The county-city human services partnership, a coordinated approach to planning and funding social services, has its roots in Nixon-era federal revenue sharing funds.

Both city and county government were recipients of revenue sharing dollars, and both were dealing with multiple requests for money, said Bob Clark, the first county-city human services administrator, hired in 1975.

So several city and county leaders decided cooperation on funding and on planning would best serve taxpayers.

"We felt there should be human services planning, just like we had land use planning," said Jan Gauger, a county commissioner during that period.

They also believed they needed help sorting through the many requests for revenue sharing funds, she said.

Cooperation between local government and the local United Way also grew out of these early days. 

The United Way director at that time, Doug Higgins, and Clark decided they should collaborate to look at overall community needs, Clark said.

The Lancaster County Board and City Council eventually agreed, but the resulting partnership was unusual.

"We were kind of a unique animal, as far as we could find out," Clark said.

That cooperation still is unique, said Kit Boesch, the current human services administrator, who often gets calls from other communities wanting information on how it works.

In 1976, the two governments spent about $5.3 million on all human services, ranging from the government-run health department to grants to private agencies. The county's share was $3.8 million; the city's share was $1.5 million.

Today, city and county government spend more than $21 million on all human services, with the county's share at about $12 million and the city's share at about $9 million.