SHARED SERVICES AND CONSOLIDATION
THE CLARENDON HILLS AND HINSDALE
EXPERIENCE
DAVID COOK-VILLAGE MANAGER, HINSDALE
BRADLEY BLOOM-CHIEF OF POLICE, HINSDALE
NOVEMBER 29, 2011
SHARED SERVICES AND CONSOLIDATION
THE CLARENDON HILLS AND HINSDALE
EXPERIENCE
Why are we pursuing Consolidation and Shared
Services?
Pursuing Consolidation & Shared Services From a
Management Perspective

Why does Hinsdale continue to look at Consolidation and Shared Services?
Provide Efficiency in Government
Illinois has nearly 7,000 units of government. No other state has even 5,000. We had
begun to explore options even before the economy crashed in 2008.
Quoting from Bill Clinton’s 1992 Campaign – “It’s the economy, stupid”
Since 2008, Hinsdale has reduced full-time positions from 117 to 93 (20.5%) and made
major budget cuts across the board.
As a non-home rule community, new revenue sources are severely limited
Long-term financial stability in doubt without further budget reductions. If we make
additional cuts without consolidation/sharing services we will start diminishing services.
State Shared revenues continue to remain in jeopardy on an annual basis
Skyrocketing Pension costs which in the long run are totally unsustainable. Over the past 10
years, our Police Pension costs have increased from $242,464 to $772,267 while the
unfunded liability has increased from $1.7 million to $7.2 million
Hinsdale’s Approach

Top Down Approach – In order to be successful you need buy-in from Board and Management
Prior to 2009, both my Police and Fire Chiefs had discussions with neighboring communities
with no results.
In 2009 our Village President sent a letter to neighboring communities (Mayors & managers)
to see who would be interested in starting discussions on shared services. Initially we began
discussions with Oak Brook, Clarendon Hills and Burr Ridge. During the process Oak Brook
choose not to pursue and Willowbrook joined the discussion. We initially decided to look at
Police operations first as from a budget perspective, it is everyone’s largest budget.
Everyone knew that to be successful tough decisions would have to be made.
The Managers of the 4 communities then looked at comparable communities to see what a
combined police department could have in potential savings. We then went back to our
respective Boards to make sure everyone was still supportive of moving forward. All 4
communities agreed to move forward and we then turned to the Police Chiefs to formulate a
plan which chief Bloom will describe later in the presentation.
Consolidation With Clarendon Hills

