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2022/01/31 - Mayor's Column: Cost Savings

­“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH
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Over the last few years, the City of O’Fallon has taken many steps to make sure that your tax dollars are being used in the best possible way. We are proud to announce that we, along with the City of Belleville, have gone together and went out to bid by using our united buying power to form a joint purchasing program on office supplies. This will result in approximately 15% savings for the City of O’Fallon.

We also invited other neighboring communities and our local schools to join us, but at this point no others have decided to join us.

Here are a few of the other procedures that we have put in place over the last four years to help improve the effectiveness of your tax dollars:  

  1. Going out for bids on a waste hauling contract, which had not been done for 15 years. To help reduce costs and create savings for other governmental bodies, we included our schools and the Township. This resulted in some significant savings.
  2. We went out for bids on our medical, property and liability insurance costs, with positive results.
  3. We created for the first time ever, a five-year Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) which allows for better planning for major new expenditures.
  4. We created for the first time an investment panel that over sees the investments of City reserves.  This was not done previously and has produced greater returns, by going out to local banks and financial institutions for quotes on guaranteed rates of interest.
  5. We went out for unified cleaning bids. This has produced a better overall cleaning of City facilities and reduced costs.
  6. We unified our use of copiers by going out for one single supplier. This resulted in some significant savings and better service when needed.
  7. O’Fallon Public Works has coordinated work so that work on old water and sewer lines are done while streets are being repaired. This helps reduce time and cost on projects.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open.