City, county plan task force to face mutual challenges

Mayor Bob Stephens yesterday formally proposed the city and county form a task force to take on mutual challenges.

“The city of Springfield and Greene County have a history of collaborating on initiatives to increase efficiencies and benefit our citizens,” Stephens said in a city news release. “It is in the spirit of collaboration that I propose this city-county planning task force.”

Stephens said he hopes the task force - expected to meet for the first time within the next two weeks and continue to meet every other week - would be able to complete its proposed goals by the end of the calendar year.

Mutual challenges identified are:

• unfunded environmental mandates;
• stormwater funding;
• rising employee and dependent health care costs;
• employee recruitment, retention and compensation;
• unfunded capital needs;
• end-of-lifecycle capital replacement costs;
• fuel costs;
• facilities for courts;
• disparity in public health funding and its service impact;
• public trust;
• communication with residents and more civic engagement;
• growth planning;
• economic and business development; and
• information systems.

The task force would include five representatives apiece from the city and county, according to the news release.

For the city, the representatives would include the city manager, deputy city manager, assistant city manager, director of finance and a member to rotate based on the topic under discussion. The county would be represented by the county administrator, prosecuting attorney, auditor, budget officer and a representative of the sheriff's office or highway administrator.

The task force is charged with delivering suggested, measurable solutions to the mutual problems and to craft a report to track the progress on any identified solutions, according to the release.