State Sen. Robert Brown, D-Macon, announced more points in a plan that he said will create a unified Macon-Bibb County government that costs 20 percent less than today’s operations. He does it with some big shake-ups: making everyone on government payroll demonstrate that they belong there and changing leadership at major authorities.

“Basically all departments would be abolished,” said Brown, “and we would actually rehire some of the people.”

The plan protects the pensions of employees who are retained, Brown explained. But new hires would get a different plan designed by a new county governing body, presumably to shrink Macon-Bibb’s future pension liabilities.

“That’s where you can get some immediate savings,” Brown said. “We just can’t wait on attrition.”

He was explaining a new bill he’s planning to file at the state Legislature in the coming days that would restructure and merge the Macon and Bibb governments. He had an audience of about 10, including at least four government employees, at a public meeting Saturday morning at a Bibb County Sheriff’s Office substation on Jeffersonville Road.

The Macon Water Authority “would no longer be an elected authority, it would be an appointed authority,” said Brown, adding that’s would be consistent with how other authorities are run.

Right now, five of the seven MWA members are elected and the other two come from Macon City Council and Bibb County Commission. The authority now runs a surplus, and is sitting on reserves that under Brown’s plan could be transferred to the merged government’s coffer.

“I’m going to de-politicize it,” Brown explained. “It would have a much more narrow function. It would not be in development.”

His rationale is to make the buck stop at the new city council, so that citizens know where to aim their complaints and praise.

The plan would abolish the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority and the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority and fold their jobs and their bond obligations into one Macon development authority.

A new Office of Small Business Affairs would advise small and minority-owned businesses on doing business with the new government and would aim to teach financial literacy in general.

Brown envisions a chief of police in charge of law enforcement countywide. Under the state Constitution, each county must elect a sheriff; Brown’s plan would cut the sheriff’s job to the minimum necessary under law, like serving court papers and protecting the courthouse. He would also create a Citizen Review Board to hear public complaints about policing.

The new entity would simply be called “Macon.” It would have a mayor elected at-large, salaried at $150,000 annually. The mayor would appoint a sort of chief of staff under the title “chief administrative officer.” An 11-member city council, chosen in partisan elections, would act as a legislative body.

A draft map of the council districts he displayed at the meeting is designed so no incumbent has an advantage, said Brown.

Eleven members are necessary in order to make sure the doors of government are open to more than a few people, Brown explained.

That would nonetheless be a cut from the 20 representatives elected between city council and county commission.

For any of this to happen, first Brown must shepherd a bill through the state Legislature that would allow the proposal to be put on the November 2012 ballot. Then he’d need agreement from Macon-Bibb voters. If that happens, the new Macon would be created on Jan. 1, 2016, and it would have four years to shrink its budget by 20 percent.

Taxpayers in the current city of Macon would pay that area’s debts, but after that, Brown does not envision having two different tax areas with potentially different tax rates.

Brown expects to release the full bill sometime this week, pending discussions with his colleague, Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon.

Staton said he’s still reviewing the 50-page bill and has about 30 questions he’ll put to Brown.

On the MWA changes, said Staton, “that’s a concern to me. I’m talking with members of the water authority. I think there needs to be more discussion.”

He thinks it may be better to put the sheriff in charge of law enforcement, since the county is obligated to elect one anyway.

On the shrinking budget: “The 20 percent, that’s taken from my consolidation plan. I appreciate his using it,” said Staton.

The state House has passed a different consolidation proposal authored by state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon.

Peake’s House Bill 98 leaves any decisions on changing or abolishing government authorities up to a new nine-member county commission.