|
 
| |
A MESSAGE FROM
THE CENTRE REGION COG EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:
More than Football…
When people think of the State College area, images of warm fall afternoons
enjoying Penn State University’s Nittany Lions are often brought to mind.
But the area is characterized by more than a football dynasty. The six
local governments in “Happy Valley” field another winning team . . . the Centre
Region COG.
COG’s team members are State College Borough, and College, Ferguson, Halfmoon,
Harris, and Patton Townships. They are collectively known as the Centre
Region and have a combined population of 80,000 residents, and a land area of
about 150 square miles. It is one of the fastest growing areas in
Pennsylvania, with the population increasing by about 10% each decade over the
last 30 years.
In
1969, three years after Joe Paterno started as Penn State’s head coach, the six
municipalities established the COG. Over time, COG has evolved into one of
the most effective intergovernmental organizations in the United States in terms
of the number of services provided and budgetary appropriations ($9.3 million
budget in 2006).
COG
is governed by the General Forum, which is comprised of 32 elected officials
from the six municipalities. In addition, there is a non-voting
representative from Penn State University and a liaison from the local school
district. Surprisingly, despite its large size, most General Forum votes
are unanimous. In large measure, this consensus flows from the COG’s
Committee system, which is designed to prepare recommendations to be developed
on regional policy issues. Each municipality appoints one elected official
to each of the COG Committees – Executive, Finance, Personnel, Public Services,
Code Administration, and Transportation.
Committee recommendations are presented in the form of a motion that provides a
starting point for the General Forum’s discussions. If the issue is
particularly “politically” charged, the Committee may refer the issue to the
individual municipal Boards/Councils for comment. Municipal responses are
considered by the Committee in preparing its recommendation.
The
position of General Forum Chair rotates annually among the municipalities. Each
municipality also has the opportunity to host one General Forum meeting per
year. COG meetings are cablecast on the area’s local government/education
access channel. The local media is a regular attendee of General Forum
meetings and has been an ally in helping to inform the public about regional
policy issues.
The
COG offers a menu of services ranging from library operations to park
maintenance. Some specific examples of cost savings achieved through COG’s
cooperative programs include:
 |
Fire Suppression and
Rescue Services: There is a single COG-funded fire company
protecting the four largest municipalities (about 74,000 residents) and Penn
State University. The company operates from three stations, with a
volunteer force of about 90 individuals. Each year the company responds
to between 800 and 900 alarms. The per capita cost in the Centre Region
for fire protection services is $15.00 per year; the national average
for communities of comparable size is $150.00. |
|
Regional
Refuse/Recycling Services: The COG has a contract for providing
collection services to over 12,000 residential customers. The service
contract is competitively bid every three years. Because of regional
cooperation, the monthly customer rate is 30% less than the typical
customer payment in 1992, the year prior to the implementation of the COG
program. While controversial at first, the program is currently strongly
supported by the public and has a delinquency rate of less than 1%. |
|
Code Administration
Services: The COG’s Building Code Agency performs inspections on
approximately $120 million in new construction annually; and inspects 15,000
rental units once every three years. For the last 30 years, the program
has been supported entirely through building and rental housing permits; no
tax monies fund the program. |
The
COG’s play book also incorporates coordinated planning efforts which include:
|
Regional
Comprehensive Plan – The Centre Region municipalities have been working
cooperatively on regional land use planning for over 30 years. The Regional
Comprehensive Plan establishes a blueprint for how the Centre Region should
look in the future. The Plan includes a Regional Growth Boundary (RGB), which
identifies the area where most of the Region’s growth should occur in the next
30 years. Areas within the RGB are zoned for growth and are provided with
public utilities and services. Locations outside of the RGB are targeted
for open space, and agricultural and rural preservation efforts. |
|
Regional Sewage
Facilities Plan – This document outlines a plan to prepare the Region’s
sewage facilities for the future. The Region’s six municipalities work
cooperatively to prepare this document, and the plan is adopted in a
regionally consistent manner. The Plan identifies a Sewer Service Area,
which matches the Regional Growth Boundary contained in the Comprehensive
Plan. In addition, the Plan studies and provides recommendations for
areas of the community served by on-lot sewage disposal systems. As an
example, the Region’s sewage facility planning has resulted in the
implementation of several on-lot system preventive maintenance programs.
These sewage management programs are considered models for other communities
in the State. |
|
Regional Emergency
Management Plan: The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Code (Title 35)
requires each municipality to have an emergency management coordinator, an
emergency operations center, and an emergency operations plan.
