The process of possibly merging town and school district departments to create greater taxpayer savings and improved efficiencies could be long and slow, considering the human resources and labor contract implications.Looking At HR'Memorialize And Institutionalize'

But several officials who gathered for a Legislative Council Shared Services Committee meeting March 8 agreed that mingling employees who perform specific tasks for each department in office space at the Newtown Municipal Center could be a first and critical step toward eventually combining those services with a unified staff.

Officials who gathered for the meeting included members of the council committee, First Selectman Pat Llodra, Town Finance Director Robert Tait, and school district Business Manager Ron Bienkowski. Board of Education member Michelle Ku also attended.

Mrs Llodra reported that in meetings between her and Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, both agreed that getting various "job alike" employees together will help ease any insecurities they might have, as well as providing opportunities to share their knowledge toward serving the community's greater good.

"This will require a lot of trust," Mrs Llodra said, noting that even combining town and school staff working separately could inadvertently cause individuals involved to feel vulnerable.

The committee presented a number of informational memos reflecting input from various town and school staffers and department heads, reviewing and suggesting ideas, or reasoning behind embracing or opposing the merging of certain services.

In reviewing those memos, Mrs Llodra noted that while they contain a few ideas about improving efficiencies, there were no ideas that would result in any significant cost savings. The first selectman then urged the committee to be bold, and possibly pursue "high end" ideas like eventually combining all school and municipal building maintenance staff into a single department.

With the announced retirement and departure of town Human Resources Director Carol Ross pending, one area that appeared prime for merger is local human resource management.

However, Ms Ross and school HR representative Susan D'Eramo pointed out in a co-signed letter, that after discussing the prospect at length, the sheer number of employees under each department's administration is too large for any type of merger at this time. Between the two offices, more than 1,500 employees are administered.

At the same time, both HR officials noted that they could and would share the services of an in-house labor attorney.

"This person would be incredibly valuable to us in that we would have someone with the knowledge of law to help us with decisions such as FML [Family Medical Leave], ADA [Americans with Disability Act], workers' compensation, negotiations, grievances, etc," the memo stated.

The two HR officials did discuss the potential of using the district's online job application system for townside job postings, as well as EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) reporting, and applicant tracking, if the cost to accomplish that is affordable and appropriate.

On the subject of exploring any overlap of duties or a possible merger of the town finance office and district business manager operations, Mr Bienkowski pointed out that each one has some overlapping duties, but for the most part have "very different roles."

While Mr Tait manages a staff handling municipal financial matters, and administers the overall town budget, capital planning, and bond offers, Mr Bienkowski said he is much more involved in directing operations and administering district affairs, including short- and long-term contracts.

Mr Bienkowski also defended the Phoenix municipal finance software system that the district has been using for some time, which the town has recently joined - discontinuing use of a separate software system saving taxpayers approximately $95,000 per year.

The district business official said in the long-term, he could envision the accounts payable and payroll departments merging.

Mrs Llodra said by formalizing a plan of "co-locating" similarly functioning personnel together would bode well for efficiency, while acknowledging that for many town and school staffers, the "incidental practice" is already happening and has been for some time.

"We just want to memorialize and institutionalize these practices," Mrs Llodra said.

"Combining doesn't mean we'll need less people," added Legislative Council Chair Mary Ann Jacob, speaking to concerns that apparently have surfaced as same services mergers have been discussed in the past.

"There just has to be a reason driving any change," Mrs Llodra said.

Mr Bienkowski said that ideally, the best investment for the short term would be a shared purchasing official, along with more robust purchasing automation.

Another idea ripe for exploration was creating a centralized maintenance office sharing personnel from the school facilities department and the town public works staff. It was suggested that possibly hiring a consultant to work with supervisors on how to frame and staff such a department might be effective, particularly in relation to the disproportionate amount of work required of the school district's facilities and maintenance staff.

Ultimately, Mrs Llodra recognized that there are currently very few people available to do all the work that the town and district demands for a community the size of Newtown.

"But we need to be benefits driven," she said. "We need to create a schedule and work at a pace that doesn't throw things into turmoil."

Mr Tait added that once the initial discomfort of co-locating passes for those selected to participate, he believes all employees involved will be successful and happy to be working together.

The meeting concluded with members of the committee agreeing to contact officials in communities that have previously or are currently utilizing shared services between the town and schools, to be best equipped to take the shared services conversation to the next phase.