Posted June 6, 201114 yr ....says the headline of this longish Dayton Daily News article on the recent city-county merger of Louisville, mainly the economic development benefits of merger.... ....Though the regional unemployment rate in April, 9.6 percent, was slightly higher than the 9.0 percent of the four-county Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area, there is a momentum here that is contagious. Manufacturing jobs are surging — three times the rate posted by the Dayton area in a recent year-to-year comparison. Four corporations have moved into Louisville since the merger, bringing more than a 1,000 jobs each, according to data from Greater Louisville, Inc. And when it comes to downtown redevelopment, there is almost no comparison, as evidenced by the $238 million KFC Yum! Center arena that opened in downtown Louisville last October.... Personally, I still think the Dayton region has some better fundamentals than Louisville due to having two big colleges with engineering and business programs, combined with the miltary R&D and IT sectors here. It seems this area, this Dayton region, is somewhat ahead when it comes to human capital And, in general, the school systems (the suburban systems) are superior to Louisvilles. But "they" (the DDN and certain political figures) keep on pushing this merger concept as a big benefit here, something that won't fly in a community as socioeconomically divided as the Dayton metro area. THe big fail here in Dayton, compared to Louisville and even most Ohio cities outside of Youngstown, has been keeping the downtown viable as a buisness location.
September 22, 201113 yr Dayton political activist and blogger David Esrati has a good, lengthy post on a somewhat hush-hush regionalism proposal or initiative being developed in the Dayton area: The Secret Group Trying to Do Regionalism Without Telling Anyone A group has been meeting to begin a regionalism movement in Montgomery County, and as always it’s being done behind closed doors because we, the people, aren’t smart enough to participate until they’ve planned and announced their grand strategy. Businesses have been contacted and asked to pledge money, and a non-profit 501c4 has been set up, and once they had enough pledges in hand, they were to crawl up the mount to ask the great Clay Mathile for his blessing and support. Only one problem: you don’t do regionalism behind closed doors. Ever. More at the link, including additional links to .pdfs discussing the proposal and a comment from yours trulely why Portland should be the model for regionalism, not Louisville.
September 23, 201113 yr Well, the Dayton area has a great history with regionalism such as the MVRPC and the whole Five Rivers Metroparks concept. Let's hope something happens. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
September 23, 201113 yr Some edits on this post. But yeah, you are right about the Conservancy District. I agree on that...this is one of the best examples in Ohio of a regional government with "teeth". Five Rivers is still somewhat limited (though I like what they are doing...I'm an avid user of their forest preserves). The legislative history of the COnservancy District and how it was set up is a good example of how to set up governance beyond the county level, since the district does cross county lines and is truely regional, as it is based on a watershed. It also has the usual powers associated with a government, such as eminent domain, assessment, and taxation. The only complaint is that its somewhat insulated from the voters, the concept being more "corporate board of directors"....which I suspect is by design since the imeptus was to solve an engineering problem vs broad-based governance.
September 23, 201113 yr Agreed. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 10, 20159 yr From the Dayton Daily News: Group launches Dayton-Montgomery County merger effort By Cornelius Frolik - Staff Writer A group of local leaders on Thursday announced they are going to design a plan to merge the city of Dayton and Montgomery County governments and hope to present it for county-wide vote next year. Combining the city and county could create a more efficient system of government that makes the region more economically competitive, representatives of Dayton Together, a nonprofit organization interested in regionalization, said Thursday. But a detailed charter will need to be created, then a plan would have to be approved by a county-wide vote. “There will be no change without the vote of the people,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley, one of the founders of Dayton Together. The group intends to draft a proposed charter, and hopes to have the document completed by December. The charter concept under consideration is modeled after the 2003 consolidation of the city of Louisville, Ky., and Jefferson County, Ky. http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/group-announces-dayton-montgomery-county-merger-pl/nmwFG/?source=ddn_skip_stub#725a727a.3530120.735788
July 10, 20159 yr Adding more... Regional government proposal kicks off Dayton and Montgomery County may soon take a giant step toward forming a regional government. On Thursday, Dayton Together announced it will propose a ballot initiative to combine the city and county into a single metro government. Using Louisville, Ky.’s metro government as a model, the nonprofit plans to create a Montgomery County Charter. More below: http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2015/07/09/regional-government-proposal-kicks-off.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 13, 20159 yr Apparently Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley is pushing hard for a merger between Dayton and Montgomery County. If this happens, Dayton's population will increase to ~533,000 people. From an urban perspective it looks like a win-win, but you all would know better than I do. Here's the project's website: http://daytontogether.com/ The DDN article (behind the paywall): http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/obstacles-abound-in-merger-plan/nmw4D/?icmp=daytondaily_internallink_textlink_apr2013_daytondailystubtomydaytondaily_launch#0563cb06.3970211.735791 The model it's based on - Louisville / Indianapolis (article on Indy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unigov And Dayton Most Metro's summation: http://www.mostmetro.com/the-featured-articles/dayton-together-initiative-to-merge-city-county-government.html So what do you all think? Is it possible? If it is, would regionalism be beneficial to Dayton? Or other Ohio cities? What needs to be done to make it happen?
