Douglas County praised for cooperation with cities

? An audit focusing on governmental units in three counties gave officials in Douglas County high marks for working with each other.

“There’s a pretty high level of cooperation going on between the city of Lawrence and Douglas County,” Joe Lawhon, one of the state auditors, said Wednesday.

The study focused on governmental units in Douglas, Sedgwick and Dickinson counties. Sedgwick and Dickinson counties were given low grades.

In Douglas County, there are four cities, nine townships and 17 special districts that spent approximately $167 million in 2002.

The audit cited as examples of collaboration: The consolidation of the 911 emergency system and the sharing by Douglas County and city of Lawrence of a law enforcement building, jail, record retention services and evidence custody room.

Also noted was the fact that Lawrence and Douglas County have a joint Planning Commission and recently contracted for joint purchase of long-distance telephone minutes.

The auditors asked local officials about the possibility of merging fire departments and districts. There are three city fire departments, six township departments and a fire district within the county.

But officials said it wouldn’t be cost-effective because all fire departments except Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical have volunteer firefighters.

The auditors also questioned whether Lawrence and Douglas County could merge fleet maintenance operations and custodial functions.

Local officials said there would be no savings from those proposals.