City-county consolidation: An idea whose time has come — again (Savannah: 2014, school)

[Airforceguy]

Discuss...

City-county consolidation: An idea whose time has come — again
Tom Barton: City-county consolidation: An idea whose time has come

[Newsboy]

I was just about to post this. You beat me to it.

[CoastalGAGuy]

Hot on the heels of the threat of our County Commission to break apart the police department? The nays have it.

[Newsboy]

Tom Barton's argument is a good one: As long as the city and county are divided along racial, economic and political lines, the community will suffer. In the past, I've made the argument that consolidation of Savannah and Chatham County would be impossible, from a voter standpoint. But Macon-Bibb, which is far more divided than Savannah-Chatham, managed to overcome all the obstacles. I think it has a slim chance of passage here. BUT ... the hold outs are going to be the African-American population, which doesn't want to give up their political stronghold in the city -- despite the fact that they have proven complete and utter failures at running the city.

One encouraging thing: Chatham County just elected a white female school board chairman by a HUGE HUGE HUGE margin. Granted, the other candidates were miserable. But at least that says that voters are willing to vote for the BEST for the community, regardless of race.

That's my thoughts on the issue. Getting Chatham County's legislative delegation to actually bring a bill to the General Assembly is the huge hurdle.

[Airforceguy]

Another factor to consider is that unlike the other city-county mergers in Georgia, Chatham has several decent size cities in it. I don't think the leaders of Pooler, Bloomingdale, Garden City, Port Wentworth or Tybee would want to be boxed in by the city and prevented from annexing land.

[bellhead]

The thing that needs to be done is a comprehensive study by the city and county to see if there are enough benefits to a merger. The things the study should focus are on whether the cost savings would be worth it. There are a few comparable mergers to look at in the last 20 years, Louisville Kentucky is one of the biggest.

The plusses would be to reduce the redundancy of government and to stream line pretty much everything. Also the staffing reductions would save quite a few $$$$'s. Another big plus would be the expanded fire coverage and other services to county areas that don't have them.

The minuses for the county people would be slightly higher property taxes, some people are going to loose political power.

[bellhead]

here are some of the highlights of the Louisville/Jefferson County merger...

Louisville/Jefferson County Merger - Your Government - LouisvilleKy.gov

http://www.abell.org/pubsitems/cd-lo...merger1013.pdf

[Newsboy]

Forget "consolidation." The only way this would work in Savannah is if the city government was abolished in favor of county-wide government, and we all know that ain't NEVER EVER going to happen.

[WanderingImport]

Originally Posted by Airforceguy

Another factor to consider is that unlike the other city-county mergers in Georgia, Chatham has several decent size cities in it. I don't think the leaders of Pooler, Bloomingdale, Garden City, Port Wentworth or Tybee would want to be boxed in by the city and prevented from annexing land.

Places like Pooler should have annexed (more) land early on so that COS wouldn't box them in. The Jimmy DeLoach Parkway area comes to mind. Anyway, the general population of Chatham seems to think that cities can't expand outside the county. A good example of this is Port Wentworth. If I were in a leadership position in that town, I would quickly try to annex any land not taken up in Effingham by Rincon. Guess they didn't think that far though.. or am I missing something?

I think the only exception is Bloomingdale. Their town name is used just inside Effingham, but I'm not certain they annexed into the county, however.

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Forget "consolidation." The only way this would work in Savannah is if the city government was abolished in favor of county-wide government, and we all know that ain't NEVER EVER going to happen.

As far as this is concerned, I agree. I would hope the "City Manager" form of government would also be abolished too. Don't think it has done the city much good.

[Padgett2]

Can't help but wonder about what would happen to all the History books.
Would they have to go back and change History?

But I agree!! this thing about county and city limits is silly. Why not have just one big CITY! Forget about the County.