Never let an opportunity pass you by
In May, 2011, the Clarendon Hills Police Chief resigned. In addition, they were down 2 sworn
personnel. We reached out to them to see what we could do in the short-term to help them
out while we discussed the possibility of combining the departments through shared
services.
After discussion with both Village Boards, Clarendon Hills agreed to hold off replacing the
positions until we determined if this was a possibility. In September, the Chiefs initial report
was that there was little to gain in sharing services as both departments were very lean
already and recommended we pursue full consolidation.
Once again we went back to our Boards to gain support and both Boards concurred on the
new approach. We agreed to tackle the big issues first that can kill the process –
Governance and Funding. If those can be resolved we will then begin to tackle the labor,
pension and operational issues which will be no small task.
We then went public – first to the departments and then to the press. We stressed that no
firm decisions had been made except that we would do this through attrition and there would
be no adverse impacts to pensions. We also committed to working with and meeting with
the department personnel throughout the process.
Where Are We Now
 Both communities have committed resources to work through the process
(Elected Officials, Senior Management and the Police Chiefs)
 We have assembled a team of experts to help guide us in the process and have
begun meeting
 We have begun reviewing current expense and revenue models for both
communities and potential cost sharing methods
 We have just started down the road to consolidation and we know that it may get
bumpy at times and hard decisions will need to be made as we move along.
“When the small, beleaguered city
of Central Falls, R.I., filed for
bankruptcy this month, it sought to
cut the pension checks it has been
sending its retired police officers,
firefighters and other workers by as
much as half”
“But investors who bought
the city’s bonds could do
much better: Rhode Island
recently passed a law
intended to make sure that
they would be paid in full,
even in bankruptcy”.
“Illinois has some of the
strongest bondholder
protections anywhere, which
explains how a state that began
its fiscal year with $3.8 billion in
unpaid bills from last year”
“The federal bankruptcy code
says pensioners and generalobligation bondholders are both
unsecured creditors, stuck at
the back of the line and treated
as equals”.
all 52 news articles »
A Report of the U.S.
Department of Justice
Office of Community
Oriented Policing Services
(the COPS Office)
October 2011
“expectations will not be lowered just because an
agency now has fewer officers, or because the budget
is
limited. Simply doing less while waiting for local
budgets to recover to pre-2008 levels
is not a viable option”.
“law enforcement leaders need to start identifying
different ways to deliver police services and, perhaps
more importantly, articulate what the new public
safety models will look like to their communities”
“The effects of the economic downturn on law
enforcement agencies may be felt for the next 5–10
years, or worse, permanently”
“The permanence of this change will be driven not just by
the economy, but by the local government officials
determining that allocating 30–50 percent of their
general fund budgets for public safety costs is no longer a
fiscal possibility (Melekian 2011b).”
HINSDALE COST CUTTING MEASURES
Contracted out 9-1-1 Dispatch Services
Laid-off two police officers
Eliminated one vacant police officer position
Reduced 4 full-time positions to part-time
Increased use of civilians –investigations, accreditation positions.
Started a volunteer program
No Service Reductions
CONSOLIDATION AND SHARED SERVICES
Police Chief’s of Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Burr Ridge and Willowbrook began
meeting in 2009 to look at shared services and consolidation.
 Communities have contiguous boarders
 All located in S/E DuPage County
 All approximately the same size
 All use the same dispatch center
Primary focus was on sworn personnel.
 What functions could be shared?
 Administration
 Investigations
 Crime Prevention/DARE
CONSOLIDATION AND SHARED SERVICES
Initial draft report was divided into these areas:
 Comparisons of communities
 Comparison of the police agencies
 Consolidation models using both minimum patrol staffing models and performance
based staffing models
 Pros and Cons of Consolidation
 Barriers to achieving consolidation
 Shared Services Models
 Findings and Recommendations
CONSOLIDATION AND SHARED SERVICES
Findings
 Many barriers to achieving consolidation including governance, equity issues and
costs.
 Focus shifted to pursuing a shared services model.
SHARED SERVICES
Shared Services
 What functions performed by the police agencies could be centralized and if so
would it result in personnel reductions?
 Administration
 Investigations
 Crime Prevention
 DARE
 Canine
 Accreditation
SHARED SERVICES
Addresses challenges of consolidation
 Organizational confusion caused by an immediate consolidation will result in a drop
in the quality of law enforcement services.
 Equity Issues
 Governance Challenges
 Labor and Collective Bargaining Agreements.
The shared services model addresses these issues by providing for a phased in
process that minimizes organizational confusion and mitigates the equity and
governance questions.
SHARED SERVICES
Phase 1
 A separate entity is formed amongst the participating agencies with the cost shared
between the agencies.
 The separate agency is staffed with only police administrators and administrative
help. All other police services remain under local control.
SHARED SERVICES
Police
Administators
Phase 1
Administrative
Assistants
Hinsdale
Clarendon
Hills
Burr Ridge
Willowbrook
SHARED SERVICES
All police services remain under local jurisdiction.
 The separate entity of police administrators accomplishes the following steps:
Develops standardization plans for uniform:
 Reporting
 Policies and Procedures
 Administrative Coordination
 Logistical questions
SHARED SERVICES PHASE 2
All police services other than patrol are moved under the jurisdiction of the
consolidated entity including:
Police administration
Records
Investigation
Training
Continue to develop plans to standardize all facets of each separate agency and
reduce redundant administrative functions.
Administration
Administrative
Assistants
Records
Investigations
Training
Hinsdale
Patrol
Clarendon Hills
Patrol
Burr Ridge
Patrol
Willowbrook
Patrol
SHARED SERVICES PHASE 3
Merge patrol divisions into consolidated agency.
 Advantage of the shared services plan:
 Slow migration reduces organizational confusion and reduces the potential loss
of quality and confusion from an immediate consolidation.
 Staff reductions accomplished through attrition
 Each step can be carefully monitored and reversed or adjusted if necessary.
 A slow migration to consolidation will be better accepted by public and staff.
TOTAL CONSOLIDATION
Consolidation savings come from the reduction of redundant positions.
 Chiefs
 Deputy Chiefs
 Other supervisory positions
 Training officers
 Accreditation personnel
CONSOLIDATION-STAFFING LEVELS
Methods to determine patrol staffing
 Performance Based
 Uses a formula based on the time officers are engaged in dispatched calls for
service plus performance factors and determining the amount of time officers
are assigned to other administrative functions plus time on patrol.
 Typically
 1/3 of time on dispatched calls for service
 1/3 of time on administrative functions (court, training, lunch)
 1/3 of time on patrol
CONSOLIDATION STAFFING LEVELS
Minimum Patrol Staffing Levels
 Usually determined by the agencies experience that enough patrol officers will be
available to adequately meet the calls for service demands.
 This is typically a set minimum number of officers necessary for a shift before
officers are hired back for overtime. This may vary by shift or by day of the week
based on the agencies historical experience.
CONSOLIDATION STAFFING LEVELS
Current Minimum Patrol Staffing:
Hinsdale
Willowbrook
12.0
8.0
Shift Length
Regular Days Off
Total Days Off
Current Minimum
Staffing per shift
Shift Relief Factor
Patrol Officers
Required to Meet
Minimum Staffing
Clarendon
Hills
8.5
Burr Ridge
8.0
180.0
105.0
127.0
104.3
227.7
160.4
186.8
184.9
3.0
3.0
2.0
4.0
2.7
1.8
2.0
2.0
16.0
16.1
11.6
20.0
Total
12.0
63.6
CONSOLIDATION-BARRIERS
Governance
 Who will direct the police department?
 Who will the chief report to?
 Separate Board to oversee police department?
 Where will officers be assigned?
 Will the departments priorities remain the same following consolidation.
 Police and Fire Commissions-how do we merge them?
CONSOLIDATION BARRIERS
Equity
 How do we divide the costs?
 Personnel numbers?
 Calls for service?
 Population?
 Replacement costs?
 Future budgets and purchasing approval?
 Capital expenditures?
 Specialized costs specific to a community such as School Resource Officer
 Our we getting our fair share of police services?
CONSOLIDATION BARRIERS
Equity (cont)
 How do we divide revenues from:
 Traffic fines
 Parking tickets
 Seizures
 Administrative tow fees
 Overtime expenses
CONSOLIDATION BARRIERS
Labor Contracts
Pensions
CONSOLIDATION STUDY
Village’s meet simultaneously with both department to announce plans to pursue
consolidation.
 Basic Parameters
 No job loss.
 The right number achieved through attrition
 Quality will not be sacrificed
 No plans in place
 Determining Costs
 Working on Governance and Equity Questions First
 Standardization Period
CONSOLIDATION STUDY
Standardization Period
 Policy and Procedures
 Reporting systems
 Equipment
 Geography
 Squad cars and uniforms
 Local practices and customs
 Training
 Operational Issues
QUESTIONS