The Challenge

Bergen County, New Jersey, is exploring and promoting ways that municipalities may cooperate and share activities as a means of generating savings and thereby moderating residential tax burdens. NESC was engaged for two projects concerning shared services by the Public Works Departments of contiguous municipalities within Bergen. The first, entailing 13 municipalities in the northwest part of the County, led to the second, serving another group of 16 municipalities known as the Riverside Cooperative.

The NESC Solution

In these engagements NESC consultants interviewed all municipality Borough Administrators and Superintendents of Public Works, as well as County officials. They inventoried equipment and studied similarities and differences in how public works services were delivered in each municipality. This research led to sets of specific recommendations for improving efficiencies and reducing costs through the use of shared services and the sharing of other costs, as well as recommendations for additional studies on the feasibility of a number of other possible actions.