For over
12 years, the six municipalities have opted to fulfill these requirements
through a regional COG program. In the event of a declared disaster, the
communities will respond in a coordinated manner instead of pulling in
separate directions. |
Like any winning team, the COG also has first-rate facilities and equipment
including:
|
Regional Library:
Cooperating through COG, the municipalities contributed $4 million to the
construction of a new regional library. Because of the COG contribution,
the Library Board was able to leverage an additional $7 million in public
donations and state and federal grants. The result is a beautiful and
functional 38,000 sq. ft. library that is located at a gateway intersection in
the Region. |
|
COG Building:
After many years of discussion, the COG opened a new 16,000 sq. ft. building.
The building is owned by the municipalities through a condominium agreement.
The rent that each of the COG agencies pay to the municipalities for their
office space is based on the percentage of building ownership. This
business arrangement enables the municipalities to receive a return on their
investment in the construction of the $2.5 million building. |
|
Regional Parks:
In 2005 the COG acquired 68 acres of land to be developed as a regional park.
DCNR provided $300,000 to the purchase of this land. Another 75-acre
regional acquisition of potential parkland may occur in 2006. Again, a
DCNR grant was a major component of the funding proposal. COG grant
applications tend to be highly competitive because of their regional nature. |
The
COG also maintains 48 municipal parks, a nature center, two pools and a senior
citizens’ center. In 2003, the COG’s parks program received Sports
Illustrated’s Sportstown, U.S.A designation as Pennsylvania’s premier sports
community.
|
Traffic Pre-emption
System: Five years ago, four of the Centre Region municipalities
entered into an intergovernmental agreement to have COG install, maintain, and
replace traffic pre-emption equipment. The agreement created a regional
system that permits fire and ambulance apparatus, in route to an emergency
call, to change traffic signals to green. Over time the pre-emption
system should reduce response time and the number of vehicular accidents
occurring between emergency apparatus and the public. The municipalities
appropriate funds in the COG budget to equip two to four existing
intersections with pre-emption equipment each year. In addition,
municipalities adopted ordinances, recommended by the COG General Forum, that
require that traffic pre-emption devices be installed in all new traffic
signals. |
The
essential strategies for COG’s winning record are:
|
Presence of
Stakeholders: All of the elected officials participate in the COG.
In the Centre Region, typically, each elected municipal official attends two
COG meetings per month: a session of the General Forum and his/her assigned
COG Committee. Unlike many other COG’s, all of the elected officials are
actively engaged in the organization and have ownership of its projects and
services. |
|
Patient Persistence:
Consensus-building is hard work, and it may take years to achieve an agreement
on a major topic. For example, the funding agreement for the COG’s
regional library took place over nine years as municipal officials wrestled
with questions relating to the allocation of costs and building location.
The Agreement establishing the COG requires unanimous consent of all the
municipalities in matters relating to real estate. A tremendous amount
of effort was invested in obtaining each municipality’s approval of a single
building site. The process was possible because the elected officials
openly identified their concerns, carefully listened to their peers from other
municipal Boards/Councils, and were willing to explore and analyze all
options. |
|
Multiple
Partnerships: The COG not only consists of partnerships among the
municipalities, it also has relationships with the local water, sewer and
transit authorities, the school district, the County government, and Penn
State University. The relationships increase COG’s capacity to provide
services and coordinate land use plans. For instance, the COG maintains
five school district playing fields in exchange for the community having
access to those fields when school is not in session. This joint COG/school
district approach has expanded the number of playable ball fields available to
residents, while at the same time avoiding the need to purchase additional
property. |
|
Adequate Funding
Support: Regional cooperation requires funding for staff support to
prepare minutes, agendas, reports, and communications, and to schedule
meetings. It is essential that all of the elected officials be kept informed
of COG activities; elected officials will not support what they don’t know
about. Keeping people informed costs money. |
Municipal contributions for COG programs are calculated in a variety of ways.
Most COG programs use a standard formula with three component elements (assessed
property evaluation, population, and earned income tax base). Other
programs employ usage. For example, the costs for the regional library
programs are allocated based on the percentage of items checked out to residents
of a particular municipality. There have been a few cases where
contributions were based on each municipality paying the same amount.
|
Detailed
Documentation: Each COG program is established by each individual
municipality adopting, by ordinance, Articles of Agreement that clearly define
the terms for membership, governance, scope of services, funding, and
withdrawal. Having detailed agreements that identify these ground rules
has enabled the COG to avoid many misunderstandings among the member
municipalities. |
Participating in the COG makes common sense to its member municipalities.
Working through the COG, the municipalities make effective use of public funds;
provide high quality public services; and coordinate community planning in a
highly dynamic area. Additionally, the COG makes sound business sense.
Because of its large service area, the COG is able to realize economies of scale
in the production of its services, and the costs of many COG services are
recovered through fees paid by the users (e.g. building permits, pool
membership, etc.). Together, the municipalities are better able to
leverage their funds to obtain grants and public contributions.
Unlike their football counterparts, COG officials will never march in the Rose
Ball parade. But in the stadium of local governance, they are champions in
working together to provide high quality, cost-effective public services to
their residents.
|
