The Urge to Merge
By Duwayne Escobedo
Published Feb. 13, 2008
In 1967, Jacksonville and Duval County moved to consolidate their governments.
Three years later in 1970, Pensacola and Escambia County did not.
After debate raged almost two and a half years, 84,261 Jacksonville-Duval County voters went to the polls in August 1967 and an overwhelming 65 percent approved consolidation.
The consolidation vote in Pensacola and Escambia County drew 40,188 voters to the ballot boxes in November 1970. An overwhelming 75 percent rejected unifying the city and county governments into a single entity.
The positive impacts of that vote in Jacksonville-Duval were almost immediate.
Every road in Jacksonville was repaved within two years of consolidation. It began cleaning up St. Johns River by eliminating sewer outfalls that were dumping almost 20 million gallons of raw, untreated sewage a day. It invested $60 million into downtown redevelopment efforts that in turn attracted about $200 million in private construction. Fire and police service improved. It lowered property taxes each of the first nine years.
And the successes continue to this day.
For example, its “Better Jacksonville Plan” led to $2.2 billion for roads, environmental preservation, new libraries (The new downtown main library is the largest in Florida.), a baseball park and coliseum downtown among other projects.
Jacksonville, which grew to become the 46th largest metro area in the United States at 1.2 million residents, hosted the Super Bowl in 2004.
Because economic development was so successful at Cecil Field, which the military closed in 1995, more than 60 percent of residents in 2003 rejected the U.S. Navy returning there to use it as a jet base.
The property tax rate is 18.75 mills total, including the school district, which is the lowest in Florida.
Former Mayor Hans Tanzler was a key figure in pushing for consolidation and helping the newly structured government tackle widespread problems. He is quoted as saying in “Quiet Revolution,” a book by Richard Martin chronicling Jacksonville’s reformation: “God help us if it hadn’t passed. There would be absolute rubble and shambles.”
Meanwhile, Pensacola and Escambia County are viewed by many onlookers to have runaway and wasteful spending by its local governments, paralyzed or poor leadership and an economy lagging behind its neighbors.
In some respects, Pensacola today mirrors Jacksonville of the early 1960s.
Back then, Jacksonville had a declining city population, one that fell 9.7 percent between 1950 and 1965. Despite the decrease in population, city spending increased during that same span from $23.9 million to $94.8 million, or 300 percent. Its pollution and odor problems were known statewide. Its schools were so poor, all 15 of its high schools lost accreditation in 1964. And in 1966, four of nine councilman, two of five city commissioners, one of five county commissioners and city and county officials-11 public officials in all-were indicted by a grand jury on 142 counts of bribery and larceny.
Fast forward to 2008 in Pensacola. In 1960, the city’s population was 56,752. But in 2000 its population hit 56,255-a decrease of almost exactly 500 residents. Yet, from 1997 to 2007, the city’s property tax collections grew 105 percent to $15.5 million.
City Hall occupies prime waterfront property in downtown Pensacola.
In Escambia County, the population increased from 173,829 in 1960 to 294,410 in 2000, a 41 percent increase, or put another way, about an 1 percent increase each year for the past 40 years. However, its property tax collections increased 146 percent from 1997 to 2007 to $126 million.
And the county, recently completed a $30 million governmental complex in downtown.
Meanwhile, the city property tax rate is 4.598 mills, the county’s 8.017 and the school district’s 7.720, which is 20.335 mills total. City residents fork out 23.80 mills in property taxes, while county residents pay 16.47 mills.
Although locals can celebrate the $70 million public-private development of the Community Maritime Park on prime waterfront property downtown and the $300 million ongoing project to remove the Main Street sewage treatment plant from downtown to central Escambia County, city and county leaders have few other achievements worth highlighting in recent decades.
You want public corruption? There’s the indictment of four of five Escambia County commissioners on bribery and other charges that led to their removal from office by then-Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003.
In January 1965, 23 business leaders in Jacksonville met and drafted the Yates Manifesto. It asked the Florida Legislature to pass a measure to enable Duval County citizens to merge their governments into one body.
Let the history books show on Dec. 7, 2007, that 12 Pensacola community leaders traveled to Jacksonville and met with current and past officials there to discuss consolidation.
