Enthusiasm, skepticism expressed over consolidation

With news that a long-awaited consolidation bill has been filed in Atlanta, residents are cautiously optimistic about a merger of Macon, Payne City and Bibb County. But others are recoiling at how the bill was written.

Macon City Councilman Charles Jones said the call for a July 31 referendum is too soon to educate voters about a complicated initiative that’s been under discussion for decades. He said he’s glad Bibb County’s legislative delegation had agreed on something, but the deadline is too short.

“If they’re thinking, they ought to be thinking like we’re thinking, that it needs some more thinking,” Jones said. “Any dramatic change like this is one that would take a lot of thought and a lot of perusing.”

John Wolfenbarger, a retired rental car company vice president who served on a consolidation study group in 1999, said he’s not worried about teaching voters.

“We’ve been educating people for 50 years,” he said.

He said he’s happy to hear a bill is likely to get out of the Legislature, which was a tough hurdle in previous attempts. Parts of the bill also sound familiar to him.

“I think that’s pretty much what we talked about back in ’99,” he said. “We put a lot of work into it. We thought we had a pretty good package together.”

Hunter Johnson, who served on three consolidation study commissions, agrees that a July vote isn’t too soon, and he still thinks consolidation will save money.

“I think just having a vote is a good step forward,” he said.

Calder Pinkston, an attorney who’s been pushing consolidation for years, said he plans to start lobbying to get consolidation passed. He said he might have written the bill with different specifics, which he declined to discuss, but said no detail of the bill is bad enough to eliminate his support. Pinkston called it a “great day for our community.”

“We’ve got but two choices here: more of the same or a new day. And it’s clear what we’ve been doing is not working,” Pinkston said.

Some other political figures agree a vote is long overdue.

Macon Mayor Robert Reichert said in an e-mailed statement that he is thrilled to hear the community would get to vote on consolidation.

“I have not had the opportunity to read this specific proposal, and it is my opinion that no proposal will be considered perfect by everyone,” Reichert wrote. “However, I believe unification/consolidation of our city and county governments will result in a more efficient, effective and equitably financed system of local government.”

Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen worried aloud about the proposed districts and the implication that county commissioners elected this year would be commissioners for just one year.

“I’m happy about it, even though there’s a great possibility I can’t win a race,” Allen said.

But David Lucas, a former state representative who worked for years on consolidation bills, questioned the July 31 vote.

“Why’d they put the referendum on for July? Are they afraid the people are going to turn out for the general election?” Lucas said.

Lucas said he also couldn’t support a bill that puts the sheriff as the top law enforcement officer.

But Sheriff Jerry Modena said that’s a fine decision, because the sheriff answers to voters, not just the small group who would appoint a police chief. Sheriffs can also be removed from office, and his agency already performs the same patrol and investigation functions as the Macon Police Department.

Consolidation of Bibb County’s law enforcement would help put the county in a better position to fight crime -- both locally and in cooperation with other agencies in the region -- as Bibb and surrounding counties continue to grow, Modena said.

“I think it’s time,” he said.

Macon Police Chief Mike Burns disagreed with the plan to have an elected official as the top cop rather than an appointed chief. Burns noted that the new department automatically would lose national accreditation.

“It’s up to the people to decide what they want,” Burns said. “We’re lucky to have had good sheriffs in the past, but (anyone) can be a sheriff -- not a police chief. Police chiefs are hired with all of the qualifications. If you take the jail (out of consideration), we’re a larger agency than the sheriff’s. We’ve got the experience of local policing.”

Telegraph writers Amy Leigh Womack and Phillip Ramati contributed to this report. To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.

This story was originally published February 28, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Enthusiasm, skepticism expressed over consolidation."