Merger commission delivers report

Published 6:17 am Friday, July 13, 2012

They’ve spent more than a year studying ways to combine Whitfield County and Dalton city services. But members of the merger commission aren’t quite ready to call it a day.

At a public meeting Thursday night, commission members agreed to ask the City Council and Board of Commissioners to request that the General Assembly extend their mission.

The Legislature created the commission last year, at the request of local officials, to study a possible merger of the two general governments and, if the commission thought such a merger was feasible, to draft a charter for the unified government. Residents would have voted on that charter in November.

But commission members found there were several obstacles to merging the two governments and instead voted 11-3 to recommend merging the governments’ public works, parks and recreation, and law enforcement patrol services. The sheriff is required by the state Constitution to provide jail services, courthouse security and warrants, so those can not be merged.

“We just want to make sure that our report is not just another report that is put on the shelf and never followed up on. We’d like to see that the two governments at least try to work towards some of the goals we recommended,” said Frank Thomason, chairman of the merger commission.

Phil Neff, a member of the commission, said the commission’s report had originally recommended that city and county officials meet with the commission in the first and fourth quarters of 2013 to review progress towards combining those three functions. But he said city and county attorneys said the legislation that created the commission did not allow it to meet officially after its final report was delivered.

Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Babb, who is also a member of the merger commission, said it will probably take some time before commissioners decide whether to request that the merger commission be extended.

“We’ve got an election coming up, and possibly two commission seats could change hands. We’ve got to complete the LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) negotiations. And in any event, the General Assembly won’t meet until January, so there’s no need for us to hurry,” he said.

Commission members went over their final report.

Neff said he believed the goal of the commission was to put a charter for a unified government on the ballot in November. But he said commission members could not find ways to overcome certain obstacles, such as the differing alcohol laws in Dalton and unincorporated Whitfield County and differing freeport tax exemptions on inventory.

“I think we possibly could have found ways to address those issues if we had become aware of them early enough and could have worked with our legislators,” he said.

Commission members found late in their work that if the two governments merged, the county’s alcohol laws would likely become law for the new unified government, meaning Dalton restaurants and stores could no longer sell distilled spirits or sell any alcohol on Sunday.

Babb said officials likely will ask members of the local legislative delegation if they can introduce legislation to allow Dalton to keep its alcohol laws if the two governments merge.

A member of the audience, Hayden Wagers, said city residents currently receive a higher level of service than county residents and expressed concern that merging the two governments would cause service levels to drop. Commission members said a new unified government could set up special tax districts to fund services at a higher level for those who want it, not just for Dalton residents but for other areas as well.

Commission members were also asked if merging services would cut costs. They said the evidence they had seen did not indicate that merging governments would cut spending but it should cut the rate of growth of spending.