By Bryan M. Gold
Two heads better than one? If youre benefiting from combined brainpower, maybe. But not if you have to get permission from each head whenever you want to get anything done, or if one is always arguing from the other. A number of jurisdictions -- Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York City, to name some of the largest -- have taken
this to heart, doing away with the distinction between city and county governments, literally leveling the playing field, allowing governments to navigate horizontally instead of vertically.
The reality is that many people dont care whether they have to go to the city or the county to get a pet license or a marriage license, as examples. Residents in city-county jurisdictions can go to City Hall, even if, as is the case with the licenses used in the examples, the county generally handles the functions.
With a city-county combination, you never know what youre going to get. But one thing is certain: One decision-making body can look at options from a holistic viewpoint that avoids arguing conflicts of interest between a county board of supervisors and a city council that have incompatible agendas.
Granted, with 3,066 counties and an estimated 19,500 cities and towns, its unlikely that there will be too many city-county jurisdictions. But for the residents in these communities, there is one less level of government to deal with, one less level of bureaucracy to complain about and one less level of confusion.
Capital of Confusion
The exception may be Washington, D.C. When Elliott Branch ended his tenure with the U.S. Department of the Navy in 1999 to become the procurement director for the district, he started working for one of the most unusual local governments in the country.
Its unusual in the sense that, depending on who is talking, the district is both a city and a county. There are other city-county jurisdictions nationwide, but none is quite like Washington, D.C., which is a city and county, sure, but also, in some senses, a state.
"We are a state government because of the level of complexity of services that we provide to the citizenry and how were organized to do that," Branch said, noting that Washington, D.C., is probably the only city in the country with a Department of Motor Vehicles, which is normally a state function. And in other ways, D.C. is a branch of the
federal government.
"I view the district as the most complex governmental environment in the country because we are, for many purposes, a quasi-federal agency," Branch said. Indeed, the districts annual budget is one of the 13 appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. "We are the only government in the country with pieces of all of those levels of government," Branch said, noting that the district is the only jurisdiction at the state and local level that is currently allowed to use the GSA federal supply schedule as a source of supply.
And if that isnt enough, Chief Technology Officer Suzanne Peck is a member of the National Association of State Information Resource Executives, the forum for state CIOs. In addition, Anthony Williams is a major force with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, although calling him Gov. Williams wouldnt be too much of a stretch.
"A major part of our economic development is attached to Washington, D.C., as the nations technology city," Peck said. "There is a real economic development opportunity for us to gather data at all four of those levels and use combinations of that data as a resource for the district."
Deborahs Data
The only data thats important to Denver City Councilmember Deborah Ortega is the reaction of constituents to the work shes doing on their behalf. But for Ortega, and probably most of the roughly 500,000 residents in the community, the fact that Denver is a city-county doesnt change the way she votes on issues.
"Generally, as we deal with issues, Ive never looked at them independently in terms of saying, this is a county function, or this is a city function," Ortega said. "We deal with so many things on a regular basis -- they all get so commingled -- that its hard to decipher which is county business and which is city business. And thats kind of the beauty of being a city-county: Youre able to deal with all of that without getting so muddled down with which is which."
Another key was during the jurisdictions march toward Y2K compliance. The city knew it would be compliant on time and didnt have to hope that the county would be as well. The opposite was also true.
"Obviously, while purchasing equipment during Y2K, we were dealing with all of our agencies: the county jail, our whole safety department, the hospital complex and the various agencies that are part of our public health department," she added. "We just dealt with the city and county as a whole rather than separating them out."
THE DOMINANT CITY
There are jurisdictions nationwide that, with some tinkering, could become a city-county. Technology advantages are hardly the only issue in such a decision, and politics often overrides all other concerns.
But there are a number of places where the city is such a large part of the county that municipal concerns practically dictate county action.
One example is Lincoln, Neb. The city has an estimated population of 213,088, about 90 percent of the estimated 235,589 residents of Lancaster County. The city is second in the state behind Omaha (371,291) in terms of population -- with the football stadium at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, qualifying on game days for third -- but has a great relationship with Lancaster County.
"Whatever we do here in Lincoln, the county goes along with. Its just the opposite in most places," said Terry D. Lowe, systems project manager in the citys Information Services Division. "Rarely would the city go off and do something without running it past the county commissioners."
In fact, the city and county commissioners are in the same building. They use the same meeting area but meet on different days. The police and sheriffs departments are in the same building. Health employees work in the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department. Data processing
is also a joint agency, Lowe said.
"It may be a little unusual for the size of Lincoln and Lancaster County, but there is a smooth and cordial relationship between both jurisdictions," he said, noting the joint funding for many agencies. But its not like Lincoln and Lancaster County have a choice. The second largest city in the county is Waverly, with 2,137 residents. The smallest among the countys 13 cities is Roca, with a mere 78 residents. There are more players on the universitys football team.
In addition, Lincoln is Nebraskas state capital, and Lowe said the city has a great relationship with state officials.
