03 June 2007
TLH018 - Consolidation
TLH018 - You're tuned into the TallyCast
City-County consolidation is rearing it's ugly head again. I have great respect for staff at both governments. The way to look at consolidation is from the standpoint of government services received, economies of scale and natural barriers.
Since I first moved to Leon County in the early 1970's, the consolidation issue has raised it's head several time. Past efforts seemed to be supported by the development interests of the community and soundly defeated by a collation of neighborhoods who knew that big government isn't necessarily good government.
Surveys over the years have generally supported consolidation as a concept but been opposed to actually taking apart the governments and especially law enforcement.
Personally, I'd like to see as much decision making as locally as possible and think that the issue is more complex than just consolidation or not. At one time, I thought that we should just un-incorporate the City of Tallhassee and let the more lean and efficient Leon County government run things. These days I'm more in favor of strong and active neighborhood associations and the Council of Neighborhood Associations. This organization needs to be strong enough to provide a balance to the "pave paradise and put up a parking lot" mentality of much of the development community.
There are certainly opportunities to improve efficiencies in our watershed but we need to look at each function that government is serving.
Let's start with transportation. We need to cul-de-sac more roads and move as much traffic as possible to a limited number of throughways. Public transit should get priority on roads over everything else short of emergency vehicles. If I were the city, I'd support moving StarMetro from city ownership to a regional transportation authority. Even having a once-a-day route to outlaying areas in the unincorporated areas of Leon County and the surrounding rural counties (Wakulla and Gadsen to start with). Click here to look at the web site for the regional transportation authority serving Nashville Tennessee.
It seems to me that having the county be in charge of all the roads in the area is a good idea.
I'd do the same thing for parks and recreation.
I'd keep law enforcement, fire and EMS as is. Our current systems work very well and it's stupid to fix what isn't broken. We do need a unified dispatch center and that should be an independent agency, separate from either the city or county.
There is a big difference in the use of media between the two governments. I really like much of the programming on WCOT, the city's cable programming. I think that the county needs the same service, as do the surrounding cities and counties. I'd consider moving it to a regional government agency. The on-line media environment is in the midst of a major paradigm shift. WCOT should be providing an RSS feed and on-demand delivery of their content. The content delivery model as it exists is not much different that a video podcast.
One existing regional government is the Northwest Florida Water Management District. Folks, pay very close attention to our water. This years drought is, unfortunately, a taste of things to come. Development downstate is not abating and more pilgrims arrive here every day. We need to have water commissioners who will fight for keeping our water clean and conserved for as long as we can. Right now, the governor appoints this commission. Water is a resource that the people should have direct control of and which should be governed by elected officials, not appointed ones.
While consolidation sounds on the surface like a good idea, remember that to some folk, the privatization of state government seemed like an equally good idea. Look at how good that turned out.
Music on todays podcast comes from the Podsafe Music Network. Artists include Tampa band P.W. Fenton and The Second Ward, and the beautiful voice of Lorena Miré, originally from Santiago Chile and now a resident of Miami, Florida. We're lucky to have her here.
The TallyCast is a production of MacGuys LLC and the Grumpy Old Guys broadcasting network. You can find show notes, and links to the stories mentioned on todays podcast by going www.tallycast.com. Our e-mail address is tallycast@gmail.com. You can leave audio comments at
City-County consolidation is rearing it's ugly head again. I have great respect for staff at both governments. The way to look at consolidation is from the standpoint of government services received, economies of scale and natural barriers.
Since I first moved to Leon County in the early 1970's, the consolidation issue has raised it's head several time. Past efforts seemed to be supported by the development interests of the community and soundly defeated by a collation of neighborhoods who knew that big government isn't necessarily good government.
Surveys over the years have generally supported consolidation as a concept but been opposed to actually taking apart the governments and especially law enforcement.
Personally, I'd like to see as much decision making as locally as possible and think that the issue is more complex than just consolidation or not. At one time, I thought that we should just un-incorporate the City of Tallhassee and let the more lean and efficient Leon County government run things. These days I'm more in favor of strong and active neighborhood associations and the Council of Neighborhood Associations. This organization needs to be strong enough to provide a balance to the "pave paradise and put up a parking lot" mentality of much of the development community.
There are certainly opportunities to improve efficiencies in our watershed but we need to look at each function that government is serving.
Let's start with transportation. We need to cul-de-sac more roads and move as much traffic as possible to a limited number of throughways. Public transit should get priority on roads over everything else short of emergency vehicles. If I were the city, I'd support moving StarMetro from city ownership to a regional transportation authority. Even having a once-a-day route to outlaying areas in the unincorporated areas of Leon County and the surrounding rural counties (Wakulla and Gadsen to start with). Click here to look at the web site for the regional transportation authority serving Nashville Tennessee.
It seems to me that having the county be in charge of all the roads in the area is a good idea.
I'd do the same thing for parks and recreation.
I'd keep law enforcement, fire and EMS as is. Our current systems work very well and it's stupid to fix what isn't broken. We do need a unified dispatch center and that should be an independent agency, separate from either the city or county.
There is a big difference in the use of media between the two governments. I really like much of the programming on WCOT, the city's cable programming. I think that the county needs the same service, as do the surrounding cities and counties. I'd consider moving it to a regional government agency. The on-line media environment is in the midst of a major paradigm shift. WCOT should be providing an RSS feed and on-demand delivery of their content. The content delivery model as it exists is not much different that a video podcast.
One existing regional government is the Northwest Florida Water Management District. Folks, pay very close attention to our water. This years drought is, unfortunately, a taste of things to come. Development downstate is not abating and more pilgrims arrive here every day. We need to have water commissioners who will fight for keeping our water clean and conserved for as long as we can. Right now, the governor appoints this commission. Water is a resource that the people should have direct control of and which should be governed by elected officials, not appointed ones.
While consolidation sounds on the surface like a good idea, remember that to some folk, the privatization of state government seemed like an equally good idea. Look at how good that turned out.
Music on todays podcast comes from the Podsafe Music Network. Artists include Tampa band P.W. Fenton and The Second Ward, and the beautiful voice of Lorena Miré, originally from Santiago Chile and now a resident of Miami, Florida. We're lucky to have her here.
The TallyCast is a production of MacGuys LLC and the Grumpy Old Guys broadcasting network. You can find show notes, and links to the stories mentioned on todays podcast by going www.tallycast.com. Our e-mail address is tallycast@gmail.com. You can leave audio comments at
