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Maybe consolidation is the answer

Published 12:05am Sunday, April 29, 2012

There has been discussion for a while about consolidating certain city and county services.

People have talked about combining the police department and the sheriff’s department. Proposals have been made to join city and county waste disposal in order to perhaps get better service and pricing.

I am sure there are other areas where the city and county could work together also, although I am not sure if there would be an improvement in either service or value.

After reading and hearing about the behavior exhibited at some of the board of aldermen meetings, the most recent one in particular, I think the board members should be the first to be consolidated with a county entity.

Just think about it. Do away with the board of aldermen, then give each county district two seats to be filled by the two candidates receiving the most votes in each district. And I am only saying that to let some of the alderman think they might have a chance to keep a job. One member per district would be fine with me.

This way we would instantly save money on salaries. There would only need to be one meeting place for the board, which would save money on utilities and upkeep. And people like me, who live just outside the city limits, would be able to vote for someone that makes decisions concerning the city that affect me also. Lets face it, if you live in Adams County, things that affect the city affect you also.

Then the one board could seriously look at areas where consolidation might make sense. Two separate boards will never be able to agree on something like that.

It might be too much to hope that one board might be able to.

Oh well. Wishful thinking I know. But it would be nice if some board members who decided to walk out of meetings would just keep on walking.

 

Scott Manoley

Natchez resident

 

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  • http://www.natchezdemocrat.com khakirat

    You must be out of your mind for my neighbors and freinds in the county don’t care to pay the debts that the city has as the large debts that Butch Brown has left the city folks to pay!!! My family sold everything in the city to get away from the gestopa goverment run situation and are in the county!!!! We want our Sheriff Department left along for they or proffessional up against the NPD and you know it??!!!

  • Anonymous

    I do not fully agree that 2 reps per district would be an instant savings on salaries, assuming you are using the county districts, you would save 1 alderman/supervisor salary (5×2 = 10 vs. 5+6 = 11) and probably would not do away with the position similar to the Mayor (e.g. replace with a County President for example).  I do agree that there is significant potential for overall efficiency in departmental consolidation and support moving in this direction.  Natchez-Adams is not large enough (except in elected officials egos) to warrant continued use of the divided government method of operation and in order to move forward with regionalism, this step needs to be taken. 

  • Anonymous

    Since there is lack of the other article in the printed edition regarding utilization of the senior ranking official in each department to become the next department head, I offer a few comments here:
    - It must be important that definition of “senior ranking official” be set out for purposes of implementation.  The author quoted usage of this practice in the military and there is a major effort put forth to create “rank”.  The military often “passes over” officers for promotion thus leading to the most highly “qualified” officers in the top positions and in line for the next higher level in the future.  Unfortunately, in the public sector, the “passing over” process will include decisions by promotional reviewers and approvers, thus resulting in claims of racism or other factors (kinship, etc.) when approving promotions within a department, leaving us much were we are today.  Thus, we could not rely on that system in the public sector to provide the most highly “qualified” person filling the department head positions.

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