Don’t give up.

Albert Lea and Austin leaders need to be more willing to give sharing of services a try.

We understand that Austin Finance Director Tom Dankert had a lot on his hands after the two cities shared his skills for a month. He was doing the job as finance director for two cities without any additional pay.

However, shared services are going to be the key to meeting the drastic funding reductions cities, counties, schools and other local governments continue to face and will deal with in coming years. They are going to become necessity.

We commend the leaders of the two cities for at least giving the idea a try. However, did city leaders just shrug their shoulders and give up on the idea? Did they pursue other solutions? For instance, could the city leaders try giving Dankert perhaps a part-time assistant? One and a half employees would cost the two cities less money that two full-time finance directors.

The two cities have two different financial systems, but with any position, there is a natural learning curve. A new accountant at a business doesn’t learn the entire system in just a month. But after several months to even a year, the stuff becomes familiar and eventually becomes old hat.

We thank city officials for giving the arrangement an attempt, and we urge them to give it or some other form of sharing services another try.