Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Government A Decent Proposal: Darrell Cobbins
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 8:30 AM
A few weeks ago, I realized that many city and county residents really don't know or understand what's going on with the consolidation drive. Maybe it's just that, as a community, we've talked about consolidation for so long that it seems like it will always be hypothetical.
But the talk right now is more than just talk; it comes with a vote November 2nd.
In light of that, we decided to do a cover treatment on consolidation. (It should be hitting the streets today and should be live on the website tomorrow.)
I'll admit it's kind of a tricky thing on consolidation right now. There's not a lot of specifics to talk about, since the charter commission still has to write the new document. But if we don't start talking about it now, a lot of people are going to be taken unaware on August 10th when the new document is filed, and on November 2nd when city and county residents are asked to vote on it.
And then we started writing, and it turned out there was more to talk about than I originally thought.
Starting today, I'm going to be posting some of my note overflow: mostly things people said that I thought were interesting but didn't quite make it into the paper because of space. And because you can't just run a bunch of quotes. It's a journalism rule.
Rebuild Government is a non-profit begun by Brian Stephens and Darrell Cobbins to get more public input in the drafting of the new charter. They host small home meetings to discuss consolidation, asking residents for input and questions, and then pass that information on to the metro charter commission.
(If this does not make sense to you, or you want the terms "Rebuild Government" or "metro charter commission" defined, please stop reading right here, get in your car, go to Schnucks, and pick up a copy of this week's paper. Or, wait, you can click here or here for earlier stories.)
The group got off the ground after both the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission voted unanimously to create a joint metro charter commission.
"I took that to mean that they thought there could be some reshaping of government," Cobbins says. "It helped me to see that this whole thing could become a reality."
Though Rebuild Government as an organization is officially neutral on the subject of consolidation, Cobbins, also one of the founders of New Path and MPACT Memphis, isn't.
"We have a lot of duplication in government," Cobbins says. "At a minimum, it creates a uniform, efficient set of departments and strategic focuses that I think would allow government to better deliver services to citizens."
Cobbins says he doesn't think people realize the power they have right now to help craft a new government. The last time the area really considered consolidation was 1971, and Cobbins (along with many of us) wasn't even born then.
"A lot of times we seem to be waiting for some Caped Crusader to come in and save the day," he says. "If we acknowledge that the Caped Crusader probably doesn't exist, we'll more readily accept responsibility to say, 'What can we do to correct what we see as deficiencies and reposition government to give us what we want?'"
Cobbins thinks people want to see more job creation, less crime, improved government ethics and accountability, and more equable taxes.
"I would add poverty," he says. "It's already bad here and it's projected to get worse, and there isn't a lot of talk about it."
He thinks a consolidated government would have certain advantages dealing with those issues.
"I think what's getting lost in the discussion is that this isn't just about right now. A lot of this is about our children and what community they'll grow up in," he says.
And if consolidation doesn't pass in November, what will that say about us as a community?
"That, to some degree," he says, "the status quo is acceptable."
Comments (7)
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The consolidation drive doesn't seem to be going well when the talking point "for the children" is already being used.
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"For the children" is 100% valid and authentic, especially as a new parent. I am a new parent as is Darrell Cobbins. I want a better Memphis for my family with a future that doesn't seem so lackluster.
"We have a lot of duplication in government," Cobbins says.
Cobbins is wrong - there isn't a lot of duplication in government. There is bad govenment, though. Why not clean it up? It doesn't take consolidation to do that and should be done first..
I totally agree that the "status quo" is unacceptable. Is it really the structure of our government that prevents us from changing? Or is it the decisions we make as a community that prevents us from moving forward?
I keep hearing this "duplication of government" canard a lot but I've yet to see any news organisation lay out the government structures of the City and County side-by-side to show which offices could be merged and reduced in overall size. I suspect a lot of the "duplication" comes in offices under each mayor's purview, and good luck with reducing the size of either when the County's unemployment is above 10%. Heck, A C Wharton has been decrying the need to cut budgets even as he keeps adding new offices and raising salaries! Good luck fighting that.
As they say, "Show me the money." When someone can lay out the actual offices closed, merged and reduced and an estimate of the total savings, then I'll take you more seriously. It hasn't happened yet, which keeps me skeptical of any claims.
Mike:
The organizational charts for both governments are on-line. Lay them on top of each other. They are identical. In fact, when county government was restructured in 1974, its structure intentionally copied the city's because it had been changed some years before and it was supposed to be the modern structure.
Now they are both simply flawed and dysfunctional. If you take both budgets, there are at least 200 managers that will be eliminated and Stephen Goldsmith said that costs can be cut 10-20%.
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