrastructure;
- As much as $1 million through an agreement between Suffolk County and the Town of Southampton to transfer the Shinnecock Commercial Fishing Dock from the County to the Town, for restoration work and operation;
- As much as $100,000 through cooperation between the Town of East Hampton and Suffolk County DPW-Vector Control on mosquito mitigation.
SuffolkShare was developed as part of the County-wide Shared Services Initiative and is projected to save Suffolk County and participating local governments approximately $37 million over the next two years. It is estimated that $27 million will be saved through joint purchasing of equipment and goods, with the remaining $10 million saved through the allocation of anti-graffiti trucks, municipal gasoline pumps and truck cleaning facilities. SuffolkShare was designed to transition inter-municipal partnerships from an ago-old, ad-hoc approach into a modern and comprehensive government reform mechanism.