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Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009

Report backs consolidation czar for Macon, Bibb

A committee of community leaders has suggested privatizing many government functions and merging other city and county departments.

The initiative would be directed by a consolidation czar who would report directly to the mayor of Macon and the Bibb County Commission chairman to make sure plans are carried out.

The committee’s report is still in draft form, and its members are seeking input from members of the Macon City Council and the Bibb County Commission. Many of the merger ideas are not new, but the report is one more sign that city-county consolidation, which has languished for years, has new momentum under Mayor Robert Reichert and Bibb County Commission Chairman Sam Hart.

The report comes out of Hart’s “Think Community” effort and was put together by the initiative’s government efficiency committee, chaired by businessman Robbo Hatcher and Bibb County school board member Tommy Barnes.

Some of the ideas are modeled after Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Commission for a New Georgia, which sought to take a businesslike look at state government. Hatcher’s father, Robert, co-chaired that commission.

“This is all up to (our elected officials) — to have things happen or not happen,” Robbo Hatcher said of his committee’s report.

The report recommends:

Ÿ Merging the city and county engineering, technology, purchasing, billing, collection, human resources and risk management departments. The tax collector’s office would oversee collections for a range of services, including court fines and permitting fees, in addition to taxes.

Ÿ Contracting out for many services now provided by government employees, including garbage pickup, vehicle maintenance and building upkeep. Existing departments could bid against private contractors for the work, and private companies could be required to retain existing government employees if they take over a service, the report says.

Ÿ Developing city and county Web pages that “work seamlessly together” so “the public will feel that we are working more efficiently and not at cross purposes.”

Ÿ Appointing an “implementation officer” who would “ensure that any accepted recommendations (from the report) are implemented.” This person would “NOT have other day-to-day responsibilities” to distract him or her and would, ideally, already be familiar with both governments.

Hart said all of the recommendations “look pretty good to me.”

He said his whole Think Community group would meet next week to vote on at least some of the items.

He acknowledged that privatization of services would be “much more difficult” than some of the other suggestions, but he noted that unincorporated Bibb County has had private trash pickup for years and it’s worked well.

Reichert pushed to put garbage collection in the city out for bids earlier in his administration and failed to get council approval.

Hart said he liked the idea of an “implementation officer” who would “run with some of what we’re trying to do on a daily basis.” He said that position should be “apolitical.”

Reichert had not read the full report as of Friday afternoon, but he is against the idea of a consolidation czar or “implentation officer,” spokesman Andrew Blascovich said.

Instead, the chief administrative officers for the city and county could ride herd on the process, Blascovich said.

That could be a sticking point. The report specifically says that “this is NOT an assignment that can be added to the CAO or COO while expecting a successful outcome.”

To contact writer Travis Fain, call 744-4213.