City-County Consolidation - Case Study Example

Which Way Did The City Of Evansville, IN And Their County Go Through The Process Of Trying To Consolidate Operations And Why Did It Fail? Introduction City-county consolidation which is referred to here as reorganization has been of interest to Vanderburgh County residents for many years. Dear Mayor of Fort Wayne, here I have made an effort to tell you what the city of Evansville went through during the process of trying to consolidate operations. Second, I have elaborated why this failed and why you did not end up with a consolidated government. The city of Evansville, IN and their county has gone through the process of trying to consolidate operations. However, the recently ratified property tax caps have vested more urgency on local government to restructure so as to increase the level of efficiency. Members of the community have decided to embark on a reorganization effort rather than wait for a fiscal crisis. The citizens will have a chance to vote on the issue in line with a plan which was approved by both the county and its primary city. This is despite the state-mandated process being lengthy while questions regarding the reorganization plan being raised. Proponents believed that they had ample time to fully educate citizens, which would have thus bolstered the chance of success (Lanka). Background Vanderburgh County provides an array of public services, with an annual budget of $63.4 million, with the most being those which were traditionally offered by counties. This county where the city of Evansville is situated is in the southwestern part of Indiana where it serves as a regional hub for shopping, health care and higher education. Evansville city which is its primary city has a population of 117,429 with an annual budget amounting to $227.2 million. However, the city has been gradually losing its population to the suburbs due to “urban flight” but has managed to still represent approximately two-thirds of the county’s entire population. This was not the first reorganization movement for Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville; similar efforts were made in 1974 and recently in 2006. In the 1974 effort, citizens were given an opportunity to vote on consolidation. This is when they decided against it and the city and county predicted the likely chances present via functional consolidation and started a joint funding services practice (Llinebaugh). The governments had managed to consolidate 12 services by 2011, which was in addition to their joint school district and systems of library and parks. Consolidation discussion commenced to be discussed and studied over the decades. A proposal was sent to the state legislature for approval in 2006, which was a necessary move in order for citizens in Vanderburgh County to be enabled to vote on the legislation. Later, the bill failed and the effort terminated. During the very same year, an important legislation on local government reform was approved by the state legislature and a large number of members of the legislature like Governor Mitch Daniels were advocating for modernization in government which included local governments streamlining and consolidation (Langhorne). The state passed a reorganization act (IC 36-1.5-4.8) which was as part of this agenda, which laid out a formal process for local governments to be able to reorganize voluntarily. It is the law which is responsible for setting forth a reorganization process for consolidation, and local governments no longer require legislative approval for structural change since they followed those steps. The League of Women Voters local chapter was approached by the members of the Chamber of Commerce regarding the issue of sponsoring a petition drive, which was to initiate the process of consolidation (O'Connell). The Chamber had faith that a vote on consolidation was essential and that the most suitable group to lead the effort would be the League which was devoid of an official position supporting or opposing reorganization, although the organization believes that the masses are supposed to have power in voting on this perennial issue. This resulted to the League agreeing to lead the petition drive and after some months, a sufficient number of signatures had been gained that facilitated the presentation of the document to the city and county. Resolutions which created a study committee were approved by both the county commission and the city council, thus the reorganization process started officially (Langhorne). Proposal A 12-member reorganization committee had been appointed by city and county that was vested with the responsibility of developing the consolidation plan. Although the law clearly stipulates that some actions must be undertaken in drafting a plan, such as commissioning a fiscal analysis which should be completed within a year, committee members had more than enough independence to come up with a plan which they felt was the best for the community. The reorganization effort was supported by the governments in form of giving the committee access to government employees and $100,000 was contributed for research and other expenses. However, the committee was not provided with sufficient direction from the city and county leaders regarding what the plan should include, which according to the committee chair resulted in some wasted effort. According to those interviewed, the process was very open and went well (Langhorne). As a Mayor of Fort Wayne, I deem it necessary to put it forward that there are many concerns mainly regarding reorganization and other issues which were critical in the process’ ultimate failure of trying to consolidate operations of the way of the city of Evansville, IN. They are as follows: Many citizens expected a guarantee in savings so as to support consolidation, which unfortunately could not be given since no one could be able to envisage what the future elected body would do regarding budgetary decisions. Concerns were raised concerning the major excessive power under the new government since the position lacked a term limit although this had never been a problem in the past. The citizens residing outside the city were worried that they will have to pay the debt for Evansville’s new stadium. Darmstadt municipality opted not to take part in the reorganization. However, since it is a small community, overall ability of the new government to reorganize was not adversely affected. The decision by the then current mayor of Evansville not to run for re-election contributed since he was a supporter of reorganization. The presence of a very active Tea Party movement situated in Southwest Indiana strongly opposed reorganization. The members of this movement were concerned that the change would eventually lead to the increase in government cost thus increase their production taxes and the general cost of operating their business. The other main reason that led the ultimate failure of the process of trying to consolidate operations of the way of the city of Evansville, IN was simply because some people are just afraid of change. This list of concerns proved to be too challenging, and we saw that the League of Women Voters played the most active role in public education process since the proponents erroneously believed that as soon as the public is enlightened on the matters of the plan, most of these concerns would fade. Outcome Both the County Commission President and the Reorganization Committee Chair were Hopeful about the reorganization’s likelihood of succeeding. They thought that the plan would be acceptable to the public. Lessons Learned Prior to the consolidation vote, those interviewed believed that the process to date still has interesting lessons to offer for other governments that are or may decide to consider structural change and they are: When coming up with a proposal constituting major structural changes, the policy makers should respectfully and honestly listen to the population which opposes the change while being open-minded to their concerns. We saw the way the reorganization committee conducted a process which was very open that accepted public input from a number of stakeholders of the community. Later on, the county commission and city council amended the plan to address citizens’ concerns pertaining to public safety organization and the size of the proposed council. Even though a committee which is citizen-led committee was used to come up with a restructuring plan, elected officials could still play a very essential role by virtue of providing guidance on what to consider, whom to contact and the facilitation of meetings. This kind of assistance made the process run more smoothly thus taking less time (Langhorne). Works Cited Langhorne, Thomas. “UPDATE: Voters resoundingly reject proposal to merge Evansville, Vanderburgh County governments.” Evansville Courier & Press, 2012. Web. March 7, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evansville_Courier_%26_Press. Langhorne, Thomas. “Both sides say Evansville-Vanderburgh County merger is possible.” Indiana Economic Digest, 2006. Web. March 7, 2013. http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.com/main.asp?SectionID=31&subsectionID= 89&articleID=24822. Llinebaugh, Kate. “Threats to Town Halls Stir Voter Backlash.” The Wall Street Journal, 2011. Web. March 7, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal Lanka, Benjamin. “Debate stirs on consolidation.” The [Fort Wayne] Journal Gazette, 2006. O'Connell, John. “City and County of Aurora?” The Aurora Daily Sun & Sentinel, 2006. Read More