Merged services could cut deficit

One former Annapolis alderman calls for city, county consolidation

Annapolis is poised to face one of its largest deficits in city history, but a former alderman and Anne Arundel budget officer thinks he might have a solution to ease the pain: Combine some services with the county.

Former Alderman John Hammond’s idea would merge some municipal services, such as public safety, recreation and parks and public works, merged with Anne Arundel County. Hammond theorizes this could save the city and county money by spreading services across a larger tax base, also known as economy of scale. Somecurrent aldermen are keen on the idea, though they want to study the issue before committing to anything with concerns that services could worsen.

Hammond served four terms on the City Council before becoming the county’s budget officer for 25 years. He served under both Democratic and Republican administration before retiring.

“Instead of having two organizations providing the same set of services individually, let’s think about putting them in the same pot,” said Hammond, who co-wrote an editorial inTheCapital Wednesday pitching the idea with Larry Shubnell, a former county Economic Development Corporation board member.

The move could also lower administrative costs, Hammond said.

The city’s financial forecast has worsened in recent weeks. The finance office estimates a nearly $10 million deficit between expenditures and revenue in the fiscal year 2022 general fund. The expected revenue in the fiscal 2021 general fund has decreased by about $3.3 million.

While no concrete discussions about such a merger have happened between the administrations of Mayor Gavin Buckley and County Executive Steuart Pittman, Pittman appeared open to the discussion during a weekly conference call Tuesdaywith reporters.

“Iwould certainly talk about anything the mayor or the City Councilwanted to talk about in terms of efficiencies by merging some services,” he said. “But I have not had any conversations about that with anybody in the two years that I’ve been in [office]. It would be a new conversation if it came up.”

Any decision on the subject would need approval by the City Council, “and right now, some are supportive with others strongly opposed,” said City ManagerDavid Jarrell.

At a budget retreat on Saturday, several members of the City Council referenced Hammond’s plan when they listed budget priorities for the coming year.

Alderwoman Sheila Finlayson, DWard 4, suggested the city study the idea and recommended a community survey

to understand what services residents value most.

But the idea isn’t a new one, Finlayson said.

“Every budget cycle, someone comes up with an idea of turning our services over to the county. My recommendation is we do the research and find out definitively once and for all whether that’s a viable option or not,” she said. “We don’t know. We have no clue. I suspect that it’s not a great option. But until we get the actual data. There’s no telling. We finally put it to bed.”

The county and city already share some services, such as health and aging and disability departments.

Finlayson said shewas skeptical in part because of how much the county might charge for providing services and the potential for those services to be worse than they currently are.

“Are we going to be satisfied in the change in response time (from emergency vehicles)?” she said.

Alderman Fred Paone, R-Ward 2, also raised the issue Saturday, suggested the city could adopt a system used by other Maryland municipalities in which the county police department handles serious crimes. Paone said he would like to discuss those ideas with both police departments.

“I just think we ought to look into it — the costs, the benefits, the detriments, that sort of thing,” he said. “I don’t want to sacrifice services, but if there’s a way to save money, I mean a cost divided up 600,000 ways has got to be a little bit lower than the cost divided up 40,000 ways.”

While there could be savings to be had, there could also be a loss of autonomy for the city and the council, said Alderman Rob Savidge, D-Ward 7.

In some places, a merger might make sense, such as the fire department or a shared transportation system, he said.

“I think we do need to keep our own autonomy. We are a very unique city with unique needs,” he said. “We need to be very careful about it.”