Mahoney, Miner announce effort to streamline local government

SYRACUSE — Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner today announced plans to identify ways that city and county government can share services and find efficiencies.

The leaders will work with Syracuse 20/20, Inc. in the effort. Syracuse 20/20 is a nonprofit coalition of 40 Central New York business and community leaders that was established in 1999, according to its website.

Both Mahoney and Miner, along with their senior-policy staff, will examine strategies for sharing services, finding efficiencies, and “innovation,” the leaders said in a joint news release.

The first priority of this new strategy, they said, is hiring a consultant to compile statistics on all governmental operations across Onondaga County.

Both Mahoney and Miner believe “good data” can help them make “good decisions” about how the county and city work together to save money, they said in the news release.

Officials in county government are in “constant discussions” about ways to reduce the high cost of government and provide levels of service that residents have come to expect, Mahoney contends.

“Working with Mayor Miner, we have had tremendous success merging our purchasing departments, merging our planning departments and bringing our economic-development offices together, but we know there is much more that can be done,” Mahoney said.

Both leaders plan to bring together experts in government and policy to examine what the “greatest needs” are and develop strategies to address them, Miner said in the news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com