Interlocal Cooperation in the Delivery of Services

Abstract

Interlocal cooperation in the delivery of services is the subject of this thesis project. The study surveys the types of cooperation communities can engage in. It also examines how three communities cooperate in the provision of police and public works services. Interlocal cooperation can be defined as collaborative efforts undertaken by two or more communities. In this study, cooperation is looked at in terms of the provision of services. Such cooperation can be formal or informal, single function or multi-function, and supplementary or complete. In any case, it is seen as a means for improving the delivery of services. Local services are financed through property taxes. People, these days, are demanding cuts in their property taxes. At the same time, they continue to demand services. The pressure is on administrators to find ways to provide services more efficiently and effectively. Administrative and organizational constraints hamper efforts to cooperate formally. The administrators of service systems of ten have the power to make verbal agreements among themselves. Such agreements are more amenable to the variety of administrative and organizational conditions, which exist in a group of communities. As a result, it was not shocking to find that cooperative efforts undertaken by the three communities examined are primarily informal. Informal cooperation has its place and communities should cooperate with one another in the delivery of services in whatever formal or informal manner their organizational and administrative situations necessitate.