EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Small municipalities work 'together, but still separate'

Small municipalities work 'together, but still separate'

Problem

How can small municipalities avoid municipal redistricting and bundle their strength?

Description

Blaricum, Eemnes and Laren are implementing a new organisational model in order to combine their strengths. The three municipalities will maintain their own Municipal Executives and city councils, but they will merge their civil servants. In this way they hope to avoid a municipal redistricting. This so-called 'BEL' combination is the first practical example of an application of the 'together and still separate' (seta - samen en toch apart) concept in its entirety. The inter-municipal co-operation will begin on 1 January 2008.

Approach

The seta concept

Arno Korsten, Professor of Public Adminstration at the Open University and Maastricht University, is the inventor of the seta concept. In this organisational model, a number of municipalities form a services company of civil servants. The individual municipal administrations then give this 'company' assignments.

Korsten has noticed many seta variants in practice. Various municipalities are working together in specific areas of policy, but the municipalities of Blaricum, Eemnes and Laren are the first to apply it in its entirety.

Results

The seta model has the following advantages:

1. Preservation of administrative independence

The cities merge their civil service departments, but maintain their administrative independence;
The advantage of small municipalities is that they are often closer to their residents. The preservation of individual municipal administrations guarantees the continuation of this advantage.

2. Quality of services provided

The various civil servants that make up the common civil service machinery all have their own areas of expertise, so the pool of civil servants already has quite a bit of knowledge. This means that the municipalities can hire fewer outside consultants to provide advice;
In small cities, sick leave or maternity leave for one civil servant can mean that a certain department does not function properly; the civil servants in a BEL municipality are better able to deal with this and ensure continuous services even if one of their number is absent.

3. Reducing vulnerability

By combining their efforts, the municipalities can better perform their municipal duties, and they will not be as vulnerable to municipal redistricting.

Learning experiences

The fact that the three municipalities are approximately the same size means that they all contribute equally and there is not one municipality that overshadows the other two;
The BEL combination can be an example for other municipalities in Europe faced with a similar situation.

Financing

Each municipality has invested two million Euros to implement the administrative reform;
The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations has made a € 200,000 subsidy available for this new experiment.

Contact info

BEL Combination
The Netherlands

Project start date

01/01/2008

Links

More information on the BEL Combination (in Dutch only)

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy

Keywords

Institutional characteristics
Local Authority