Municipal Mergers- Who should consolidate

[admtrap]

California's an interesting case in that much of the annexation/consolidation rush for municipalities died down after the 1960s, but by then, many independent suburbs had been established with little desire to lose their own identity (i.e. suburbs in metro Los Angeles that exist primarily to resist annexation by LA itself, such as Burbank).  San Diego did shoestring annex San Ysidro in 1957, and Chula Vista annexed the community of Montgomery (named after the nearby freeway?) in the 1980s.

There's some justification for some of these suburbs to merge with one another, however.   Maywood outsourced essentially everything but it's council.  Neighboring Bell had the nice little corruption scandal.  Neighboring Vernon had one too.   Tiny Bell Gardens, Cudahy and Huntington Park haven't had any scandals themselves, but why not?  Put those six together, and you have one contiguous city of about 175,000 people covering about 16 square miles (a little bit bigger than nearby Downey), with a fair mix of residential and commercial.

Vernon managed to bribe its way out of forced disincorporation, but it should still be on the table at some point.

Here's a related question:

Wouldn't disincorporation into county-level administration (or not incorporating in the first place) serve as some sort of consolidation?  That is, areas that are already not independent not making a move to change that, but to rather serve as one of many discrete suburbs without municipal government entirely.  (This is I think why residents in Arden have resisted becoming their own city instead of remaining a part of Sacramento County's unincorporated area)

It does, but the reason for incorporation is often to resist annexation by a neighboring city.   Just had that happen with Sunset Beach a few years ago, which got gobbled up by Huntington Beach.  Desirable areas (which Vernon would count as due to its solid tax base and very low number of residents to consume services) would be prime annexation targets - Los Angeles probably would have moved to start annexing Vernon within seconds of its disincorporation, had it happened.   As would all of its other neighbors, probably.   

Arden and Sunset Beach are both good examples of tax policy driving incorporation and annexation.  Arden rejected the idea of annexation because it feared its taxes would go up if it did so.  Sunset Beach unsuccessfully resisted annexation because of the same reason - it feared a tax increase would be the result of its annexation - to the point that it tried to incorporate itself as a separate city (which would have been Orange County's smallest) instead.

[02 Park Ave]

In New Jersey, local school districts should be merged into county-wide dictricts.

[Pete from Boston]

In New Jersey, local school districts should be merged into county-wide dictricts.

This is where you might run into the most opposition of all.  We're talking about counties of half a million to a million that have some excellent (and some very bad) school systems.  The residents of the former are not going to just roll over and be folded in with the latter.

Can you imagine Cherry Hill and Collingswood agreeing to be part of a school district with Camden?  Essex Fells agreeing to join in with Newark?  The lawyers live in the former towns.  It won't happen.

School districts were one of the primary causes of "boroughitis" (the 1890s explosion of municipal fragmentation in New Jersey).  Poor farmers didn't want higher taxes to pay for burgeoning school, light, water, etc. districts in growing villages in their townships.  Ironically, many of the seceded areas grew urbanized, duplicated those districts, and helped create the epidemic of bureaucracy New Jersey has today.

[The Nature Boy]

A friend of mine proposed an idea to me that I'll forward to you all and see if it makes sense:

Why have Detroit "annex" Oakland and Macomb Counties (as well as the rest of Wayne County) in Michigan? Create an NYC style borough system where Oakland, Macomb and Wayne become boroughs of Detroit. It would allow Detroit to capture tax revenue from its very affluent suburbs and might actually help the city.

I don't know enough about the Detroit area to comment either way but it seemed like an interesting thought.

[kurumi]

Milford should get with the times and merge with New Milford. 

"Old and Busted Milford" :-)

[FightingIrish]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned all those notorious tiny "Mayor's Court" towns littering Ohio, some of which are a bit shady. The state government has been working to take power from some of them, such as Linndale, just outside of Cleveland, which makes the majority of its revenue from a speed trap on I-71 (that cuts through a few hundred feet of the town and has no direct exit), as well as on the main through street of the town itself. Then there's the notorious example of New Rome, which had been run like a family fiefdom for decades with scant few municipal elections and a poorly qualified police force that would pull over and ticket passing motorists for ridiculous violations such as dirty tail lights. Thankfully, the state dissolved the town entirely a few years back after many years of internal corruption and turned it over to the neighboring township.