July 13, 20159 yr Anything's possible but I don't see Oakwood and Centerville going for it. But I hope they do. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
July 13, 20159 yr This would be great for Dayton. But it seems like too massive of a change. i would think a new county charter would be a better first step. Get rid of county commissioners. Streamline county government, then look at this option.
July 13, 20159 yr Anything's possible but I don't see Oakwood and Centerville going for it. But I hope they do. You're right, my ex girlfriend was from Oakwood and her dad used to literally boast about how great their joint police/fire department is and how their police response times are sooo much better than Dayton's. They'd never go for it. But I don't think they have to... they would most likely get to remain separate municipalities if it's anything like the way it's been done in Indy and Nashville. Essentially, the City of Dayton goes away and its functions are thereafter performed by the County. Not much changes for the Oakwoods, Ketterings, and Beavercreeks of the world.
July 22, 20159 yr The only "great" thing about the Oakwood Police Department were their custom yellow police cars... "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
February 19, 20169 yr Mods can move this if there's a better spot for it, but I'm curious on what peoples' thoughts are on this/how much has changed since the original proposal?... Charter would radically change city, county government By Cornelius Frolik - Staff Writer A group of local community leaders on Thursday unveiled the details of a much-anticipated charter proposal to merge the city of Dayton and Montgomery County governments. The plan, developed over six months by a committee with the nonprofit group Dayton Together, would create a metro government overseen by an elected council and a manager appointed by council members. The rest is at http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/charter-would-radically-change-city-county-governm/nqSZg/ “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
February 19, 20169 yr Under the Dayton-Montgomery Metro Government proposal: The current Dayton and county commissions would be eliminated. School districts would not change. Except Dayton, all cities, villages and townships keep their local governing bodies. The county council would hire a chief administrative officer, much like a current city manager. Manycounty-level elected officials would be eliminated and replaced with appointed departmental leaders. Not a fan of the ones that are bolded. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 19, 20169 yr If you want it to have a shot at passing, you should be. If something like this were to succeed, it would go a long way towards additional reforms in the future.
February 19, 20169 yr I can still not be a fan of those two points and still want the plan to succeed overall. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 20, 20169 yr But have the other cities that did this seen additional reforms afterwards? Seems like only the rough areas merge, leaving the well-to-do ones and their school districts alone. Those separate enclaves just dig their heels in deeper to resist any further unification. Indy/UNIGOV has been around for decades and I'm not aware of any significant changes in its structure since it was implemented. What is interesting about it is that the wealthy communities of Meridian Hills and Williams Creek were absorbed into UNIGOV but they retained some level of self-governance for more local matters. That seems to be a better solution than simply excluding various municipalities from the merger entirely. A Dayton-specific issue is how the city snugs up against Greene County. So a Montgomery County merger would include a lot of rural area from Trotwood west and southwest towards Germantown, while not capturing any of the suburban expanse of Beavercreek, Bellbrook, or Fairborne/Wright-Patt/Wright State. At least Indy, Nashville, and Lexington are mostly in the middle of their respective counties. Louisville kind of sort of is too, but the state border complicates things obviously.
February 20, 20169 yr I have a feeling this proposal is going nowhere, but I could be wrong. If there is one thing most suburban Daytonians despise it is the city of Dayton, however inept and unjustified that position may be. I also feel like I don't know enough about this proposal to feel one way or the other yet - a lot of open ends. I think jjakucyk has a good point though - this would only be a consolidation of the "bad" areas. IMO right now Dayton within city limits is doing better than many of the inner ring municipalities outside of it like Harrison Twp, Trotwood, and Riverside, and a merger would not really be in the best interest of the city. With a lot of the wealth in Greene Co., this might just accelerate the flow of it to over there, and hurt any revitalization that may happen in the inner ring and erode the stability of places like Englewood and West Carrollton. However, if school districts don't change then I do not see why most people would have strong feelings one way or the other. Most people in Washington Twp and even deep into Greene Co around Alpha are used to writing "Dayton, OH" in their addresses rather than Centerville and Beavercreek respectively (despite the fact that nothing in Greene Co. would change). And they are used to county services. IMO this just rebrands Montgomery Co. as Dayton, and dissolves Dayton city government, but there's a lot of nuances I don't understand. Definitely looking for more info as time goes on with this.
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