Joint Task Force for the Farmington Community

A little known activity going on in our community for the past two years has been the work of a committee called the Joint Task Force. The committee was originally comprised of Frank Reid from the School Board, Randy Bruce of Farmington Hills Council and me, representing Farmington’s Council. 

The work of this committee was defined very generally in a joint meeting of the schools and the two cities two years ago: go find some ways we can work together and save money. Since then, numerous ideas have been generated and some have been explored by the staffs of the cities and schools and have been implemented or are close to implementation.

Several ideas have developed around consolidating benefits programs to reduce costs. One of those ideas has been implemented. This idea involved consolidating an insurance program for the 47th District Court into a Farmington Hills city self-insurance group. More of these types of ideas have been discussed in this informal process.

Another idea out of the task force was for Farmington to contract with Farmington Hills for computer technical support. This is close to implementation. The objective will be cost savings and improved support consistency for Farmington and revenue enhancement for Farmington Hills.

Other ideas have included consolidating fuel purchases from whichever entity has the best pricing, sharing “green” and eco-friendly ideas for facility and vehicle management.

Eighteen months ago, Farmington contracted with Oakland County for assessment services in a three-year agreement. As this agreement matures, this will be another area to explore whether cost savings or service improvements can be made by moving the activity back to our community.

Discussions leading to contracting for dispatch services with Farmington Hills, while not originated in this group, did continue to some degree in this group. This has not proven to be a popular idea with Farmington residents, who wanted more time to study the proposal and understand the implications on response time, on costs and to compare other cost saving or revenue enhancement options. Farmington’s Council approved the manager proceeding to work on an inter-local agreement, in a split vote. Nevertheless, the goal of the JTF is to find ways to save money between the cities and schools, and the dispatch contract is projected to meet that goal.

In the future, I hope that we can find ways to expand joint economic development efforts. As you may know, we have formed a joint Farmington and Farmington Hills Corridor Improvement Authority to study how to improve the commercial areas along Grand River Avenue from 8 Mile Road to the border of Farmington’s Downtown. This idea was originally discussed by our two City Managers, and discussion in the Joint Task Force has helped the idea along. I would very much like to see the two cities and the schools having more dialogue on how to improve our competitive position for retaining and winning more businesses and residents for the whole community. I also believe there would also be some value in expanding the Joint Task Force to include Novi representatives and perhaps other municipal neighbors.