Published: 1 years 196 days ago
Sacramento Bee: Kevin Johnson is right to say we need to talk about consolidation in Sacramento County – to figure out how governments can most efficiently provide services during these tough times.
But his off-the-cuff approach – blithely raising the idea of the city of Sacramento swallowing the county's unincorporated areas without laying the groundwork by talking to fellow elected officials, much less taking the pulse of the people – is doomed to failure.
He does not have a specific plan, process or timeline. He's not ready to say whether he would support "functional" consolidation (merging city and county agencies that provide overlapping services), "political" consolidation (creating one government with one set of
elected officials), or something in between.
What makes the most sense is to focus on ongoing efforts between City Hall and county government to find savings through possible consolidations in animal control, building inspections, parking enforcement and other departments. From there, there should be
discussions with the county's other cities about similar mergers. In the meantime, there can be the start of a conversation to see if there's a consensus – or even any interest – to move toward a combined metro government.
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