[FightingIrish]

A friend of mine proposed an idea to me that I'll forward to you all and see if it makes sense:

Why have Detroit "annex" Oakland and Macomb Counties (as well as the rest of Wayne County) in Michigan? Create an NYC style borough system where Oakland, Macomb and Wayne become boroughs of Detroit. It would allow Detroit to capture tax revenue from its very affluent suburbs and might actually help the city.

I don't know enough about the Detroit area to comment either way but it seemed like an interesting thought.

I can't imagine Detroit having any kind of power to do that. The city is very weak and completely broke. And nobody in the neighboring suburbs would go along with that -  they'd merely up and move farther away as opposed to living in the Detroit city limits.

[bandit957]

A friend of mine proposed an idea to me that I'll forward to you all and see if it makes sense:

Why have Detroit "annex" Oakland and Macomb Counties (as well as the rest of Wayne County) in Michigan? Create an NYC style borough system where Oakland, Macomb and Wayne become boroughs of Detroit. It would allow Detroit to capture tax revenue from its very affluent suburbs and might actually help the city.

I don't know enough about the Detroit area to comment either way but it seemed like an interesting thought.

I can't imagine Detroit having any kind of power to do that. The city is very weak and completely broke. And nobody in the neighboring suburbs would go along with that -  they'd merely up and move farther away as opposed to living in the Detroit city limits.

If I lived in the city of Detroit, I wouldn't want it. Isn't this what's ruined Toronto?

The central cities have as much of a right to self-rule as everyone else.

[Pete from Boston]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned all those notorious tiny "Mayor's Court" towns littering Ohio, some of which are a bit shady. The state government has been working to take power from some of them, such as Linndale, just outside of Cleveland, which makes the majority of its revenue from a speed trap on I-71 (that cuts through a few hundred feet of the town and has no direct exit), as well as on the main through street of the town itself. Then there's the notorious example of New Rome, which had been run like a family fiefdom for decades with scant few municipal elections and a poorly qualified police force that would pull over and ticket passing motorists for ridiculous violations such as dirty tail lights. Thankfully, the state dissolved the town entirely a few years back after many years of internal corruption and turned it over to the neighboring township.

Isn't this similar to the New York village courts? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/nyregion/25courts.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Some of the courtrooms are not even courtrooms: tiny offices or basement rooms without a judge's bench or jury box. Sometimes the public is not admitted, witnesses are not sworn to tell the truth, and there is no word-for-word record of the proceedings.

Nearly three-quarters of the judges are not lawyers, and many – truck drivers, sewer workers or laborers – have scant grasp of the most basic legal principles. Some never got through high school, and at least one went no further than grade school.

...

The examination found overwhelming evidence that decade after decade and up to this day, people have often been denied fundamental legal rights. Defendants have been jailed illegally. Others have been subjected to racial and sexual bigotry so explicit it seems to come from some other place and time. People have been denied the right to a trial, an impartial judge and the presumption of innocence.

In 2003 alone, justices disciplined by the state included one in Montgomery County who had closed his court to the public and let prosecutors run the proceedings during 20 years in office. Another, in Westchester County, had warned the police not to arrest his political cronies for drunken driving, and asked a Lebanese-American with a parking ticket if she was a terrorist. A third, in Delaware County, had been convicted of having sex with a mentally retarded woman in his care.

[SP Cook]

In WV, cities and towns abuse citizens in several ways. 

- Starting a few years ago our Supreme Court misread an obscure law to allow cities to charge a "user fee" (income tax) to non-residents.  The cities, of course, proceded to waste the money and have never shown what any non-resident actually "uses" in the city. 

- Then, rather than simply repealing the law in question, the Legislature granted "home rule" to these cities, in return for promising to eliminate the income tax and the longstanding "B&O tax", which was a business income tax on the gross, not net.  This caused the cities to add a sales tax and forget about their promises relative to the other taxes.

- The net effect of these has been to end all further annexiations.  No individual or citizen is going to volunteer to be incorporated into a city.  Growth, in the few places that are growing, is in unincorporated suburbs with county based services.

-  Smaller towns are pretty much just speed traps.  WV allows towns to hire cops with no training what so ever, and then get on the 2 year waiting list to attend the academy (at town expense).  When Barney gets to the top of the list, the town fires him and he moves to the next town and the cop in that town moves to the other.  No ability to do anything but random tax.  "Judges" are non-lawyer city workers without any legal training or ethics.

