Activity-based costing provides the necessary data for policymakers to determine if their organization is providing goods and services in an efficient manner. It is the first step in introducing competitive incentives in government, which induces finding ways to be more efficient. Metro government may not ever take place formally, but informally it can be done through a series of intergovernmental agreements. If the city and county want to maintain current service levels, despite the decrease in federal and state monies, more cooperation is needed to lower costs all around in local government. It should be an empowered working committee.
Crime control is problematic as neighborhoods grow at the perimeters of the urban area.
Just as important, the development of healthy neighborhoods cannot occur under the current trends. Some sort of regional way to handle growth issues is needed. Urban growth boundaries, a reconfiguration of impact fees to discourage urban sprawl, and other models could be adopted as used by other local governments. The community is certainly divided on this issue and it might be beneficial to have a series of public forums on these issues. The business community was the prime mover in Oregon, Washington and Northern California in the adoption of like measures, as they feared that the continuation of ugly sprawl would endanger job creation and economic growth.