By DARRIN STINEMAN  Salina Journal

One piece of cake down, one tough cookie to go.

The League of Women Voters, which is seeking to put together a bilateral task force to study the value of city-county consolidation, asked the Salina City Commission for its blessing at a Monday study session.

The five-member commission gave unanimous support, which became apparent when the idioms started flying about 15 minutes into the meeting.

"You're preaching to the choir," Commissioner John Vanier told the four members of the League who made the request. "It takes two to dance, and the girl we want to take to the dance doesn't want to go with us."

"We were invited to this concert, and we haven't been invited to the other one yet," League president Gina McDonald said, "but we're working on it."

The, uh, girl, who, uh, hasn't invited the League of Women Voters to the concert would be the Saline County Commission.

League representatives met with Saline County officials after the city commission study session and set up an 11:15 a.m. appointment to make the same presentation to the county commission on Monday, McDonald said.

Fairly unenthusiastic

By all accounts, that sell will be considerably tougher. The three county commissioners -- Mike White, Craig Stephenson and Sherri Barragree -- have not been enthusiastic about the possibility of city-county consolidation when the issue has come up at public meetings.

Members of the county commission already have taken part in League forums on the issue and invited its representatives to meet with county staff members "to educate them on exactly what the county does," Stephenson said Monday evening.

Stephenson wouldn't offer his thoughts on the League's plan to establish the task force.

"I'm interested in listening to their presentation," he said. "I can't comment now without hearing their presentation."

The League of Women voters conducted its own study of consolidation but didn't determine an official position, because it found that the question of whether it works is too specific to each location.

But rather than let the matter die, the League is looking to put together the task force -- preferably with the support of both the city and the county.

No steamroller here

One of the reasons the League wants to keep the fire burning is because of an informal poll it conducted at the Tri-Rivers Fair last summer, McDonald told the city commission.

"One of the questions we asked at the fair was, 'Would you like to see the county of Saline and the city of Salina establish a joint task force to consider consolidation?' We had 66 percent of respondents say, 'Yes,' " McDonald said. "We don't feel like this is something that we're pushing all by ourselves."

Ann Zimmerman, a member of the League's group that did the original study, said the group doesn't have an agenda other than to make sure the issue is looked at and that the people decide whether they want it.

"We are not trying to be a steamroller for consolidation," she told the commission. "We have our own questions about the value of total consolidation, but we don't have enough information yet to really have an opinion about whether it's a great thing or not."

Drop city government?

The League group said there are many misconceptions about what consolidation would mean. Mayor Donnie Marrs agreed.

"Most people make the assumption that if you have city-county consolidation that you're doing away with the county and you have a city that's basically expands its borders to the county line," Marrs said. "There's nothing that says we can't get rid of city government and live under a county structure."

The commissioners agreed the concept is at least worth a look.

"Those of us with the persuasion that prefer to see less government and less control seem to ask the question, 'Why wouldn't we want to consolidate these two governmental entities that have all this overlap?' " Marrs said.

Commissioner Debbie Divine suggested the city commission vote on a formal position at a future commission meeting, but the rest of the group thought it would be best to wait until the League makes its presentation to the county.

"I think, Mr. Mayor, that our most favorable outcome would be to have a joint task force," McDonald said to Marrs and the city commissioners, "but we certainly would consider it an acceptable outcome to have you lead and the county either follow or not."

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