As Durham voters slashed the size of their city council Tuesday, talk of downsizing local government even further began to surface. The overwhelming support for the referendum-which lowered the number of council members from 13 to seven-could set the stage for discussion on another historically controversial, highly debated topic: the merger of Durham city and county governments.
As the referendum date loomed, both sides in the reduction debate tossed the question of a possible city-county merger into the mix. A recent poll by The News & Observer of Raleigh showed that 57 percent of Durham voters supported a merger while 20 percent opposed. About 23 percent of those polled were undecided. The poll also revealed that 61 percent of referendum supporters and 57 percent of opponents both favored a merger.
Reduction proponents said a smaller city council would make a merger easier, while opponents argued that the measure would create divisions within the community.
David Smith, chairman of the conservative group Friends of Durham, said he hopes the reduction of the city council will be the first step toward merger. "Our group... has without exception favored the merger," he said. "The current city council refused to even study the merger, so I hope the new restructured city council will consider it."
Some officials, however, down played any link between the two issues before Tuesday's vote. "People try to relate them," said city councillor Brenda Burnette, an opponent of the referendum. She declined to comment on the merger talk. "I just want to concentrate on this vote Tuesday. [The merger] is not exactly an outside issue but it's a different issue."
A city-county merger has been a hot topic for over 60 years. The Chamber of Commerce first introduced the idea in the 1930s, and the last time a merger came to public vote was in 1974. At the time, it was rejected overwhelmingly because voters feared a merger of city and county schools-which eventually happened in 1992.
Over 80 percent of Durham County residents live in the city of Durham, the county's only municipality. Several city and county departments-planning, inspections and emergency communications-have already merged.
Consolidation of duplicate services and the accompanying savings are two advantages of a possible merger. Others include eliminating the bureaucracy of dealing with two separate governments and the general downsizing of government.
"I've been hankering for the merger since 1971," said city councillor Howard Clement. "I think that two government bodies in Durham County is one too many. It's just not citizen-oriented. The two systems just maintain incumbency.... People are tripping over themselves, not knowing which government to turn to."
"It would eliminate the confusion of zoning and rezoning cases," added county commissioner Joe Bowser, who also shied from linking merger talks to Tuesday's referendum. "Furthermore, I think we could devise a fairer tax code that would decrease taxes for most citizens but increase taxes for businesses, especially those in the Research Triangle Park that are now shielded from Durham city taxes by state government."
Merger opponents counter that the savings from consolidation of services might not be significant. They also fear the loss of voice in local government, tax increases and structural kinks in the bureaucratic system.
"On the surface, it sounds great, but we haven't gotten down to the nitty-gritty as to how the government would be set up," county commissioner Becky Heron told The News & Observer. Heron could not be reached for comment by The Chronicle. "What would the structure be? Who's going to be in charge of human services, fire and police?"
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