Metropolitan Consolidation Success: Returning to the Roots of Local Government Reform

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the values underlying the decision to consolidate Kansas City, Kansas, with Wyandotte County, Kansas. Analysis of the consolidation effort reveals that the principal factor behind the successful consolidation was the traditional Reform Era value of accountability, both in terms of a reformed professional personnel system and a professional, programmatic budgetary system. INTRODUCTION On April 1, 1997, the voters of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, decided to consolidate the city and county governments into a unified city/county structure. The decision by over 60 percents of the voters to support consolidation was remarkable, considering it was the first official referendum ever to occur in the state of Kansas and only one of thirty-three consolidated city/county governments in the United States. The Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, case was also unique because it was just one of four consolidations to occur in the 1990s.2 The Consolidation Study Commission (CSC) (1997) held the first of a ten-month series of weekly meetings on May 15, 1996. During the course of over thirty public meetings, there emerged several reasons why Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, should consolidate, including high tax rates, population loss, a decline in household incomes, political patronage, and a need for improved service provision. Citizens presented arguments in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity but, most importantly, accountability. The commission then decided that the city's long-term fiscal stress could be addressed more effectively by a more accountable, unified government structure. The vote that followed consolidation on September 9, 1997, resulted in a sweep by reform candidates into mayoral and county commissioner positions on the Unified Government Board (UGB), including the former mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, a consolidation reformer who was elected to head the Unified Government, and five of her former council members. Not one of the former county officials who opposed reform and then ran for the UGB was elected. Both elections demonstrate that citizens desired a dramatic change in the way local government operated within Wyandotte County. What could account for the overwhelming support by citizens within Wyandotte County for such a move to radically restructure their form of local government? The authors first present the history of government reform in Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, leading up to consolidation, including an overview of the sociopolitical background. Then they briefly survey the main perspectives within consolidation theory, examining the key values emphasized in each view and the role of those values in this case. The central focus of the article is on how the fundamental issue of accountability was the crucial and deciding factor favoring city/county consolidation. Background of the Wyandotte County Area Wyandotte County is an ethnically and racially diverse Midwestern area established by European immigrant forefathers and is a mixture of Irish, Croatian, Polish, Russian, Slovakian, and German heritage. It also has a rich African American heritage as an established station on the Underground Railroad and subsequently a magnet for former slaves from the South. More recent immigrants include Hispanics and Southeast Asians. Based on 1990 U.S. Census data, the distribution within the county is 64.2% white, 27.3% black, 6.7% Hispanic, and 1.1% Asian. Kansas City, Kansas, has a history of aggressively annexing outlying townships. The town of Wyandotte was founded in 1858. The town of Kansas City, Kansas, was founded in 1869 and was incorporated as a city in 1872. In 1885, the towns of Armourdale, Wyandotte, and Armstrong were combined and incorporated into Kansas City, Kansas. Argentine was annexed in 1910 and the community of Rosedale in 1922. In 1966, 60 square miles of incorporated land in rural western Wyandotte County were annexed. …