Case Studies of City-County Consolidation: Reshaping the Local Government Landscape: Reshaping the Local Government LandscapeFacing 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
| 1912 | |
JacksonvilleDuval County Florida | 1941 |
ColumbusMuscogee County Georgia | 1959 |
TallahasseeLeon County Florida | 1971 |
SacramentoSacramento County California | 3 |
AthensClarke County Georgia | |
LafayetteLafayette Parish Louisiana | |
BranchNorth Branch Minnesota | |
AugustaRichmond County Georgia | |
WilmingtonNew Hanover County North Carolina | |
KnoxvilleKnox County Tennessee | |
Kansas CityWyandotte County Kansas | |
LouisvilleJefferson County Kentucky | |
Conclusions | |
About the Editors and Contributors | |
Des MoinesPolk County Iowa | |
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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 proposal citizens city and county city council city-county consolidation city’s civic elites Clarke County Columbus consolidated government consolidation attempts consolidation campaign consolidation charter consolidation effort consolidation proposal consolidation referendum consolidation study commission council members county commission county commissioners County Consolidation county government created crisis climate defeat economic development elected officials Feiock Georgia Georgia General Assembly governmental Hanover County included issue Kansas Keim Knox County Lafayette Parish leaders legislative Leon County Louisiana Louisville majority mayor merger metropolitan Moines municipal Muscogee County North Branch opponents percent political Polk County population power deflation problems proconsolidation proposed charter reform Richmond County Rosenbaum and Kammerer Sacramento sheriff structure successful consolidation support of consolidation Tallahassee Democrat U.S. Department Unification unified government unincorporated areas urban voters Wilmington Wyandotte County