RODRICK REIDSMA / Salina Journal Salina City Commissioner Debbie Devine raises concerns to Dennis Lauver of the Salina Chamber of Commerce during the quarterly city-county joint meeting Thursday.

By DARRIN STINEMAN  Salina Journal

For the past few years, the Salina City Commission and Saline County Commission have had quarterly joint meetings with a goal of developing cooperation and common ground.

There was little of either at Thursday's joint meeting at the City-County Building.

The discord started with, of all things, the approval of the previous meeting's minutes, which typically is a formality that takes only a few seconds.

City Commissioner Alan Jilka opposed approval of the minutes, calling them "fairly lame," because several important discussion points from the Dec. 18 meeting were left out.

"I thought there was a lot of stuff, that if it was mildly critical of the county structure, was edited out of them," Jilka said of the minutes, which were the responsibility of the county because it was the host of that particular meeting.

"Now that we've set the tone for the meeting," County Commission Chairman Craig Stephenson said, "I call for the question on the minutes."

The rest of the city commission joined Jilka in opposing approval of the minutes, and the vote to approve them failed.

Stephenson then said the minutes from the meeting prior to the one in December -- which were the city's responsibility -- "were equally as lame, but the county commission had the dignity not to criticize the minute-taker."

That was before the governing bodies even got to the subject of city-county consolidation, which has been a source of sharp disagreement.

And now, the 'C' word

The League of Women Voters conducted a year-long study of city-county consolidation in 2005 and 2006. It came to the conclusion that it would be best to put together a task force with city and county representation to look into the matter. League representative Ann Zimmerman made a presentation at Thursday's meeting and asked the boards to consider approving resolutions approving the formation of a task force.

County Commissioner Randy Duncan followed Zimmerman's presentation by outlining the reasons for his opposition to consolidation.

"We have a really unique situation in Salina and Saline County where we have a lot of collaboration, we have a lot of cooperation," he said. "I made no great secret when I ran for the office of Saline County commissioner that I was not in favor of consolidation. I made that viewpoint very well known as a citizen and as a candidate. I think we have a system here that works and works well.

"I think (the task force) is a moot point, because I think we have a system here in the county and the city that works well through cooperation and collaboration, and I'm certainly not one who's going to push consolidation, because I'm not in favor of it."

Mayor Donnie Marrs responded by saying, "Randy, I believe that you've made your opinion known. If there weren't any opinions in opposition to yours, then it wouldn't be a topic for discussion. So I hope you can appreciate that as well."

City Commissioner Debbie Divine then said, "I'm not going to say I'm for or against consolidation. I think the whole point of this effort is to study it and to establish a task force of citizens to look into the matter and, yes, to applaud the areas where we have become much more efficient and cooperative and to examine areas where we aren't there yet.

"I think that's the whole point of this, not to say, 'Go for it!' or not."

Love isn't in the air

When the topic turned to expansion of improvements to South Ninth Street that will extend beyond the city limits -- again, love was not in the air.

The next two planned stages of South Ninth improvements -- which would be from just south of Belmont almost to Water Well Road -- carry an estimated price tag of $8.6 million. Marrs asked that the county consider paying for the part that will extend outside the city limits, which would be about half of the project.

"I asked to have this put on the agenda today because I wanted the county to be aware of the planning that's being put into place in regard to improvements in this corridor," Marrs said. "I also wanted to request on behalf of the majority of the Saline County citizens that live in Salina that Saline County consider paying for the improvements that are in the county, since the city is paying for the improvements that are in the city."

Stephenson responded by saying, "I think what we can say at this time is that we can take this request under advisement."

Later, Stephenson said, "I just don't want to see this be a dangerous precedent as we continue to look at other roadways that come into our community, specifically Magnolia, Markley, the bridge over Magnolia (at the Smoky Hill River). We've got plenty of issues as we get out into the rural areas, and as the city expands, I think its their due responsibility to take care of those areas."

We'll get back to you

Before closing the meeting, Divine wanted to see if the county commissioners could give the League of Women Voters an idea what to expect regarding the consolidation task force, which led to the following exchange:

Divine: "Can we give the League of Women Voters an expectation of when these resolutions might be forthcoming?"

Stephenson: "Sometime."

Marrs: "Sometime?"

Divine: "Within a month? Within 30 days?"

Stephenson: "I'm not going to commit to that at this time."

City Manager Jason Gage: "We could have a resolution on our end as quickly as you'd want to see it. It's fairly straightforward language for it."

Divine (to Stephenson): "Are we saying we're not going to do it? Let's be fair to the citizens of this county and say, 'Yes,' we're going to do it, or 'No,' we're not, and be done with it."

Stephenson: "I don't think that these meetings at any time were designed to be an action-item meeting. Debbie, you've been involved with these as many years as I have. We'll take them back to our representative governments and make those decisions at that time."

Divine: "Can we tell them you will give them an answer, yay or nay, within 30 days?"

Stephenson: "We will get back with the League of Women Voters at a future date."

Divine: "Thank you very much. I can see where consolidation and cooperation is always going to be limited."

Stephenson: "Thank you for your parting remarks, Debbie. I have a meeting in Manhattan."

Stephenson then got up to leave, but sat back down when Marrs pointed out that it would be the final joint meeting for him and Divine -- both who opted not to run for re-election -- and gave Divine an opportunity to share any final thoughts.

"I would like to encourage future commissions to continue on, in spite of the fact that sometimes they are difficult and sometimes they are fraught with statements that probably shouldn't be made in public," she said. "But I think the more we can meet and work together, the better off our chances are that we will actually accomplish something for the good of the community."

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