Consultants Praise Newtown’s Plan To Merge Municipal, School Services

By John Voket

The details of a study provided by the regional consulting firm of Blum Shapiro speak for themselves, but two representatives who worked on the report appeared before the Legislative Council May 2 to praise Newtown for being the first municipality in the state to generate a formalized plan to merge town and school services.

The report details why and how Newtown might eventually combine its school and municipal human resources, payroll, finance, information technology, and building maintenance resources, which the consultants said would result in greater efficiencies, cost savings, and eventual personnel reductions.

A copy of the full report is available for review at newtownbee.com.

Jeff Ziplow and Domenic Barone of Blum Shapiro provided a brief overview of key points in the study, as well as recommendations. The consultants then fielded questions from the council, the first selectman, and other officials in attendance from the Boards of Finance and Selectmen.

First Selectman Pat Llodra introduced the presentation reminding the council that the entire idea for contracting the study was borne from Councilman Dan Amaral’s repeated calls for consolidating maintenance and other services that could be shared with an eye on taxpayer savings.

His request was first addressed by an ad-hoc committee of the council, which then found merit in qualifying how the town might proceed to that end by contracting the regional consulting and accounting firm.

Before digging into the report, Mr Ziplow noted that before his company was ever contacted, Newtown was showing unique initiative, albeit informally, because school and town IT and maintenance crews were already sharing resources and personnel when needed.

“Kudos to them,” Mr Ziplow said.

He then focused on the process of building the report, referencing the trepidation some of the participants expressed during various interviews. Mrs Llodra, Town Finance Director Robert Tait, Superintendent Janet Robinson, and district business manager Ron Bienkowski were the primary team of officials involved, but more than two dozen other officials and staff participated in the process.

“Looking at shared operations is very tough to consider, but you took on the challenge to look at things differently, to look at innovative change to produce efficiencies and hopefully reduce costs,” Mr Ziplow said. “I won’t tell you these were easy meetings.”

The consultant said since he started working with Newtown on the report, several other Connecticut towns got wind of it and are now thinking about doing the same thing.

“I have been in touch with a half-dozen other towns thinking about doing what you have already accomplished,” he said. “I think more communities need to think differently like Newtown has. Implementation is next, and I think people are up to the challenge.”

Mr Ziplow said the biggest concern coming out of the Blum Shapiro findings is the need to combine the town and school financial management systems into a single software package from a single vendor.

“Two financial systems inhibits collaboration, causes inefficiencies and duplication of efforts,” he said, noting that the town has already conceded to merging its payroll system with the school district, which currently uses a system called Phoenix for its financial and budget management.

When referring to a proposed merger of town and school IT services, Mr Ziplow suggested also appointing a committee to oversee and help inform or direct the newly merged entity. But in describing the final of four phases of proposed changes, he returned to the dual software systems currently in place.

“We cannot exist in the future under two financial management systems,” Mr Ziplow said. Responding to a question from council Education Committee Chair Kathryn Fetchick about why that represented the last instead of the first initiative, the consultant said the merger of a software system, including the necessary training and data entry to make the consolidation successful, would take up to 24 months to accomplish.

Instead, he supported focusing on merging the payroll systems and IT department functions.

“We wanted to have some quick wins and cost reductions immediately” while the town test drives the Phoenix system, Mr Ziplow said. There would be an immediate $33,000 savings because the town would no longer need the payroll processing vendor currently contracted.

In weighing whether the town should consider using Phoenix for its financial management, versus the Munis system currently in place, Mr Ziplow said the cost to add Munis payroll and HR software alone could exceed $100,000. But Mr Tait said after the meeting there were a lot of options to negotiate bundling Munis software and support to bring that cost projection down measurably.

Responding to other questions about Munis, Mr Ziplow said about eight other towns in Connecticut are successfully administering financial management for all departments including schools on the Munis system, and that Munis recently announced a partnership with Microsoft.

“Munis is in many communities, but the jury is out on Phoenix,” Mr Ziplow said, adding that having two systems not only creates a physical barrier to cooperation, but a perception about the separation of departments.

“As soon as we create this division, we lose trust and get into this whole control issue,” Mr Ziplow said. “We need to take small steps to demonstrate the ability to work together.”

Council Vice Chair Mary Ann Jacob responded saying, “It’s the kind of thinking the taxpayers have been asking for.”

Mrs Llodra also commented that while the mergers suggested by Blum Shapiro would not come quickly or easily, the study provides a roadmap.

“There are likely to be detours,” the first selectman said, “but the intention is to be more effective and efficient.”