Case Studies of City-county Consolidation: Reshaping the Local Government LandscapeSuzanne M. Leland, Kurt M. Thurmaier Facing cutbacks in federal and state assistance and a new wave of taxpayer revolts, local governments have renewed interest in local government consolidation as a way of achieving efficiencies of scale in response to citizen demands for services. Yet the vast majority of consolidation efforts fail, either during the process of drafting a charter or once they reach the ballot - only five have passed since 1990; only thirty-two have been successfully implemented since the first, when the city of New Orleans merged with Orleans Parish in 1805. What accounts for the high failure rate and what factors led to successful consolidations? This volume presents thirteen comparable case studies of consolidation campaigns and distills the findings. |
Contents
JacksonvilleDuval County Florida | 28 |
ColumbusMuscogee County Georgia | 46 |
TallahasseeLeon County Florida | 60 |
Copyright | |
12 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accelerator event African-American agenda annexation appointed approved Athens Augusta Chronicle Augusta/Richmond County ballot Board C³ model Chamber of Commerce charter commission charter provisions citizens city and county city council city of Lafayette city-county consolidation city's civic elites Clarke County Columbus consolidated government consolidation attempts consolidation charter consolidation effort consolidation proposal consolidation referendum county commission county commissioners county government created crisis climate dation defeat economic development elected officials Feiock Georgia Georgia General Assembly governmental Hanover County included issue Kansas Knox County Lafayette Parish leaders legislative Leon County Louisiana Louisville majority mayor ment merger metropolitan minority Moines municipal Muscogee County North Branch opponents percent political Polk County poll population power deflation problems proconsolidation proposed charter referendum campaign reform Richmond County Rosenbaum and Kammerer Sacramento sheriff solidation structure successful consolidation Tallahassee Democrat tion U.S. Department Unification unified government unincorporated area urban voters Wilmington Wyandotte County