Syracuse, NY -- In 1994, then-Onondaga County Executive Nicholas Pirro called for the merger of the county and Syracuse purchasing departments. His proposal received the support of Mayor Roy Bernardi, but city lawmakers balked, citing concerns about the county’s outdated purchasing system. So the county invested nearly $100,000 to computerize its purchasing system in 1995, but city lawmakers still balked....
Syracuse, NY -- In 1994, then-Onondaga County Executive Nicholas Pirro called for the merger of the county and Syracuse purchasing departments. His proposal received the support of Mayor Roy Bernardi, but city lawmakers balked, citing concerns about the county’s outdated purchasing system.
So the county invested nearly $100,000 to computerize its purchasing system in 1995, but city lawmakers still balked. They said they weren’t convinced that the projected $400,000 a year in savings would materialize.
In 1997, Pirro and Bernardi gave it another shot. This time, the proposal actually got to a vote, but it was defeated 6-3 by the Common Council. As was the case previously, they split along part lines. All six Democrats on the council voted no, and all three Republicans voted yes. The Democrats said they had concerns about county government, which has long been controlled by Republicans, controlling what the city buys and from whom.
“This was poorly thought out and aimed more for popularity in terms of politics as opposed to what’s best for the city,” said Democratic councilor Peter Hartnett at the time.
The proposal came up yet again in 1998 and 1999, but once again, the votes were not there to make it happen.
Twelve years later, the issue is alive again. And this time, supporters say things will be different.
County Executive Joanie Mahoney, who has made government consolidation a major theme of her administration since taking office in 2008, recently offered to have the county take over the city’s purchasing department, at no cost to the city. Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said she will ask the council to accept the offer.
If the council and the county Legislature approve the change, the county would take over most of the administration of the city’s purchasing department, filling out purchase orders for everything from paper clips to textbooks to firetrucks.
Mahoney said the move would save both governments money because the greater purchasing power the county will have from the merger will allow it to negotiate lower prices.
Each government buys about $100 million in supplies annually. If the county is able to negotiate just a half a percent lower price on those purchases, the savings would exceed the extra $216,889 cost the county would incur to hire five full-time and one part-time employee from the city’s purchasing department, county officials said.
A vote by the council will be taken after an agreement is hammered out by lawyers for both governments. But both women say they think the proposal will get through this time.
Mahoney said the financial challenges facing both governments are enormous, making the need to consolidate the two departments greater than ever.
“It’s historic what’s happened to revenues in the city and the county and at every level of government,” she said. “So some of that is playing a role here because saving money is not so much a good idea, but a real urgency.”
Another thing that has changed since the 1990s is an easing of the distrust and animosity that existed between the city and the county, said Mahoney, who served on the Common Council from 2000 to 2004.
“I know from the conversations when I myself was on the city council that there was a level of distrust when it came to turning city operations over to the county,” she said. “There was a real city-vs.-county mentality in those days.”
Mahoney said she has worked hard to eliminate that distrust, meeting regularly with city officials and developing a good working relationship with Miner.
Miner agreed that the time is right to combine the departments.
“We simply cannot continue to provide all of the same services that we have, because we don’t have the money to do that,” she said. “And frankly, I don’t think it matters at all to a taxpayer in Eastwood whether a purchase employee is an employee of the city of Syracuse or an employee of the county when they’re buying salt for the roads or gas or oil for cars.”
Mahoney has offered to provide the same purchasing services to all of the county’s 19 towns and 15 villages, too. She said she already has been contacted by officials in the villages of Elbridge and Fayetteville and the town of Lysander expressing an interest.
“It’s one of the things we can do to help them reduce the cost of their own government,” she said.
--Reach Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or 470-3148.