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Posted: 8:52 PM Sep 16, 2008
Metro Government a Success in Louisville
A couple of weeks ago Kanawha County leaders traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to get a glimpse of metro government.
Reporter: Will Jones Email Address: Will.Jones@wsaz.com |
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WSAZ) -- A couple of weeks ago Kanawha County leaders traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to get a glimpse of metro government.
It's still unclear how metro government would work in Kanawha County, but the goal is to make government more efficient.
Metro leaders in Louisville say it's working there and it could have the same benefits here, but it wasn’t easy to get the process started.
It took four votes before metro government became a reality in Louisville, and Mayor Jerry Abramson says that vote ended the long-standing battle between the city and the county.
"For years we spent a lot of time fighting city against county, wasting time, we finally decided it was a more efficient way to deliver local services," the Mayor said.
When Jefferson County and Louisville formed one regional government in 2003 nearly a thousand jobs were eliminated.
Most of those positions were vacant, only 125 people lost their jobs.
"How many directors of finance do you have, the county had one and the city had one, now we have just one," the Mayor said.
Metro leaders say the one government, one voice approach is helping economic development.
Mayor Abramson says, "When we get a group to decide to bring their operation to Louisville they have said what a pleasure it is to work with one person in charge, one government set of regulations."
The merger also brought about a change in crime fighting.
Jefferson County and Louisville Police Departments formed one big police agency, The Louisville Metro Police Department.
Police Chief Robert White says the combined department is much more efficient, "We were able to erase the lines of the county versus the city. Now we are just one metropolitan department and permitted to allocate our resources much more efficiently."
Efficient is a word heard all too often from metro leaders, but they say it's not just talk, it's about action.
Metro government is not a done deal in Kanawha County voters will have to approve it.
County Commissioner Kent Carper says it could be on the ballot as early as 2010.
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