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Tompkins County Administrator Jason Molino has convened the County's 2020 Shared Services Panel, the first step in the process to create Tompkins County's 2020 Shared Services Plan, as required by New York State. The Panel met for the first time April 25th.

In 2017, New York State introduced its County-Wide Shared Services Initiative to provide a process whereby each county can work to develop, approve, and submit to the State a County-Wide Shared Services Property Tax Savings Plan, including new shared services actions that, once implemented, achieve demonstrable taxpayer savings.

A pioneer in shared services, Tompkins in 2018 was one of 34 counties to submit a shared services plan during the first year the initiative was mandated, recommending six projects for implementation. Four of those projects—the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) Training Academy; a Service Modernization document imaging plan; the county-wide Swift911 Mass Notification System; and the Greater Tompkins County Municipal Health Insurance Consortium— were reported to the State as successfully completed shared services projects during 2018, resulting in certified matchable savings of more than $385,000. The County's application is currently under review and awaiting acceptance by New York State.

Chaired by Administrator Molino, the Panel includes Mayors of the City of Ithaca and every village, and Supervisors of every town within the county. Local school districts, BOCES, fire districts, and fire protection districts also are invited to participate. The panel will meet monthly over the next three months. Three required public hearings, to be held during June and July, will be an opportunity for residents to provide ideas and concepts for shared services—"an open floor for people to bring forward ideas," Mr. Molino said.

The Panel will prepare the Draft Plan by August 1st; submit it to the County Legislature for review and recommendations; then will vote on the Final Plan by the end of September. The County Administrator will submit the Plan, including its certified savings, to the State by the end of October.

Administrator Molino told the Panel that, while on a tight timeline, the process of developing the County's Shared Services Plan will be important. "At the end, we want the Plan to be practical, to be reasonable, and to be achievable," he said.

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