Mangano & Maragos Announce Plan To Help School Districts Save Taxpayers As Much As $600,000 Annually

Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos stood with BOCES and other school officials on the Nassau School and Municipal Savings Committee today to announce a groundbreaking shared service initiative. The initiative launched by a consortium that includes Nassau County, BOCES and public school districts, could help school districts save thousands of dollars a year on the cost of state-mandated annual internal audits.

“Although Nassau County has no jurisdiction over school taxes, we are working with school districts to save tax dollars at every turn,” said County Executive Mangano. “At a time of economic difficulty for all Nassau residents, we are all dedicated to exploring all ways to achieve savings through cooperation and partnership.”

Comptroller George Maragos assembled a Request-For-Proposal (RFP) to solicit accounting firms to bid on internal audit services for dozens of school districts with the goal of saving dollars through this bulk purchase. Earlier this month, Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt and the County Legislature approved the RFP at an emergency session of the Legislature. The RFP was issued March 15 and the deadline for submissions of proposals is April 5. The contract will be awarded on or about April 22. Several vendors have already expressed interest by email.

“The County is always looking for ways to assist the school districts in reducing their costs through shared services,” Comptroller Maragos said. “This is why we encourage the non-participating school districts to take advantage of this opportunity to reduce costs for the benefit of their taxpayers.”

When the RFP was first conceived, 35 of Nassau’s 56 school districts said they would join the bid. Each school district pays between $30,000 and $80,000 annually on internal audit services required by the State of New York. The Nassau County Schools and Municipal Savings Initiative’s audit working group will select the lowest responsible bidder. Vendor billing, payment and supervision of services rendered fall to participating districts.

Since inception, the Nassau County Schools and Municipal Savings Initiative has achieved:

 

• Lower pricing on out-of-district transportation for 28 school districts through regional bidding – estimated to save participating school districts about $200,000;
• Savings on joint purchasing of building condition inspections, required of all schools, estimated to save about $400,000 for participating districts;
• Lower costs for telecommunication services such as Internet, telephone and cellular services for grant partners, saving all participating entities 15% off their communication costs and about $100,000 a year in savings for Nassau on cell phones alone; and
• Lower cost for natural gas through an ESCO that Nassau County entered into last year. BOCES and several school districts have piggybacked on the contract, with BOCES itself saving an estimated $60-$70,000 a year.

“I invite all 56 school districts in the County to participate in this and other initiatives by the Consortium,” said BOCES Deputy Superintendent Bob Hanna. “The end result of this initiative will be to lower costs, save taxpayer money, promote internal audit best practices and create a statewide prototype.”

Nassau School and Municipal Savings Committee Members Herb Brown and Jack Bierwirth - Superintendents of the Oceanside and Herricks School Districts respectively – joined County Executive Mangano, County Comptroller Maragos and BOCES Superintendent Hanna at the press conference along with North Shore Schools Board of Education President Amy Beyer.

For more information on this particular initiative, please visit http://www.nassausharedservicesgrant.org/.