Dalton/Whitfield merger commission begins work

Published 7:26 am Thursday, June 23, 2011

Georgia leads the nation in the number of city and county governments that have decided to merge into a single metro government. The Peach State has seven such governments, and a group of 15 men and women met Wednesday to begin a process that could make Dalton and Whitfield County the eighth.

“You have an ambitious schedule ahead of you,” said Harry Hayes, an analyst with the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute, who helped brief the commission members on their responsibilities.

The commission members have until April 30, 2012, to decide whether merging makes sense for the city and county and their residents and, if they believe it does, to draft a charter for a new unified government. Voters would vote on that charter in November 2012, and it would have to pass by a majority in both the city and the county.

“They have sufficient time, but they don’t have time to waste,” Hayes said after the meeting at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center.

Wednesday’s meeting basically consisted of a presentation, similar to one given to members of the Dalton City Council and Whitfield County Board of Commissioners in February, by the Vinson Institute on the history and nature of consolidation.

“There are two types of consolidation. There’s functional consolidation, where a city and county combine particular services but remain separate governments. There’s complete consolidation, where both governments are combined into a single new government,” said Betty Hudson, another expert from the Vinson Institute. “Under the legislation creating this commission, you aren’t limited to recommending complete consolidation. You can also recommend functional consolidation.”

Dalton and Whitfield County already have combined or created a number of joint services, including zoning and building inspection, the library and the landfill.

The two analysts told commission members that if they choose to recommend a complete merger they have a great deal of discretion in how that new government looks, from the types of services it offers to the number of members on its governing council to whether elections to that council are nonpartisan or partisan.

However, even a complete merger would not affect constitutional officers such as the tax commissioner and clerk of courts.

“The one partial exception is the sheriff,” Hayes said.

He said the commission could decide to create a single county police force and limit the sheriff to his constitutionally required duties of running the jail and court security, or they could make the sheriff responsible for law enforcement for the new metro government.

Commission member Phil Neff asked if any of the metro governments had privatized any services.

“I’m not aware of any that have privatized services as a part of the consolidation process,” said Hayes. “But I believe some have privatized services subsequent to consolidation.”

Hayes said having a single unified government might make it easier to privatize services because there’s only one government that has to make that decision.

Commission members agreed to meet again on Wednesday, June 29, at 2 p.m. in Dalton City Hall for an organizational meeting to elect a chairman, vice chairman and secretary. While the secretary’s position is optional, several commission members said they believed it was very important, particularly since the Vinson Institute experts said it is important for the commission to keep good records because any charter will have to be submitted to the federal Justice Department for review under the Voting Rights Act.

“In other places that have done this, either the city or the county, or sometimes both, have delegated a staff member to help the commission,” Hayes said.

Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Babb said he believed the chairman of the charter commission should be one of its citizen members, not one of the government officials.

“Sometimes you can get too deeply involved in your own area. I see the county budget, and I know the county employees. The city officials are the same way. If you have a citizen who doesn’t work with that every day, it might be better,” Babb said. “It would remove any question about who is in charge. If a citizen is chairman, I think it would help show both the city and the county are trying to work together to do what’s best for the entire community.”

Next meeting

The Dalton-Whitfield County Charter Commission will next meet on Wednesday, June 29, at 2 p.m. in Dalton City Hall.

Commission members

Members of the Dalton-Whitfield County Charter Commission are Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Babb, Whitfield County Commissioner Gordon Morehouse, Dalton City Council members Gary Crews and George Sadosuk, Tunnel Hill Mayor Kenny Gowin, Cohutta Mayor Don Henderson, Varnell Mayor Pro Tem David Owens and citizen members Ray Broadrick, Celeste Creswell, Viola Ibarra, Tangela Johnson, Marshall Mauldin, Phil Neff, David Renz and Frank Thomason.