TOM DORSEY / Salina Journal Former Saline County Sheriff Darrell Wilson addresses the Saline County Commission on Tuesday morning about his views on the study of consolidating the city of Salina and Saline County.

By SHARON MONTAGUE  Salina Journal

They didn't say no, but they didn't say yes, either. Instead, Saline County commissioners voted at Tuesday's meeting to place the issue of appointing a city-county task force to study consolidation on the agenda of an upcoming quarterly meeting with Salina city commissioners.

That was enough, though, for members of a League of Women Voters committee that recommended the consolidation task force.

"I am very pleased," Ann Zimmerman, a member of the committee, said after the meeting. "We'll see what happens."

Previously, city commissioners endorsed the plan.

County commissioners didn't say for sure exactly when they'll take up the consolidation task force with city commissioners.

After the Tuesday meeting, Commissioner Craig Stephenson said several issues already have been slated for discussion at the next joint meeting, scheduled for Oct. 30. If that agenda is too full, he said, the discussion about the task force could be delayed until the January joint meeting.

Stephenson made it clear during the meeting that discussion doesn't mean approval.

"We could discuss it at the meeting and it could go no further," he said.

Tuesday's meeting was unusually well attended, with about a dozen people staying for the portion dedicated to a public hearing on the consolidation task force.

Zimmerman told commissioners that her committee sees formation of a joint task force as the best way to thoroughly study the issue.

A study committee of the League of Women Voters only scratched the surface and came up with more questions than answers.

Darrell Wilson, who worked for the Salina Police Department for 22 years and served 12 years as sheriff, said he doesn't see problems with the current city and county governments. But he said that if a task force isn't formed and the issue isn't debated, nothing ever will be settled.

Gary Swartzendruber, the Democratic candidate for the District 1 county commission seat held by Mike White, said he would favor a study if the task force included rural residents and if the study was thorough, done at no cost to taxpayers and led to a nonbinding vote of the public.

He said the study also should include a look at consolidation failures and successes in other communities.

To not form the task force, he said, "seems to me to be short-sighted and narrow-minded."

The possibility of the city's rules infiltrating the county concerns Tim Howison, a local developer.

"The city has 10,000-plus rules, and everywhere you go there are new rules and regulations," he told county commissioners.

He fears that if the city and county consolidated, some of the city's rules and regulations regarding developments would seep into the county, making county development more difficult and costly.

"If you see those requirements in the county, you won't see development," he said.

We already cooperate

Randy Duncan, the Republican candidate for White's county commission seat, said Salina and Saline County already cooperate and collaborate on several efforts, including the Salina-Saline County Health Department, the Salina-Saline County Animal Shelter, the emergency dispatch center and the City-County Building.

Because the county attorney, treasurer, register of deeds, clerk and sheriff are elected by and serve at the will of the people, county government is responsive, Duncan said.

He fears a loss of contact with government if consolidation is pursued, and he doesn't favor formation of a task force.

Commissioner Sherri Barragree said she, too, favors the county form of government, and she thinks Saline County already operates as efficiently as possible.

But she seconded a Stephenson motion to talk to city commissioners about formation of a task force.

"I think we need to have an open and frank discussion about it," Stephenson said, adding that such discussion wouldn't be possible unless both the city and county were represented.

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