We found the idea intriguing because we, too, have advocated for the consolidation of some government services in order to reduce the number of redundancies and to make government more efficient and cost-effective. When we last counted, Butler County had about two dozen distinct political jurisdictions, most with their own administrators, police chiefs, fire chiefs and other top officials.
Officials in Butler County have flirted with the idea of teaming up to find efficiencies that could save or more effectively spend tax dollars, but the flirting hasn’t led to much collaboration so far. Although, as we noted Thursday, Gov. John Kasich’s new state budget, which significantly cuts the local government fund, may force leaders to get serious about doing more together.
The city of Cincinnati went so far as to suspend the search for Chief Streicher’s replacement while officials studied a merger of the city police department with the sheriff’s office. When a member of City Council, Wendell Young, withdrew his support for the study — which meant council no longer had a veto-proof majority backing the idea — Sheriff Simon Leis called off the talks. Cincinnati has now resumed its search for a new police chief.
Obviously, both political jurisdictions must do what’s best for their constituents, and there’s no guarantee that the study would have produced evidence that a merger would be beneficial to taxpayers.
However, it would have been an interesting exercise — one that could have been a model for other communities that are wrestling with similar budget issues. But, given the economic realities reflected in the governor’s new budget, some jurisdictions may yet find themselves looking around for a neighboring community with which to partner.