Keeping the singular mindset has provided Denver with a focused outlook on its plan for the future of technology. "One of the things that Ive really pushed for ... and realizing that many cities across the country
have their own integrated technology plan -- something that Denver has not had -- it was obvious that its something that we needed," Ortega noted. "It would help guide us as we moved into the future with equipment purchases, etc., etc."
enver City Councilmember Deborah Ortega is the reaction of constituents to the work shes doing on their behalf. But for Ortega, and probably most of the roughly 500,000 residents in the community, the fact that Denver is a city-county doesnt change the way she votes on issues.
"Generally, as we deal with issues, Ive never looked at them independently in terms of saying, this is a county function, or this is a city function," Ortega said. "We deal with so many things on a regular basis -- they all get so commingled -- that its hard to decipher which is county business and which is city business. And thats kind of the beauty of being a city-county: Youre able to deal with all of that without getting so muddled down with which is which."
Another key was during the jurisdictions march toward Y2K compliance. The city knew it would be compliant on time and didnt have to hope that the county would be as well. The opposite was also true.
"Obviously, while purchasing equipment during Y2K, we were dealing with all of our agencies: the county jail, our whole safety department, the hospital complex and the various agencies that are part of our public health department," she added. "We just dealt with the city and county as a whole rather than separating them out."
THE DOMINANT CITY
There are jurisdictions nationwide that, with some tinkering, could become a city-county. Technology advantages are hardly the only issue in such a decision, and politics often overrides all other concerns.
But there are a number of places where the city is such a large part of the county that municipal concerns practically dictate county action.
One example is Lincoln, Neb. The city has an estimated population of 213,088, about 90 percent of the estimated 235,589 residents of Lancaster County. The city is second in the state behind Omaha (371,291) in terms of population -- with the football stadium at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, qualifying on game days for third -- but has a great relationship with Lancaster County.
"Whatever we do here in Lincoln, the county goes along with. Its just the opposite in most places," said Terry D. Lowe, systems project manager in the citys Information Services Division. "Rarely would the city go off and do something without running it past the county commissioners."
In fact, the city and county commissioners are in the same building. They use the same meeting area but meet on different days. The police and sheriffs departments are in the same building. Health employees work in the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department. Data processing
is also a joint agency, Lowe said.
"It may be a little unusual for the size of Lincoln and Lancaster County, but there is a smooth and cordial relationship between both jurisdictions," he said, noting the joint funding for many agencies. But its not like Lincoln and Lancaster County have a choice. The second largest city in the county is Waverly, with 2,137 residents. The smallest among the countys 13 cities is Roca, with a mere 78 residents. There are more players on the universitys football team.
In addition, Lincoln is Nebraskas state capital, and Lowe said the city has a great relationship with state officials.
Keeping the singular mindset has provided Denver with a focused outlook on its plan for the future of technology. "One of the things that Ive really pushed for ... and realizing that many cities across the country
have their own integrated technology plan -- something that Denver has not had -- it was obvious that its something that we needed," Ortega noted. "It would help guide us as we moved into the future with equipment purchases, etc., etc."
The key is doing whats best for Denver, the councilwoman said, and being a city-county has an added benefit: being able to apply other county models, as well as best practices from other cities.
Heartbeat of the Digital Age
If Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco, should he call the city or the county lost and found? It doesnt matter because of San Franciscos city-county status. Call one of the 60 departments in San Francisco and the city-county employees will do their best to help.
Liza Lowrey, executive director of the Department of Telecommunications and Information Systems, worked for Hillsborough County, Fla., (population 897,522) and then the city of Milpitas, Calif., (population 60,738) until making the short move north to San Francisco a year ago.
"I used to tease in Hillsborough County that we did everything from animal control to zoning -- A to Z -- but thats even more true here, because we have all local government services that are provided to our citizens and businesses," she said. "In terms of project implementation, the projects are extremely diverse, which makes the work very interesting, but it also makes it more difficult than most businesses or just a city or county because the lines of business are more numerous."
San Francisco International Airport, one of the busiest in the world, and the Port of San Francisco are a part of the city and county. In addition, San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water, making transportation sometimes a bit more difficult for its residents and the thousands of people who commute to San Francisco on a daily basis.
For San Francisco to handle all of this means that the local government is fairly decentralized, said Lowery, who was somewhat surprised by that aspect of some core functions. There is no city manager or county executive to handle matters that are instead handled by the mayor in the strong-mayor form of government.
"I dont know if its a city approach or a county approach, but its a singular approach," she said. "Milpitas had a city manager who managed all of the departments. It was very coordinated, and we had a singular structure and it made deployment of applications very easy. In Hillsborough County, which is more like what I understand counties to
be like, you did have more autonomy between departments, so you had to work harder to get consensus and coordination. It wasnt necessarily dictated."
Probably because of its population and the fact that its also a county, San Francisco has a lot of similarities to Hillsborough County, especially since both have mostly autonomous departments.
"Enterprise-wide solutions, whether its infrastructure like telecommunications or networking, or a financial system, whatever, is a little bit more difficult to do because you dont have everyone on the same page," Lowery said. "It does mean that the mayor in our case -- or whoever is the in-charge executive -- does have to realize that the solution must be a single solution and then require the departments to follow along.
"There are times when I think we just need to function more like a city in this case and say that everybodys going to play on this field," she added. "But the reality is that there is still a lot of coordination and consensus-building that goes on. In cases where I believe that its
important that we function like an enterprise, we are moving forward, making legislation to make it mandated."
