By Mark Bashore, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-960230.mp3
Grand Rapids, MI –
Local governments across Michigan are intensifying efforts at merging and sharing services. In west Michigan, a group calling itself the One Kent Coalition wants to merge the city government of Grand Rapids with Kent County. Supporters point to advantages including a reduction in the duplication of services. Skeptics question how such a system would work.
WKAR's Mark Bashore spoke with a coalition leader, ex-East Grand Rapids Mayor Nyal Deems. Deems says if Grand Rapids became bigger, there would also be more opportunities for economic growth.
AUDIO:
NYAL DEEMS: "The particular point here is this takes the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, and it takes it from about the low hundreds as a metropolitan city in the country, to around 25th and it puts us on a much higher level to attract economic development funds, investment from different investment and venture capital groups and to get on their scale. There are a number of companies and investment funds that will only look at communities that are above a certain size. I have one on my desk that was just sent to me and their first criteria is 'investments only to be put in the top 50 metropolitan areas in the country.' So if you have too many separated little governments, you're going to lose out on a lot of competition. And our goal is to create jobs and promote more economic vitality.
MARK BASHORE: "We're talking about a large web of consolidations here----differing expectations of services, different hardware, different software, city, country, suburb and on and on. Can you walk us through how you see this unfolding exactly?
DEEMS: "Well if first unfolds by you need some enabling legislation. We hope to get that to the legislature sometime soon, so that it's passed in 2011. So if it becomes a law this year, then we would hope to put it on the ballot in 2012 to ask the citizens of Grand Rapids and Kent County to approve it. And then if it's approved, our prospect is to have it come into place a year later. I guess that would be January 1 of 2014. In that interim period, you would need some amount of time and effort to consolidate the things that were not compatible--different computers, software, different things perhaps, and motor pools where you're combining police and fire .public safety efforts to consider, how you might adjust those schedules. And a lot of that would simply stay in place and be done over time."
BASHORE: "Are there forces in play in Kent County that especially favors this approach there or do you think this could become a model for counties elsewhere in the state?"
DEEMS: "Well, we certainly think it's a model for counties elsewhere in the state. It seems to have a broad appeal amongst citizens and businesses in the metropolitan area who see this as a way of creating more efficient government and creating a government that can project the image of Grand Rapids and Kent County and the metropolitan area on a much broader scale."
BASHORE: "You're in the early going now, I realize that, but can you say at this point what the most common doubt or misgiving is about the plan?"
DEEMS: "I think it's really a question of just understanding it. You know, we all more or less live in the past. We're used to this city, that county. We're not used to a metropolitan government, so it becomes a question of what is it, how would it work?'
BASHORE: "Do you know what the Snyder administration makes of the plan?"
DEEMS: "I believe the Snyder administration, and I believe the majority in the legislature, think this type of idea is a good plan."
BASHORE: "There's some discussion as to whether this body would be partisan or non-partisan. How do you think a largely politicized electorate might respond to such an influential body that is non-partisan?"
DEEMS: "Well I think they'd respond the same they do in any other non-partisan election. For example, the city of Grand Rapids right now has non-partisan elections for its commission and mayor. And people---I don't know what leads them to vote one way or the other---but they choose a candidate and vote."