Portune wants changes in county government

(Cincinnat Enquirer)

Portune wants changes in county government

Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune hopes so.

Portune will ask his colleagues this week to create a task force to study alternate forms of county government.

The theory is that streamlining or changing the structure of county government may be able to help cash-strapped Hamilton County survive the recession.

"We've got to consider some major reformations to the existing form of county government, major consolidation of services or other alternatives," said Portune. "This is going to be a problem for several years."

Portune's proposal is just one of several consolidation conversations afoot in Hamilton County as the government faces a $17 million budget deficit next year.

Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis thinks Cincinnati and Hamilton County should merge to form a metropolitan government, a mega-city with a single police department, single fire department and so on.

A government efficiency task force is examining a potential merger between the city and county 911 systems.

Commissioner Greg Hartmann has asked Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory to discuss a merger of the city and county's prosecutorial staffs in municipal court.

Portune has asked the county administrator to aggressively pursue talks with Hamilton County's 49 political jurisdictions about the feasibility of combining services from dispatching to recycling to purchasing.

For most of the proposals it is unlikely any savings could be achieved in time to plug the 2010 budget hole.

But County Administrator Patrick Thompson said the county's budgetary problems are going to be long-term.

That means now is the time to consider longer-term solutions, officials argue.

Portune first raised the question of reforming the government during budget talks last year, but didn't present a formal proposal.

Under the proposal he'll put forward this week, the task force would look at all alternative forms of government allowed under Ohio law. The team would provide recommendations in April and the question of whether to change the government structure could go to voters in November.

Under the current form of government, three county commissioners and several elected office holders run the government but can't create laws. They can only carry out the county's state mandated functions like running jails and courts.

Ohio law allows an alternative form of government in which there is an executive officer and up to 21 commissioners who can make laws. No Ohio county has adopted that alternative form.

Another option is a charter form of government, which Summit County adopted in 1979. There, the government is run by an 11-member elected county council and a county executive.'

A proposal to reform county government is currently underway in Cuyahoga County. A committee of the County Commission Association of Ohio is also studying the issue state-wide. Portune is on that committee.

The other two commissioners, Greg Hartmann and David Pepper have been open to ideas that will provide long-term solutions for the county's budget problems.

"We have a government right now that we simply cannot afford," said Hartmann at a recent commission meeting at which Portune discussed his ideas. "The different layers of government in Hamilton County just cost too much.," said Hartmann. "We have to get through next years budget, but we also have to re-tool government. I'm looking forward to working with you on that."