- In WV cities do virtually nothing for the citizen.  Most water and sewer services are handled by either PSDs or by for-profit companies, as are most garbage service.  Schools are a county based system.  Serious useful police work is done by the county sheriff or the state police.  Roads, carrying a number (and a vast majority of city streets carry a number) are 100% state DOH responsibility.  EMS services are either for-profit or county based, mostly.  Fire departments are often city based, but counties can set up paid departments too and many have and they do the same job.  Cities do virtually nothing  for people but take their money.

[bandit957]

Cities do virtually nothing  for people but take their money.

This is what counties in northern Kentucky have become. That's why I think cities in Kentucky should be allowed to secede from the county if certain criteria are met. To be able to secede, a city should be above a certain population level, and have most of its population residing in a high-density area.

[dcbjms]

IMO, Rhode Island is one of those places that should go full steam ahead with municipal amalgamation, considering the state of things here.  Probably go for the regional municipality concept in this case, too, as in several other areas in Canada.

[bing101]

What about West Sacramento in Yolo County and  Sacramento city in Sacramento County

Theres South San Francisco in San Mateo County but San Francisco in City/County.

How often does a name of a city is in different counties. But I am surprised that they never considered being consolidated  or annexed by the main cities.
I'm surprised that Piedmont and Alameda city was never Annexed by Oakland.
Also American Canyon I'm surprised that Vallejo or Napa never annexed that area.

Another factor Suisun city and Fairfield are officially separate cities but never merged.

But then again there had to be data saying that all these moves are bad economically.

[FightingIrish]

What about West Sacramento in Yolo County and  Sacramento city in Sacramento County

Theres South San Francisco in San Mateo County but San Francisco in City/County.

How often does a name of a city is in different counties. But I am surprised that they never considered being consolidated  or annexed by the main cities.
I'm surprised that Piedmont and Alameda city was never Annexed by Oakland.
Also American Canyon I'm surprised that Vallejo or Napa never annexed that area.

Another factor Suisun city and Fairfield are officially separate cities but never merged.

But then again there had to be data saying that all these moves are bad economically.

I'm sure many of those cities were offered the opportunity to annex, but turned it down, due to the desire to remain autonomous.

[kkt]

In California, the 19th century legislature wanted to be sure San Francisco wasn't too powerful compared to the rest of the state.  So they split San Mateo County off from San Francisco County, and made a law that a city can't cross county lines.

[triplemultiplex]

In California, the 19th century legislature wanted to be sure San Francisco wasn't too powerful compared to the rest of the state.  So they split San Mateo County off from San Francisco County, and made a law that a city can't cross county lines.

I find that hilarious given the size of counties in SoCal.

[kkt]

In California, the 19th century legislature wanted to be sure San Francisco wasn't too powerful compared to the rest of the state.  So they split San Mateo County off from San Francisco County, and made a law that a city can't cross county lines.

I find that hilarious given the size of counties in SoCal.

Yeah.  Back then, I think the biggest community in SoCal was San Pedro, which was all about shipping animal hides.

[silverback1065]

As a result of Unigov, Beech Grove, Speedway, Southport, Cumberland and Lawrence (and a few other random areas) are all not a part of Indianapolis.  Personally I think at least Southport and Lawrence should be a part of Indianapolis, Lawrence is a downtownless area of Marion county that no one even notices isn't part of Indy proper, the same can be said of Southport.  Avon should also be part of Indianapolis, another downtownless suburb, but I believe can't ever happen because Indianapolis cannot annex outside of Marion County as a stipulation of Unigov.

[kkt]

In California, the 19th century legislature wanted to be sure San Francisco wasn't too powerful compared to the rest of the state.  So they split San Mateo County off from San Francisco County, and made a law that a city can't cross county lines.

Well today San Jose is a powerful city in Northern California.

Wait was this law about San Francisco enacted around the time the State Capital moved to Sacramento. I remember there was a story of Benicia was the Capital of California.

Capitols: 
San Jose Nov. 1849-May 1851.
Vallejo Jan. 1852-Feb. 1853, except temporarily in Sacramento Jan.-May 1852.
Benicia Feb. 1853-Feb. 1854.
Sacramento Feb. 1854-present, except temporarily in San Francisco in 1862 due to flooding in Sacto.

San Mateo County was split from S.F. in 1856

[TheStranger]

Theres South San Francisco in San Mateo County but San Francisco in City/County.

South San Francisco does not even border San Francisco and was founded decades after San Mateo County split off from San Francisco County.

[bing101]

Theres South San Francisco in San Mateo County but San Francisco in City/County.

South San Francisco does not even border San Francisco and was founded decades after San Mateo County split off from San Francisco County.

True Brisbane, CA, Daly City, CA do border San Francisco.