Those officials were: Ellis W. Bullock, EW Bullock Associates president; Mort O’Sullivan, managing partner of O’Sullivan Creel and Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce chairman; Dick Appleyard, Appleyard Agency president; Scott Remington, an attorney with Clark, Partington, Hart, Larry, Bond & Stackhouse; Jason Crawford, current president of Pensacola Young Professionals; Lois Benson, an Emerald Coast Utilities Authority board member; Escambia County Commissioner Gene Valentino; Joe Gilchrist, owner of the Flora-Bama Lounge; Dick Baker, a local developer and community activist; John Peacock, with Edward Jones and leader of the recent Strong Mayor initiative; Ed Ranelli, University of West Florida College of Business dean; and John Daniel, an attorney with Beggs & Lane.
Bullock, one of the chief organizers of the delegation, says as a Florida State University student he would travel in the early 1970s with friends who lived in Jacksonville.
“Jacksonville and Pensacola were both Navy towns,” he recalls. “There was very little difference. But they went with consolidation in the late 1960s and have never looked back. Its population and economy are booming. They’ve hosted the Super Bowl. Yes, they have problems but many hold the opinion that it’s one of the best run local governments in the United States.”
O’Sullivan says the fact-finding trip started with an overview of consolidated government from Rick Mullaney, who oversees Jacksonville’s 40-lawyer “judicial branch” as the general counsel.
“There wasn’t a person in our 12-member group who wasn’t sitting at the edge of his chair from the time he started talking to the time he ended an hour and a half later,” he says. “I was really impressed. The thing that dawned on me was, while it would be good to have efficiency in government and eliminate waste that is not a good enough reason to press forward. The compelling reason to me in the consideration of this is the potential for what it can do for economic development in our community.”
Another person the Pensacola group heard from was Gen. Jim Rinaman, a former general counsel of Jacksonville and considered the architect of consolidated government.
Rinaman admits he has spoken to hundreds of communities during the past four decades. But he estimates only between 10 to 15 percent actually succeeded in unifying their governments. It’s a structure he points out that’s modeled after the United States checks-and-balances system with its executive, legislative and judicial branches.
“It’s not a radical idea,” he says. “We certainly would not have an NFL team or the kind of success we’ve had in economic development and revitalizing downtown without consolidation. It allows you to become a community with everyone working together toward common goals and priorities. You can control your destiny a lot better.”
Still, city-county consolidation remains a rare occurrence with just 38 in existence out of the 3,043 county governments in the nation. The last major city to successfully unify was Louisville, Ky., in 2000. At the time, it was the first major city to consolidate in three decades.
And in Florida, 14 unsuccessful attempts have been made since the Jacksonville-Duval County merger in 1967. Among those attempts, Tallahassee and Leon County have failed four times, Gainesville and Alachua County three times and Tampa and Hillsborough County twice.
Mullaney says absent crisis, strong leadership and good statesmanship, the measure seems to lose. It also is resisted strongly by elected officials and those with business interests with them. It was critical that Mayor Tanzler and the sheriff of the time publicly supported consolidation, he says.
“You have entrenched interests who do not want to give up their power or access,” he says. “Elected officials do not want to give up their power and financial interests like they have in the current system and don’t want to go through the trouble to learn how to gain access again. I’m not saying that would be the challenge in Pensacola but that tends to be one of the main challenges.”
Jacksonville’s Rinaman and Mullaney both say Pensacola-Escambia seems to be a good candidate for unification since essentially Pensacola is the only municipality. Century, a small town in northern Escambia County, is also incorporated.
Some local officials, including Valentino and his fellow commissioner Grover Robinson, say they are very interested in unifying Pensacola and Escambia County.
“It’s about economic efficiency, political accountability and being more responsive to the people,” Valentino says of his support for consolidation. “I’ve come back from the Jacksonville trip with excitement and enthusiasm about the potential of consolidation for Escambia County. We all need to be less interested in our political fortunes and more interested in the financial betterment of the county.”
Robinson echoes Valentino.
“I’m absolutely open to it,” he says. “And I think most residents are in favor of seeing how it all works. We should do what’s most effective.”
Others like City Manger Tom Bonfield and Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby express caution and reservations about merging Pensacola and Escambia County.
Bonfield says there are “a lot of details” that need to be worked out before he can endorse such a plan.
“A lot of people who attribute all the successes (in Jacksonville) to consolidation are the ones who really wanted consolidation,” Bonfield says.
McNesby talks about merging communications and dispatch, operations of the jail and some other functions but stops short of backing consolidation wholesale.
