While it may be too late this year to follow the example of Clay in its highly successful attempt to perform that mythical of all government feats - consolidation - Cayuga County should emulate them.

Clay last month held a referendum to abolish its own town police force and merge with the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department. The overwhelming vote of 4,160 to 1,865 that night was a victory for those who really think that there are economies of scale that can still be generated by consolidation, saving taxpayers money.

Yet to do so, you really have to pick the right project and sell it well. County Manager Wayne Allen in his March State of the County speech strongly urged the community to look at consolidating one area of municipal government - assessments. There is no reason to have assessors in 23 towns, plus the city of Auburn performing a function that can be done uniformly through one centralized location for a system that is alleged to be rife with too many inaccuracies and allegations of unfairness.

This is also the right time to get this specific idea moving - last year it was noted that it was difficult to find individuals to run for town assessor. In several communities there is talk of or have been taxpayer lawsuits based on problems with local assessment efforts - the most notable being Fleming and Owasco. Completing the trifecta is the fact that while there may be a mathematical formula to bring assessments from varying municipalities into line - equalization rates - few understand them and others still don't believe they are fair.

So the time is right to attempt consolidation. But a note of caution. One need only look at Auburn's failure at Civil Service Commission consolidation to see how efforts can fail. While some of Auburn's leaders tried valiantly to bring about real savings, they never got real traction. A series of mini policy battles, prior to the November ballot, those running for the office not being asked about the subject and the media paying almost no attention to the issue doomed the effort. On the other hand, Clay leaders, with the assistance of Onondaga County, did a masterful job selling the idea of savings (an estimated $17 million over 10 years and cutting tax bills by 20 percent) to voters and the press. Such an effort is necessary to get voter support.

Voters deserve a chance to vote on real savings and pinning down leaders to really implement what they talk about, by moving assessment consolidation to the front burner of county business.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com