News-Sentinel.com

A House Divided - A four-day series on consolidated government

Day 4: How much change?

By Kevin Kilbane of The News-Sentinel

County council will keep all options open when considering structural changes to reduce county government's operating costs and improve its efficiency.

But most members don't see a unified city-county government as a likely solution.

"We need to work with state legislators to create a new structure that makes sense," new councilman Darren Vogt said.

Currently, Indianapolis and Marion County operate under a form of combined government called Unigov. Many Marion County towns remain independent, however, as do the city and county fire and police departments.

Some people view Unigov as a silver bullet that would fix all our problems, said Andrew Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics. But leaders of Marion County Communities not included in Unigov voice frustration about loss of control of utility rates and problems they have working with local law-enforcement agencies. "The intelligent move is to look where combinations make sense," he said, "and build from there."

County council members seeking government reorganization share that idea.

Allen County contains too much rural area and too many independent cities and towns for a fully consolidated government to work, they said. About 100,000 Allen County residents live outside an incorporated city or town, U.S. Census data shows.

"If you think the farmers out there want the mayor of Fort Wayne calling the shots, you've got another think coming," said County Commissioner Ed Rousseau, a Unigov opponent.

But county council members believe combining some city and county departments makes sense.

Two departments already have been combined. In the 1970s, the city and county merged their building departments to form the Allen County Building Department. They also folded two offices together to form the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health.

Discussions now under way could lead to consolidating some functions of city and county planning departments. At a joint meeting, city and county councils suggested merging the city and county emergency communications departments and the parks departments.

"We need to come together collectively and agree on what is feasible to combine and leave other areas on the sideline," county councilman Cal Miller said.

But local leaders shouldn't feel constrained by trying to merge existing government, said Charles Belch, former Democratic county chairman and a past candidate for mayor. They should get the state to OK a blank slate on reorganization, which also should include public schools. "We never in a million years would come up with what (government) we havc if we started from scratch," he said.

Some changes in county government structure could be made by local officials. Significant alterations probably would require state legislative approval. Changes being discussed include:

* Make leadership of some county offices an appointed position rather than an elected one. The department head would report to the county commissioners or county council rather than being an independent officeholder.

"In addition to streamlining management, appointments also could ensure qualified people hold the jobs," Vogt said. Anyone can be elected county surveyor, for example, regardless of whether the person knows anything about surveying or engineering.

* Reduce the number of county commissioners from three to one or to an elected county executive.

As with a city mayor, a single county executive can make decisions and lead more quickly, Miller said. Quick action by a body of three commissioners hinges on all three sharing the same views on the matter.

* Put the justice system on its own tax levy. Judges then would be more accountable to voters for spending they order.

Such an arrangement may not be constitutional, three local judges said. But they would not be afraid of such a change if it is lawful.

"I think we have been good stewards of taxpayers' dollars," Allen Superior Judge Fran Gull said.

County judges face election every six years. Though the number and types of filings have been growing, local courts have held their budgets fairly steady while increasing service and launching innovative programs, said Gull, Superior Judge Dan Heath and Circuit Court Judge Tom Felts.

* Reduce the county's overall payroll by establishing a pool of flexible employees who would work in various county offices at their busiest times. Alternatively, the county could ask offices temporarily experiencing low customer demand to loan employees to departments in a period of high customer demand, Buskirk said. All offices then would not have to maintain staffs at levels needed to meet peak demand, he said.

* Ask townships to share their assessing staffs and resources, so each would not have to hire people independently.

Ultimately, city and county leaders all must focus on what is good for the entire community, Vogt said. "Whether you are in Fort Wayne or Allen County, it still is a community," he added. "We are all in this together. There can't be any turf."

Fort Wayne should study Lexington model

By Leo Morris for The News-Sentinel

The consolidated government most often cited as a model for Fort Wayne and Allen County is that of Lexington and Fayette County, Ky. Like Allen County, Fayette County has one major city surrounded by agricultural land. That merger is thus a better one for officials here to study than, say, the ones in Indianapolis and Louisville, where the entire counties are urban.

Lexington and Fayette County merged in 1972. Several factors made the area ready for it. The city was devastated by corruption. The county couldn't provide adequate services for the advancing urban area. Complicated annexations made jurisdictional lines confusing. Citizens didn't think they could count on their government. They approved consolidation 69 to 31 percent on the first vote, after just four months of persuasion.

The biggest fear was taxation under the merged government. Officials answered that concern with a three-tiered system under which people would pay only for the services they received. The full urban district covered the former city limits of Lexington, in which people got the most services and paid the most. The general services district covered the rural areas, in which people got the fewest services and paid the least in taxes. The partial urban district covered transitional areas in which people got some services but not others.

At the time of the merger, Lexington had a population of 108,137 out of the county's total population of 174,323. A council of 15 members was created, three members elected at-large and limited to three four-year terms, and 12 elected from single-member districts and limited to six two-year terms. The mayor would be limited to three four-year terms and would appoint all department heads and board and commission members.

The city assumed all liabilities and debts of the county and city and divided itself into seven departments: finance, housing and community development, law, parks and recreation, public safety, sanitation and public works, and social services. Police and fire jurisdictions were extended to include the whole county. The sheriff kept all powers of peace officer and still did some tax collection, but the police chief became the primary law enforcement officer. All city and county employees were kept and all pensions protected; a new civil service system was created to include all employees.

