Sharing– it’s not just for the playground anymore. As Monterey (and just about every other city in the state) struggles to fix its financial woes, leaders consider sharing a police chief, top building official, and even a library, with other local communities.

Monterey City Manager Fred Meurer calls it a “win-win” for the public.

“We want to provide high-quality services at the cheapest possible rate,” he says. “That’s what we are trying to do. It’s all about trying to cut overhead.”

Currently, Monterey chiefs head both the Monterey and Pacific Grove fire departments. At last week’s Carmel-by-the-Sea City Council meeting, councilmembers approved a temporary agreement for Monterey’s administration to run Carmel’s fire department, too.

Monterey officials have also proposed sharing library and building services with P.G., Meurer says.

“We would have one library rather than two, one checkout system rather than two, one tech services,” he says. “So much is automated and there’s no reason to have duplicated services. It’s a way to maximize library hours and services while minimizing overhead.

“We’re also talking about sharing a building official. There’s not a lot of building going on– why do you need two building officials?”

The banking and housing market crises, nationwide, mean less economic activity in tourism-reliant cities like Monterey. Sales tax and transient occupancy tax (TOT) revenues are down, as hotel rooms sit empty and companies cancel conferences in Monterey.

And city officials worry that as state leaders attempt to fix California’s $28 billion deficit, they will balance the state’s budget on the backs of cities and counties, declaring a fiscal emergency and “borrowing” hundreds of thousands of dollars from local governments.

“We’ve got a problem,” Meurer says. “What scares me the most is everything I don’t know. I don’t know how wide it’s going to be. I don’t know how deep it’s going to be. But doing nothing is not an option.”

Monterey has already implemented a partial hiring freeze and a travel freeze in order to reduce costs for this fiscal year. And, the city council recently directed staff to take a series of actions, including:

• Reducing expenses for the next fiscal year. Department heads will develop scenarios for 5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent budget reductions, most likely through service and staffing cuts.

• Evaluating previously approved Capital Improvement Program and Neighborhood Improvement Program projects and freeze non-essential projects for the time being. Essential projects are those “necessary for public health and safety or critical renewal of current facilities… ”

• Exploring additional service consolidation opportunities (such as the fire department mergers).

• Developing a public information strategy to inform the general public, boards and commissions and neighborhood and business associations about the financial situation and steps the city is taking to solve the problem. “The issue is how do we get this information out to all of the stakeholders in the city?” says Anne McGrath, communications and outreach manager. To this end, the city will host budget meetings, and has added a budget page to its website, www.monterey.org/budget/budgetnews.html.