Commissioners speak out on Brunswick/Glynn County consolidation meeting (Decatur: neighborhood, safety)

[Airforceguy]

Commission Chairman Dale Provenzano and Commissioner Bill Brunson accompanied Sandy Dean, a former city and county candidate, to a meeting with Glynn County’s state delegation in late May to discuss the possibility of consolidation.
Attempts to consolidate the two governments have failed twice in the past, with a countywide vote around the mid-1980s being the most recent rejection.
Provenzano and Brunson said they did not initiate the meeting.
“We were invited to attend an information gathering session about the process of exploring consolidation,” Provenzano said. “Commissioner Brunson and I attended in order to learn more about the steps that must be taken in order to explore the possibility of consolidation. It was an information gathering meeting only.”
There’s something more to it to Commissioner Michael Browning, who said Tuesday he will ask the commission to rescind its approval of changing the structure of county government, which includes hiring a public safety director. It was approved at a called meeting of the commission June 10.
Browning, who voted against the new structure, now contends city-county government consolidation is the hidden, ulterior motive behind the plan.
Browning is not the only one who is upset. Brunswick Mayor Cornell Harvey is, too.
“I am absolutely not in favor of consolidation, and honestly, I’m a little ticked off to know that county officials went to the legislative delegation behind our backs to discuss this,” Harvey said at the end of Wednesday’s City Commission meeting.
Brunson echoed Provenzano, adding, “As a new commissioner, I want to learn about everything I can in order to make the best decisions for the county.”

Commissioners speak out on consolidation meeting - Brunswick News: Local News

[WanderingImport]

Can anyone give a valid argument as to why consolidation of Glynn and Brunswick is a bad idea? I'm sure this is omitting St. Simons of course.

[Fubarbundy]

This lengthy older blog post from Urbanophile.com probably isn't too relevant since it refers to much larger city-county consolidations, but might give some insight:

Neighborhood redevelopment and the downsides of consolidation

... But they do come with downsides, and one of them is that it can make neighborhood redevelopment more difficult. The root of the problem is that with a single city covering a large area, there is only one mayor, one city council, etc. They have a large area to concern themselves with and cannot physically devote significant time and attention to each neighborhood. They inevitably spend most of their time dealing with the biggest and most visible challenges, which often means downtown development issues.

Otherwise it does make sense to consolidate, since there are no examples of how it has failed, but many successes.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by WanderingImport

Can anyone give a valid argument as to why consolidation of Glynn and Brunswick is a bad idea? I'm sure this is omitting St. Simons of course.

Really? St. Simons is part of Glynn County as well.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Really? St. Simons is part of Glynn County as well.

Both the Athens and Augusta consolidations have allowed the small cities of Bogart and Winterville (Athens/Clarke) and Blythe and Hephzibah (Augusta/Richmond) to remain separate incorporated cities. If St. Simons were to incorporate prior to this, precedent has already been set for it to remain separate. This is the only scenario this would work IMHO. If Consolidation were to gain steam, the talk of incorporating St. Simons would be even steamier methinks....

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Both the Athens and Augusta consolidations have allowed the small cities of Bogart and Winterville (Athens/Clarke) and Blythe and Hephzibah (Augusta/Richmond) to remain separate incorporated cities. If St. Simons were to incorporate prior to this, precedent has already been set for it to remain separate. This is the only scenario this would work IMHO. If Consolidation were to gain steam, the talk of incorporating St. Simons would be even steamier methinks....

Methinks, too.