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‘Unification'
committee
addresses
challenges
By LINDA YOUNG lyoung@lakecityreporter.com
A committee studying potential ways to help government in Columbia County handle growth might be less intimidating by another name, group members concluded during a meeting Monday night.
“I do think unification is a little less scary than consolidation,” said Columbia County Consolidation Study Committee member Bruce Drawdy.
Committee Member Tom Brown had presented the group with a proposed mission statement to discuss, which declared the committee was a citizen's initiative to determine if consolidating local governments would produce benefits for all Columbia County citizens. The mission statement was conceived by committee members Brown, Mary Kay Hollingsworth and Glenn Hunter.
The committee discussed the mission statement as well as changing its name along with the word it uses for what it is studying.
“It's semantics, but use the positive term ‘unification' instead of the negative connotation term ‘consolidation,'” said committee member Michael Leonard.
By consensus, the group decided to change the word consolidation to unification in all references.
But no matter what it calls itself, the study committee realizes the key issue it's grappling with is how to best handle explosive growth in Columbia County.
“Growth, in my mind, is the key area where governments should be working together,” said Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson Attorney Gregory Stewart, of Tallahassee.
Stewart gave the committee an overview of what consolidation of county and municipal functions could accomplish as well as what their alternatives could accomplish.
“You have to look at it from two angles,” Stewart said.
The first angle is true consolidation of government and the second is a consolidation of government functions or services.
For instance, the committee could decide that only certain government functions - such as utilities, stormwater management, fire services and EMS - would be more efficient if unified and would create special districts to handle those or use interlocal agreements.
But either way, the first step was to formulate a plan for how government services will be provided in the county under consolidation or an alternative, Stewart said.
The state gives few guidelines for formulating a plan, but it must be approved by the Florida State Legislature before it eventually goes to residents for a vote, Stewart said.
“There's not a strict procedure on how you get there. There's a lot of flexibility,” Stewart said.
He listed some pros for consolidation that included eliminating a layer of regulation in issuing building permits and creating consistency in growth management. Cons include a higher potential tax for unincorporated areas and a potential loss of soft money or grants, Stewart said.
“There is not a flood toward consolidation,” Stewart said. He explained that only
50 counties nationwide and two in Florida - Dade and Duval- have done it.
Committee member Nick Patel was candid about the scope of the committee's task.
“It's an enormous thing ... We need to get a handle on what can really be gained by consolidating functions and can more be saved by consolidating government?” Patel said.
To that end, the committee invited Columbia County Manager Dale Williams to speak next month on what services the county
provides.
It plans to invite William's counterpart, Lake City City Manager Joe Cone, to speak at another meeting.
addresses
challenges
By LINDA YOUNG lyoung@lakecityreporter.com
A committee studying potential ways to help government in Columbia County handle growth might be less intimidating by another name, group members concluded during a meeting Monday night.
“I do think unification is a little less scary than consolidation,” said Columbia County Consolidation Study Committee member Bruce Drawdy.
Committee Member Tom Brown had presented the group with a proposed mission statement to discuss, which declared the committee was a citizen's initiative to determine if consolidating local governments would produce benefits for all Columbia County citizens. The mission statement was conceived by committee members Brown, Mary Kay Hollingsworth and Glenn Hunter.
The committee discussed the mission statement as well as changing its name along with the word it uses for what it is studying.
“It's semantics, but use the positive term ‘unification' instead of the negative connotation term ‘consolidation,'” said committee member Michael Leonard.
By consensus, the group decided to change the word consolidation to unification in all references.
But no matter what it calls itself, the study committee realizes the key issue it's grappling with is how to best handle explosive growth in Columbia County.
“Growth, in my mind, is the key area where governments should be working together,” said Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson Attorney Gregory Stewart, of Tallahassee.
Stewart gave the committee an overview of what consolidation of county and municipal functions could accomplish as well as what their alternatives could accomplish.
“You have to look at it from two angles,” Stewart said.
The first angle is true consolidation of government and the second is a consolidation of government functions or services.
For instance, the committee could decide that only certain government functions - such as utilities, stormwater management, fire services and EMS - would be more efficient if unified and would create special districts to handle those or use interlocal agreements.
But either way, the first step was to formulate a plan for how government services will be provided in the county under consolidation or an alternative, Stewart said.
The state gives few guidelines for formulating a plan, but it must be approved by the Florida State Legislature before it eventually goes to residents for a vote, Stewart said.
“There's not a strict procedure on how you get there. There's a lot of flexibility,” Stewart said.
He listed some pros for consolidation that included eliminating a layer of regulation in issuing building permits and creating consistency in growth management. Cons include a higher potential tax for unincorporated areas and a potential loss of soft money or grants, Stewart said.
“There is not a flood toward consolidation,” Stewart said. He explained that only
50 counties nationwide and two in Florida - Dade and Duval- have done it.
Committee member Nick Patel was candid about the scope of the committee's task.
“It's an enormous thing ... We need to get a handle on what can really be gained by consolidating functions and can more be saved by consolidating government?” Patel said.
To that end, the committee invited Columbia County Manager Dale Williams to speak next month on what services the county
provides.
It plans to invite William's counterpart, Lake City City Manager Joe Cone, to speak at another meeting.
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