League of Women Voters
of Salina, Kansas

Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas successfully merged their governments, while Topeka and Shawnee County's attempt was not approved by voters. Even between these two places, there was a big difference. According to Jacquot, the ease for Wyandotte and Kansas City, KS to merge was partly because their geographic areas were almost identical already. She also said that comparatively, Salina has much more unincorporated area in relation to incorporated than in that case. One of the reasons that Topeka's case failed was the dual majority vote that is required. With the current law, a majority within the city must approve it as well as a majority within the county. The consolidation passed within the city, but not the county in Topeka/Shawnee's case. If it had been an overall majority of the total population to pass, the measure would have gone through. Moler said the whole idea of consolidation can evoke feelings between the two areas as it did in Topeka and Shawnee County. "We believe it turned it into an "us" versus "them" situation. You had the folks in the rural area, seeing them as one area and one group, and then you had the city residents seeing themselves as another group when the whole idea, of course, of a consolidation is to bring everyone together as a single group with shared goals."

Community members were able to ask questions of the panelists. The public questioned the effect consolidation would have on city employees, taxes, and land use. The panel answered that for most of these questions, the answer would depend on what route the city and county chose to take. Former Senator Kerr explained that these could be addressed by each city and county if they chose to consolidate. Kerr also said he had been working with Senator Pete Brungardt on legislation to change the current laws about consolidation. He said legislation will be introduced next week to give more of the power to consolidate to the local governments without having so many state restrictions.