Sentinel Staff Report

Article Launched: 06/22/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT

Whatever happened to the concept of community collaboration and cooperation? In today’s “go it alone” economic climate, pubic agencies and nonprofits alike are forced to balance their scarce resources budget by individual budget. When budget balancing leads to unnecessary cuts in services, the entire community loses.

Direct coordination and collaboration among service providers might just be the solution to maintain threatened programs and projects.

Case in point: strained negotiations between Santa Cruz City Schools SCCS and Santa Cruz County Office of Education-chartered Pacific Collegiate School PCS have now completely stalled with no direct communications between the parties. The Sentinel reported last month that SCCS does not want to “leave any revenue on the table,” but the agency’s focus on securing a short-term source of revenue may thwart more rewarding long-term opportunities.

It is admirable that SCCS is looking to increase their income by turning to the market place to rent the former Natural Bridges Elementary School. However, despite the recent property appraisal and reported inquiries, it’s unlikely that there are others out there willing to pay market rate for a property with outdated structures and restrictions limiting use to public facilities when there are plenty of similarly priced vacant facilities without these restrictions currently available.

The two parcels SCCS manages cannot be used for commercial development without city approval and neighbors would like the school and adjacent parkland permanently protected. It’s time that we look to other models to solve public-agency budget shortfalls.

In Santa Clara County, the city of San Jose and San Jose State University opened the new 475,000 sq. ft. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in August 2003 as a joint development project. This project represents a unique collaboration between a university and a major U.S. city and could be an example for Santa Cruz. Other agencies throughout California have linked programs through joint-powers agreements to streamline operations or created special districts to provide stable funding sources and to prioritize long-range planning.

We should consider these same types of strategies to support services right here in Santa Cruz. Schools could be built, parks could be maintained and programs could be funded, all through the process of cooperation and joint planning. What will it take to ignite the discussion?

Today’s financial constraints require new approaches. Without long-term planning and cooperation, public services will be unnecessarily placed in jeopardy. Perhaps SCCS and PCS can restart direct negotiations and identify their own creative solutions to meet their and the community’s long-term needs Their combined efforts can serve as an example of how public agencies can maintain and enhance valuable programs during these difficult budgetary times.

It’s at least worth a try, don’t you think?