Residents of the region have over the years expressed satisfaction with their government and the services it provides. When a group from Iowa recently investigated the Kentucky merger, the only thing officials said they would change was the number of council districts. Some felt 15 are too many.

One of the reasons Louisville went through with its recent merger was the success Lexington has had in getting economic development projects Louisville was also interested in. Lexington was on the verge of becoming the largest city in Kentucky, one of the distinctions Louisville residents had always been most proud of.

Creative government ideas that stop a little short of consolidation

By Leo Morris for The News-Sentinel

Heeding the fears of consolidation but still needing a regional approach to problems and opportunities, some jurisdictions around the country are experimenting with solutions short of total merger:

* Strengthening counties and giving them more urbanlike duties. This recognizes the need for a broader approach and makes use of an existing structure rather than seeking extensive changes. This would address the fears here of a "city takeover." Several states -- New York, Florida, Virginia, California -- have given their counties complete home rule. Such a move is needed here, local officials say, for both the city and county. They have home rule for most things, but not the one that counts most: finances.

* Creating special districts. These have the advantage of tackling a single issue -- as we already do here for education, the library, the airport -- and can be created within the existing framework of laws. But they also tend to be less accountable to the public -- some even call them shadow governments. And though the county worries about getting stuck with a bigger bill, the inequity of special districts is actually felt by city residents. Since city residents also pay county taxes, they would end up paying 80 to 90 percent of the cost for a joint city-county special operation.

* Relying more on area-wide planning and organizational bodies. The federal government has already created some of these to deal with specific issues -- transportation, for example. And some, such as the Northwest Indiana Council of Governments, are trying to expand their coverage to other issues. The creation of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance is a recognition of the need for this approach. And the Northeast Indiana Corporate Council has put together a regionwide approach to economic development.

* Periodically reviewing local government structure, powers and service. Twelve states have created special commissions to study local jurisdictions regularly and make recommendations for change. In Montana, every local government has to place on the ballot at least once every 10 years the question of whether structural changes should be made.

* Adopting more aggressive annexation policies. Some jurisdictions, such as Lexington, Ky., have managed to consolidate because the city absorbed so many residents it hardly mattered anymore. Approaching 75 percent of the county's population, Fort Wayne might be close to that magic number. But recent changes in state law have made annexation a tougher proposition.

* Tax base/growth sharing. This was first done by Minnesota. A special countywide fund is created into which a portion of all revenue from new growth is placed.

That money is then distributed to every taxing district on a proportional basis. That not only encourages area-wide cooperation; it sends a signal to prospective businesses that the region has its act together.

All of these trends, suggests Carl W. Sternberg of the University of Baltimore, indicate that the case is usually made "for incremental improvement and in fine-tuning rather than replacement or overhaul, especially given the strong political and public support for the status quo in many communities."

The challenge at the beginning of the 21st century is whether the status quo will be sufficient.

The federal system of government, with its "multilayered system," was the last step in an evolutionary process which the founders left untouched when they drafted the Constitution, the State Department points out in one of its educational printings. After more than 200 years, a little fine-tuning might not be enough.

Neighboring Views

By Kevin Kilbane for The News-Sentinel

County council members have discussed restructuring Allen County government to make it more cost-effective and efficient. Here are two residents' thoughts on some of the ideas that could be proposed:

Some consolidation just makes sense

Name: Bruce Amstutz
Age: 58
Occupation: Wholesale parts manager, Dimension Ford on Jefferson Boulevard

Some consolidation of city and county government makes sense, such as combining their emergency communications and planning departments, said Bruce Amstutz, the Springfield Township trustee.

People shouldn't have to deal with one set of planning rules in the county and another in the city, said Amstutz, one of a dozen Democrats among approximately 100 elected county officials.

Amstutz doesn't feel strongly either way about a proposal to move county justice functions, such as courts, sheriff and jail, to a separate property-tax levy. Proponents say a separate tax would allow voters to see how money is spent and hold justice officials accountable.

Amstutz supports changing some county elected offices to departments with an appointed supervisor, especially if it places a more-qualified person in the job.

He questions a proposal to consolidate the three county commissioners into one county executive. With one county executive, daily operation of county government could change dramatically after each election, he said.

Similarly, consolidating townships would reduce people's access to government, he said. Asking townships to share a pool of property-tax assessors could make assessment more efficient and uniform, he said, but it probably wouldn't save any money.

Find the mission, then build a model

Name: Becky Hill
Age: 62

Occupation: Chief executive officer, YWCA
Local government should adopt a more businesslike model of operation, Becky Hill said.

"The city and county should do what good and successful nonprofits have to do: Find their mission, define their outcomes and understand the needs of their customer," Hill said.

"From that, build an efficient model to meet goals and sustain services."

As with local nonprofit agencies, that model should strive to avoid duplication of services, she said.

Government officials already have working models for consolidating departments, she added. The merger of separate city and county departments created both the Allen County Building Department and Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health.

Hill didn't feel she had enough background to comment knowledgeably about some county council members' proposals for restructuring county government.

She would like to see local government officials study and make use of good ideas from Indianapolis and other communities that have switched to consolidated city-county government.

"I just think that is a much better way to do the work and to get the work done," she said.