Regionalization Conference

Project Overview

The Regionalization Tool Kit Conference was planned in response to the increasing interest in regionalizing municipal services across the Commonwealth. The day’s program was designed to give municipal officials clear examples of shared municipal service programs, concrete agreements to review, and contacts already in use by people running successful collaborative programs. FRCOG staff worked with the Mass. Dept. of Revenue’s Division of Local Services to plan the conference, and received sponsorship assistance from the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies (MARPA). In addition to the breakout sessions, conference attendees heard an opening session on how to design a legal agreement to share services, and were able to draw from materials at display tables from the Mass. Municipal Association, the Collins Center for Public Management at UMass Boston, the Pioneer Institute, the Hampshire Power Program and MARPA.

Conference Materials

Opening session

Planning and Designing Agreements for Merging Services (169K)

Health Department Collaboration

Municipal Financial Services

Police and Fire Consolidation

Solid Waste

Animal Control Officers

Building Inspection

Purchasing

Emergency Dispatch

Current Activities

FRCOG Staff are in the process of analyzing evaluation data from the conference to identify what assistance Massachusetts’ cities and towns most need in moving forward with sharing municipal services. This data will be shared with legislators, the Patrick Administration, and the state’s Regional Planning Agencies, who are charged with assisting cities and towns to implement regional collaborations.