“We’re going to be forced to think a little harder,” he says. “(Taxpayers) want less government. The mandate from the taxpayers of Escambia County is we must do that and I fully intend do that. What people are saying is we got to find better way to do things than we’re accustomed to doing.”
You won’t convince Mullaney or Rinaman that there’s a better system of local government. Mullaney, a Jacksonville native, says consolidation gives “a competitive advantage” to cities and counties that do merge.
Rinaman admits the system has some flaws, such as high pay for its 19 councilman and the exclusion of constitutional offices, such as the tax collector and property appraiser.
And Rinaman emphasizes that good leadership is still important. He points out that between 1980 and 1988 Jacksonville Mayor Jake Godbold and the city council took the city back to its pre-consolidation days, restoring cronyism, funding by districts, falling behind growth, the dismantling of the General Counsel’s Office and having indictments of public officials.
“I always say about our structure that it doesn’t matter, people matter,” he says. “If you don’t have good people, no matter how good the structure is, you’re not going to have success. If you have a good structure and good people, then there is nothing you can’t get done.”
Bullock says the next step is inviting Mullaney, Rinaman and others to come to Pensacola and to speak about Jacksonville’s experience with consolidation. He is currently organizing a public forum in March. Bullock and other consolidation proponents would also like to have a panel of media question the Jacksonville representatives in an open, televised forum.
“It’s something we need to pursue,” Bullock says. “Everything else seems to have adapted and evolved with the times. We have a government that hasn’t, but now we’re at a time when it is being asked to be more efficient and more responsive.”
O’Sullivan says he hopes Escambia County residents will take another look at consolidation. He points out that the Jacksonville process took about 40 months before it took effect in October 1968.
“It takes a lot of careful thought and analysis,” he says. “We need to invest a lot of time and decide if it’s something good that should happen. Once we get enough input, we’ll know if it’s really going to be better than what we have. In the end, the citizens can vote on it, if it’s offered as a choice.”
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Jacksonville-Duval County Consolidation
What does a consolidated government look like? Briefly, here’s the structure of Jacksonville’s, which began in October 1968.
Executive Branch: It consists of an elected strong mayor, similar to the president of the United States and governor of Florida. The mayor is not a member of the city council. The mayor oversees 10 executive branches that answer to him, such as Planning and Zoning, Parks and Recreation, Fire Department, etc. The mayor appoints each department head, which all must earn city council approval. The mayor sets policy and is able to advocate county-wide reforms. The mayor establishes the budget, which is subject to approval by the city council. The mayor and all elected officials in Jacksonville are subject to term limits.
Legislative Branch: The city council serves as the legislative branch and in Jacksonville is made up of 19 seats, which includes 14 district representatives and five at-large representatives. The makeup is representative of the population, with five African-American members. The council has the power to appropriate money and create committees to address issues. The council members earn $45,000 a year.
Judicial Branch: The Office of General Counsel operates like the judicial branch. The General Counsel is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council. The General Counsel may be removed by the mayor with the city council’s consent. The office has 40 lawyers in Jacksonville’s form of government. The General Counsel is the appointed counsel for every branch and department of consolidated government. The General Counsel has the legal authority to issue binding legal opinions on any matter that arises between branches and departments of the government. It essentially acts as a court to mediate disputes. The office is divided into five principal sections: general litigation, torts, employment, eminent domain and finance.
Independent Authorities: In addition, the consolidated government includes several independent authorities, including the Jacksonville Electric Authority, Jacksonville School District, Airport Authority, Seaport Authority, Transportation Authority, Housing Authority and Police and Fire Pension Authority.
Constitutional Offices: The five Constitutional Officers are excluded from the consolidated government.
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Web Extras
History of Jacksonville-Duval Unification Jim Rinaman, a former General Counsel of Jacksonville and architect of the consolidated government, gives an overview of the history, including
the pluses and minuses of the city’s experience.
38 City-County Consolidations A list of governments that have merged since 1805.
Merger Activity Lessons (pdf download) A report, “Lessons from 35 Years of City-County Consolidation Attempts,” by Suzanne M. Leland, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Kurt Thurmaier, Iowa State University, for Municipal Year Book 2006. It analyzes in-depth successful and unsuccessful mergers across the country.
Pensacola Delegation Notes on Jacksonville Meeting (pdf download) Scott Remington, an attorney with Pensacola firm Clark, Partington, Hart, Larry, Bond & Stackhouse, took notes on the 12-member Pensacola-Escambia County delegation’s meeting with past and present Jacksonville officials on consolidated government issues.
