Norwich — How could cities and towns in the region collaborate more on services and share equipment and staff?

That's the subject of a study on shared services that the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments is undertaking.

The end product will be a plan that evaluates both the current ways communities are sharing services and future opportunities for collaboration, according to a preliminary description of the project. The evaluation will include an analysis of estimated cost savings and steps for how the region could implement shared services.

The study will look at "traditional service and equipment sharing opportunities," including public works, animal control and transfer stations, the document states. It will also consider areas such as legal services, senior programs, human resources and records management that towns currently may perceive as having obstacles to sharing or that they have not yet wanted to share.

The study's project manager, Joseph Stefko, the president and CEO of CGR, a management consulting organization based in Rochester, N.Y., gave a presentation at the council's meeting last week in Norwich.

With the start of the project last month, consultants are collecting "baseline data" on how the council's 22 municipalities are already sharing services, he said.

The goal is to then evaluate new opportunities for collaboration and potential impacts on cost and service levels, he said.

Consultants have begun initial interviews with local mayors and first selectmen and are reviewing data from all the towns and cities, including budgets, workforce size, fleet list, and facility locations, he said.

Most local officials told him they are facing fiscal challenges, a common theme in communities from Long Island to northwest Ohio, he said.

"What I hear from your counterparts in all of those regions is this really is an opportune time for us to look at ways to get more efficient," he said.

Certain services, such as the town clerk's office, tend to unilaterally be delivered by each municipality. But other services tend to already be shared, such as animal control, which about half the communities share in some way with one or more other communities.

He said the consultants will look closely at challenges to shared services. For example, some local officials have expressed that their communities are different so there is concern that sharing a service would then force a community to adopt another one's service level and the cost of that service.

By the end of the year, the council of governments is slated to receive a final report and presentation on the study's conclusions, though some preliminary information will be shared this summer.

Another objective is for the council's plan to serve as a model for other regions across the state, he said.

The regional council had been awarded a $150,000 Regional Performance Incentive Program grant from the state Office of Policy and Management for the study.

Emergency services, which many towns have volunteers for, was excluded from the scope of work.

Stefko said the consultants will collect baseline data on emergency services from towns, as part of the overall picture.

Some local officials pointed out that education is the largest component of their budgets and asked if the study will include education.

Stefko said the study does not explicitly include education, but consultants will be looking at opportunities for shared services, such as administrative services and information technology.

Amanda Kennedy, director of special projects for the regional council, said in a phone interview that it will take a second look at the scope of work after hearing from members. The study's main focus was the municipal budgets under the purview of mayors and first selectmen, but she heard from members that there should be more of a focus on education.

She said that a continued goal of the council of governments is to improve regional efficiencies. The study will examine ways to improve efficiency and the level of services that towns can provide to residents and that the council can provide to the towns.

k.drelich@theday.com