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Consolidate Mecklenburg into one Govt.


monsoon

Should the County and 7 Cites in Mecklenburg Consolidate into one City?  

43 members have voted

  1. 1. Should the County and 7 Cites in Mecklenburg Consolidate into one City?

    • No
      18
    • Yes
      24
    • No Opinion
      1


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Should Mecklenburg county, and the 7 municipalities consolidate into one single government? The resulting city would move from 21st largest to 13 or 14th largest city in the USA (ahead of San Francisco or Jacksonville).

What would the new city be called? Charlotte or something else? What are the pros and cons of this?

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No, I think each town and the city would like to keep their own identity. Just imagine the fighting over how many Charlotte representatives will get on the new legislature for the new govt, unless the new govt has at large and district representatives regardless of how each want to maintain their voice. If such consolidated govt were to form, the smaller towns might try to overpower Charlotte.

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Not unless we can tax everyone at the higher tax rate....then they would finally have to pay for the Charlotte provided services that they take for granted......actually we can let the northern towns stay autonomous and keep their highly residential tax base and let them have their own school disctrict too....

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Lets assume that everyone in the new county would pay the same tax rate, and there would be a combination of at large and district representation on the new municipal council. Likewise there would be an at large mayor who would cast tie breaking votes.

It would be great if the elections could be non-partisen as they are in the towns today.

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No, I think each town and the city would like to keep their own identity. Just imagine the fighting over how many Charlotte representatives will get on the new legislature for the new govt, unless the new govt  has at large and district representatives regardless of how each want to maintain their voice. If such consolidated govt were to form, the smaller towns might try to overpower Charlotte.

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As an example, the Jacksonville, Fla. City Council has 14 members elected from single-member districts, and 5 at-large, all non-partisan. The odd number prevents ties when there is a 100% quorum. Then you would have to decide if the mayor is to be a fellow councilperson/legislator or a separate executive.
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I don't think it will ever happen.  The small towns like Pineville and Matthews, not to mention Huntersville and Davidson would never give up their power/autonomy.

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That would be the same attitude over here in Gaston County. As much as we like the things to do in Charlotte, I doubt we would like giving up total control over our affairs to a super regional government. We have enough trouble with just our local government. ;)

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I think at this point, it is time to combine the Charlotte and Mecklenburg governments, but the other smaller cities should remain independent.

There should be one council and one budget for the City of Charlotte and the unicorporated areas of Mecklenburg County. I don't even think Mecklenburg County zones anymore because all the cities have taken over zoning rights.

I believe there should be a council of about 14-16, with 4 at-large and the rest representing the major area of Meck. Each council member would serve 4 years, but half the council would be elected every two years. (I think that would solve the problem of 2 year terms that have been debated in Charlotte for all so many years).

And, there would be a mayor-strong government (instead of a manager-strong) with a FULL-time mayor that serves 4 years.

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don't we have a weak mayorship as far as city governance?

i voted yes, because i think it would be great. the northern constituents would help shift politics to bring some of the towns standards to zoning decisions all around the county.

I honestly don't believe this will happen until at least a decade from now. i think this is an eventual path once the cities have all annexed to their etj. at that point, almost all zoning in mecklenburg would be infill to some degree. There would be less risk of the area changing dramatically, then, if a merger happened.

If this is pushed too soon, i would not be surprised if a serious effort is made for the northern towns to merge with southern iredell county to be their own county.

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Yes, Charlotte does have a weak mayoral system. The idea of a city manager ocurred in the 1800s verus the French and British mayoral forms which the older Northeastern cities have. A city manager was created to avoid corruptions, as mayors tend to have certain ambitions and tend to have things their ways. City Managers are apolitical, thus they are appointed by the City Council, by being nonpartisan and apolitical, they tend to lead effcient governments, but a very powerful Council. Here's my idea, NC should allow independent cities like VA and St. Louis, independent of a county. Dissolve Mecklenburg County and let the towns and the City controll their ETJ now.

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jb4563.....are there any Unigov's in the country that operate similarly (mayor strong, and council heavy)???

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Correct me if I am wrong, but most large cities operate with a mayor-strong system. (ie Atlanta).

I've always thought you found manager-strong systems in smaller mid-size cities like GSO and W-S size and smaller.

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Dissolve Mecklenburg County and let the towns and the City controll their ETJ now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is exaclty what a lot of New England states have done. Esp. in Mass.

For example, the county that Boston is in exists only a geographical/historical entiity....it has no government whatsoever.

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Correct me if I am wrong, but most large cities operate with a mayor-strong system.  (ie Atlanta).

I've always thought you found manager-strong systems in smaller mid-size cities like GSO and W-S size and smaller.

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Council-Manager system is ideal for mid-sized cities like under half a million, but however Dallas, Texas is the only large city in the US to have a City Manager, though their City Council is very powerful, much like Charlotte's City Council.

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That is exaclty what a lot of New England states have done.  Esp. in Mass.

For example, the county that Boston is in exists only a geographical/historical entiity....it has no government whatsoever.

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If Mecklenburg County was to be dissolved, Charlotte would take over the County's Park & Recreation, Health, Sheriffs, and Social Social Departments and assuming all the other towns will have to create their own Health and Social Service Departments. But regarding the school system, it should be totally independent from any municipal government.

