March 9, 2010, Introduced by Reps. Donigan, Meadows, Liss, Geiss, Hammel and Durhal and referred to the Committee on Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs.
A bill to create intergovernmental advisory office and to
provide for its powers and duties; to create certain funds; to
provide for certain powers and duties of certain state and local
officers and agencies; and to repeal acts and parts of acts.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
"intergovernmental advisory office act".
Sec. 2. As used in this act:
(a) "Fund" means the intergovernmental agency grant and loan
fund created in section 9.
(b) "Local unit of government" means a political subdivision
of this state, including, but not limited to, a county, city,
village, township, district, local authority, intergovernmental
authority, or intergovernmental entity.
(c) "Office" means the intergovernmental advisory office
created in section 3.
Sec. 3. (1) The intergovernmental advisory office is created.
The head of the office is the director, who shall be appointed by
the governor and shall serve at the pleasure of the governor.
(2) The director, subject to annual appropriations for that
purpose, may appoint deputies or other employees to assist in
carrying out the duties of the office.
Sec. 4. The office shall do all of the following:
(a) Serve as the central state agency that connects local
governments to services provided by various state departments and
agencies. For this purpose, each state department shall designate
an officer or employee to be the local government liaison for that
department. Each designated local government liaison shall meet
periodically with the director of the office to ensure that
services and programs offered to local governments by each state
department are delivered efficiently.
(b) Develop common minimum operational standards for all local
units of government, including accounting standards.
(c) Evaluate the laws of this state to determine whether state
statutes may create impediments or barriers to collaboration and
cooperation between local units of government, and how those
statutes could be amended or supplemented to provide incentives for
local cooperation and collaboration based on local control rather
than state control. The office shall draft suggested legislation
for purposes of this subdivision and shall provide copies of the
suggested legislation to the secretary of the senate and the clerk
of the house of representatives.
(d) Identify, categorize, and prioritize opportunities for
shared services, collaborative efforts, and consolidation and
increased efficiency among local and regional government agencies.
(e) Identify and prioritize real barriers to local cooperation
and collaboration.
(f) Work with state departments and representative
nongovernmental organizations to catalogue, record, and track
activities relating to local cooperation, consolidation, and shared
services across the state to optimize success and avoid duplication
and conflict.
(g) Identify and catalogue specific base-level services
rendered by local government as a basis for revenue sharing.
(h) Review and recommend changes to constitutional and
statutory revenue sharing that supports specific base-level
services rendered by local government units, rather than providing
unrestricted funds.
(i) Recommend methods for local governments to increase their
authority to tax their citizens for the desired services and beyond
the base-level services that all local units provide.
(j) Provide grants to be used for consultant services as
needed.
Sec. 5. The office shall support local governmental
coordination and collaboration efforts including, but not limited
to, all of the following:
(a) Consolidation of local units or services.
(b) The formation and operation of regional commissions,
agencies, and councils.
(c) Mutual aid pacts between local governments.
(d) Joint service agreements.
(e) Joint purchasing agreements.
(f) Contracts for performing governmental functions and
providing governmental services to residents.
(g) The formation of special authorities.
Sec. 6. The office shall develop and provide a variety of
innovative tools and services to help municipalities consolidate
and coordinate the delivery of essential services to residents and
businesses in local governmental units, including, but not limited
to, the following:
(a) State-financed bonds.
(b) Public-private partnerships for local governmental units
for brick and mortar projects.
(c) Public investment infrastructure funding.
(d) The services of qualified consultants who have
demonstrated proven success.
(e) Financial models and incentives that local governments can
replicate to achieve coordinated and cooperative ventures that
would not overburden taxpayers and that recognize the uniqueness
and complexity of large urban, small urban, suburban, village,
township, and rural governments. Financial models must include,
where applicable, all of the following:
(i) Fixed costs.
(ii) Ongoing operational costs.
(iii) Taxation.
(iv) Variable costs.
(v) Transaction costs.
(vi) Shared risk and liability.
(f) Legal services.
(g) Teams of experts that can assist local governments in
intergovernmental efforts. The office shall assemble and oversee
teams of qualified individuals from the public and private sectors
to assist coordination and consolidation efforts as needed. Team
members shall have the full force of the state behind them and have
the full range of state resources to assist them. Team members
shall include, but are not limited to, the following:
(i) Attorneys.
(ii) Certified public accountants.
(iii) Labor negotiations.
(iv) Financial analysts.
(v) Former school superintendents.
(vi) Former city managers and financial officers.
(vii) Municipal planning experts.
(viii) Private sector professionals who have experience or
expertise in local government.
(ix) Consultants who have been certified by the state as
experts in the field of local government issues and who have
achieved verifiable success with consolidation efforts.
Sec. 7. The office shall promote the integration of services
provided by local units of government whenever that integration
would provide a more economical and efficient use of resources. The
services the office shall review include, but are not limited to,
all of the following:
(a) 9-1-1 emergency services.
(b) Fire and police services, including dispatch services and
regional and central lockup facilities.
(c) Court services.
(d) The collection of taxes and fees.
(e) Property assessment and equalization.
(f) Regional and shared libraries.
(g) Parks and recreation services.
(h) Accounting.
(i) Human resources.
(j) Significant capital expenditures.
(k) General administrative functions.
Sec. 8. The director of the office shall regularly meet with,
and seek the cooperation and advice of, all of the following in
conducting the activities of the office under this act:
(a) The director of the department of treasury or his or her
designee.
(b) The director of the department of management and budget or
his or her designee.
(c) The director of the department of natural resources and
environment or his or her designee.
(d) The director of the state transportation department or his
or her designee.
(e) The lieutenant governor or his or her designee.
(f) The attorney general or his or her designee.
(g) The Michigan municipal league.
(h) The Michigan townships association.
(i) The Michigan association of counties.
Sec. 9. (1) The intergovernmental grant and loan fund is
created in the state treasury.
(2) The state treasurer may receive money or other assets from
any source for deposit into the fund. The state treasurer shall
direct the investment of the fund. The state treasurer shall credit
to the fund interest and earnings from fund investments.
(3) Money in the fund at the close of the fiscal year shall
remain in the fund and shall not lapse to the general fund.
(4) The department of treasury shall be the administrator of
the fund for auditing purposes.
(5) At the direction of the office, the state treasurer shall
expend money from the fund, upon appropriation, only for the
purposes described in section 10.
Sec. 10. (1) The office shall utilize the money in the fund
for all of the following purposes:
(a) Awarding grants to local units of government to support
innovative pilot programs that implement cooperation and
collaboration between the participating local units of government.
(b) Awarding grants to local units of government to support
joint ventures by those local units of government to deliver
governmental services.
(c) Making loans to local units of government that collaborate
on the purchase or construction of capital-intensive items.
(2) An application for a grant or a loan under this section
shall be submitted jointly by the local units of government that
propose to participate in the endeavor that is the subject of the
grant or loan. The forms and requirements for the application and
the terms of the grant or loan shall be determined by the office.
Sec. 11. The office shall create an interactive website that
is available to the public to assist local units of government in
participating in the activities authorized under this act.
Sec. 12. Not later than January 1, 2011 and each year after
that, the office shall report on its activities and recommendations
to the chairpersons of the standing committees of the senate and
house of representatives that consider legislation affecting local
governmental activities and to the chairpersons of the senate and
house appropriations committees.
Enacting section 1. This act is repealed 2 years after the
date on which it was enacted.