Now that both the Durham City Council and County Commission have approved funding for a cost-benefit analysis of the potential city-county merger, officials are jumping to the next step in the merger process: determining exactly who will serve on the charter commission.
Tuesday night's city council meeting finalized the hiring of DMG Maximus, a Chicago-based consulting firm, to investigate the merger's possible repercussions. After unanimously approving the $93,900 analysis, the council members discussed Mayor Nick Tennyson's presentation about the possible composition of the charter commission, which will develop a blueprint for the merged government. Officials hope to have a November referendum on the task force's plan.
The city council members and county commissioners will meet together Jan. 31 to determine how to form the charter commission.
At Tuesday's meeting, Tennyson suggested a system-which he devised jointly with County Commission Chair MaryAnn Black-where county organizations would nominate people to serve on the task force. The city council and county commission would then approve or reject these choices and add several at-large members to the group.
Along with this plan, Tennyson provided a potential list of 26 organizations that would be able to nominate members. His list, which included several business, environmental and political groups and the local universities, drew some criticism from council members.
Pamela Blyth, for example, voiced concern about having a task force guided by political interest-an issue that has already come up in the county commission's discussions about whether elected officials should be included on it.
"It's important that it be citizen-driven and not political-driven," the council member said after the meeting. "[Political action committees] don't speak for broad [interests]. They speak for specific political interests."
Tennyson's memo partially addressed this issue by noting that "individuals are to be nominated as individuals, not as delegates from any group."
And some council members said that because political action groups are members of the Durham community, they deserve some voice in merger discussions.
"They're part of the diversity of opinions in Durham," said council member Lewis Cheek after the meeting. "Everybody has political ideas.... What you hope is that people will come into the process, regardless of what group they come from, with an open mind."
Along with discussing the types of people on the charter commission, council members have begun talking about how many should serve. Suggestions for the size of the group have ranged from 20 to 50.
Several officials argue that a larger group is needed to adequately represent Durham's diverse population. "To bring the type of inclusiveness that this project [requires], we really need to have as many... as is reasonably possible," said Mayor Pro Tempore Howard Clement, who supports a 50-member commission divided into six or seven subcommittees.
Likewise, Blyth cautioned against excluding any portion of the population. "If any group or number of groups feel disenfranchised as a result of the process, then [the merger referendum] will fail."
But for many officials, the need for efficiency counterbalances the need for equitable representation. "Generally... a smaller number of people is preferable in terms of getting things done," said Cheek, who suggested a group of about 35 or 40.
At a Jan. 10 meeting, county commissioners raised questions about whether elected officials should serve on the charter commission, and city council members are also looking into this issue.
Tennyson maintains that elected officials should not have a place on the task force, noting that office-holders could be overburdened by what will definitely be a time-consuming project. He added that officials' viewpoints could obscure those of the other members. "The inclusion of elected officials in any body of citizens has a tendency to create either greater or artificially less weight [for their opinions]," Tennyson said.
Council member Brenda Burnette, who disapproves of the merger altogether, agreed with Tennyson to some extent, saying that eliminating public officials from the commission would help stop the potential for top-down manipulation.
On the other hand, Blyth noted that officials would bring much-needed government experience to a committee that will be designing a government. "There's just a crucial perspective you have," said Blyth, who is still undecided on this question.
Still, others said, elected officials will have opportunity for input, even if they are not actually members of the commission. "The charter commission isn't going to operate in a vacuum," Cheek said.
Christine Parkins contributed to this story.
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