Merger Could Save Millions, Study Shows Consultants Say Consolidation Will Reduce Management Costs

A study released Tuesday says taxpayers could save at least $5.5 million in annual management costs by merging Spokane city and county governments.

Consultants hired by the business group Momentum spent two weeks finding management positions in the city and the county that duplicate each other, and deciding which could be cut if voters approve consolidation next Tuesday.

After adding an independent auditor and staff for that office, the merged government still could cut 110 managers, secretaries and other management support positions, the consultants said.

The $36,000 study, conducted by the national accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, did not list specific jobs that could be eliminated.

“We didn’t want to have a list because we didn’t want the focus to be on individual jobs” that might be lost, said Susan Meyer, Momentum’s executive director.

Many city and county employees oppose the merger, fearing it would threaten their jobs.

The charter promises that no employee who isn’t a department head will lose his or her job the first two years after the merger. Many of the jobs the consultants targeted are among those protected and could be cut only through attrition or after the two-year period ends.

Deloitte & Touche consultant Ken Murray cautioned that only members of the city-county council could decide whether to eliminate positions. That group won’t exist unless consolidation passes.

Momentum, a Spokane economic development group with 550 member businesses, has donated $100,000 to the pro-charter campaign. The group contends consolidation would make government more efficient, more responsive and better for business.

Bill First, leader of the anti-consolidation group We The Taxpayers, called the study “a last-minute effort to bolster their position.”

“It seems to me a little late to be bringing in an accounting firm, a few days before this hotly contested election,” said First, who hadn’t seen the report.

Management costs were the only expenses considered in the study.

An earlier study commissioned by freeholders concluded it could cost $20 million annually to spread urban services to areas outside the current city limits. That cost would not be incurred if services were not improved in the suburbs, said the author of that study, Tom Nesbitt.

“We’re not quarreling with Nesbitt’s $20 million. He didn’t even consider the cost of staff,” said Meyer.

Nesbitt also estimated it would cost $8 million to repaint police cars, buy new computers and pay other one-time expenses for merging the two governments.

Momentum leaders on Tuesday questioned the need to make some of those investments.

For instance, police could use their old uniforms and cars until they wear out, said Meyer.

And while the city and county have different computer systems, “It won’t require a whole new system to make them speak to each other,” she said.

, DataTimes