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I'm sorry, it would suck if the city/county combined.  Then we would be like Jacksonville with fake numbers.  We want to keep it real in the CLT.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You mean keeping it real by being one of the largest cities, landwise, excluding the city/county consolidated ones? Go ahead and consolidate, if possible, because the current city population numbers are no more real or fake than those of Jacksonville's, Nashville's, Philly's, New York City's, San Fransico's, New Orleans' or any other city that's consolidated with its core county. There's nothing wrong with consolidation, it would only push Charlotte's potential to higher levels.

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  • 2 months later...

I agree with lakelander's comments. Keeping it real? Give me a break, consolidation would unite Charlotte and its county into one cohesive government with one common goal and purpose in making the area a premier city of the South. Jacksonville has been able to do this with its government, and it seems to work much better. I voted yes...

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  • 3 months later...

Jacksonville did this very thing, as has been mentioned before. 1968. It united the entire area, and now Duval County = Jacksonville.

Before consolidation, there were different sherriffs all over the county, with seperate mayors who battled each other...White flight had left the inner city in ruins. The St.Johns River was polluted horribly...so many things going wrong. It was essentially because there was too much mix-up and over and under lapping of municiple agencies.

Now there is a large and somewhat powerful city council that covers every square inch of the county. Four towns chose to stay independent of Jacksonville---Baldwin, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Jacksonville Beach. But they are still involved in almost everyway as being true parts of the city/county. The mayor is chief executive and holds quite a bit of power. He is practically a celebrity in the city, shoots around in an entourage of limosines!

I lived in Jax 16 years, and consolidation was one of the few things I thought Jax did well:) The corruption is over, the ununified disjointed police departments are history. Everything runs efficiently out of downtown Jacksonville. The city is the county. Makes sense to me!!!

Charlotte=Mecklenburg County

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  • 2 weeks later...

I voted yes.

By doing the city-county move, it can save taxpayers money on city services by county consolidation.

Pittsburgh mayor believes so. From the mayors website:

Create a joint City/County Police Training Center. By training our police officers together, we can save the taxpayers nearly $700,000 per year.

Im aware of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police but does not cover the towns of Pineville, Mint Hill, Matthews and Huntersville.

Whether your republican or democrat, most fully or partially agree on it as well. From the Gazette Newspaper in Pittsburgh:

These are canadates, not people holding government:

Question: In what areas would you support consolidation of city-county services?

Democrats:

I support consolidation of city-county services where the services can adequately be performed by one government entity only, with ongoing duplication of these services amounting to nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars. Police, fire or EMS service should not be consolidated unless it can be clearly shown that consolidation in any one or more of these vital areas can be done without increased risk to the residents and businesses of Allegheny County. - James R. Burn Jr., Millvale, PA

Departments: 911, purchasing supplies, public works -- repairing roads and snow removal. These departments need to work together and share the expenses. - C.L. Jabbour, West Mifflin, PA

Republicans:

It is the duty of all elected and non-elected officials to reduce taxes by eliminating wasteful governmental spending. We can save taxpayers considerable money by consolidating offices and services at all levels of government, including county, city, local and federal. By doing so we will eliminate duplication of services and gain more efficiencies of scale. We will also be able to improve county government at a more affordable cost to our taxpayers. - Matt Drozd, Ross, PA

Reducing the size of government, cutting costs and making it more efficient would be a goal of mine. The department I would look at for consolidation of city-county services is the Economic Development Department. Having two Economic Development Departments is redundant and stands in the way of producing meaningful jobs - Geneva McKee, Monroeville, PA

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If it was just the northern towns and Charlotte seated within in the county, I think it would be politically palatible and feasible to let the northern towns form their own county, and CharMeck consolidates.

But the 3 southern towns do exist, and would not likely be willing to join in a consolidated government... and they are too far apart, to split off on their own.

I guess if Matthews and Mint hill joined Union county, it would simplify the political calculus to have Charlotte and Pineville negotiate and work something out. But it creates a complicated situation to pitch to the legislature. It's sorta like the 3rd ward park / baseball land swap thing...

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Actually Cornelus and Davidson as well as Huntersville run their own police & fire depts. They also run their own animal control. Because of this they also have their own consolidated 911 system as it is less expensive for the towns to operate this way than to join the Char/Meck system which has a lot more crime to deal with. The towns also contract out their garbage service to 3rd parties and encourage recycling as this also reduces costs. If the 3 towns consolidated with Charlotte, the taxes that residents pay in these places would go up and services and access to politicians would go down.

I don't think you would have any support for consolidation in the towns. They don't gain anything and inherit a lot of costly problems.

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  • 1 month later...

There is an article in today's Observer that details Mooresville is joining up with the 3 northern towns to control growth around the eastern side of Lake Norman. The 4 main areas the will cooperate on are, Commuter Rail, Growth Management, Economic Development, and Lake Norman Issues.

I believe if there is consolidation it will be these 4 municipalities consolidating into one government which could result in the 5th or 6th largest city in NC. Normanopolis.

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No... Honestly, would anyone that lives outside of Charlotte really be asking this question?

If I wanted to live in Charlotte, I would move there. Some people don't want to live there, so they live in Huntersville, Cornelius, Pineville, etc. There will always be outlying suburbs to nearly any city, as it offers a smaller town feel with the benefits of living near a larger city.

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