Cumberland County, NJ (July 8, 2020) The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has announced Cumberland County will be receiving $150,000 in grant funding for Shared Services initiatives throughout the county. The County applied for and has been awarded both a Challenge Grant and a County Coordinator Fellowship Grant as part of the DCA’s Local Efficiency Achievement Program (LEAP). The County Coordinator Fellowship Grant provides funding to hire a fellow to work full time with the county to identify and advance shared services opportunities. The Challenge Grant can be used to support a variety of costs relating to investigating, developing and undertaking pioneering shared services projects.
Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joseph Derella praised the announcement stating, “This grant will help Cumberland County continue its statewide leadership in promoting partnerships between our various cities, townships and other public organizations in delivering better public services at reduced costs to the taxpayer.”
New Jersey’s Local Efficiency Achievement Program (LEAP) was created to foster shared municipal efforts throughout the state to build efficiencies of scale and increase services and responsiveness to local communities.
Cumberland County Department of Planning will operate as the lead agency locally for this effort along with the cities of Bridgeton, Millville and Vineland participating as partners. In describing the benefit of countywide coordination of shared service initiatives, Deputy Freeholder Director Darlene Barber stated, “We have adopted a number of shared service arrangements throughout the county. This grant will give us the resources to look for shared service opportunities that require more extensive investigation, preparation and coordination."
Freeholder Director Derella stated, “The Freeholder Board has made improving public services while controlling costs a top priority and the Board views shared services as central to this initiative.” In describing the role of the County in the initiative Director Derella added, “The County Planning Department gathers data about and interacts with all of our municipalities placing it in the perfect position to coordinate our shared services efforts.” Director Derella concluded, “We are very excited by the opportunities this grant will provide for us to build upon the hard work of our local leaders in developing shared services programs that take advantage of efficiencies and the economies of scale shared services provide while keeping control of these services local.”