Voters in Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan. have agreed, by a 2-3 margin, to a city-county consolidation, which would make the new government the 31st consolidated operation in the country.
The new combo government will trade in a seven-member Kansas City council and a three-member board of county commissioners for an 11-member Unified Board of Commissioners. Eight of its members will be elected by district; two will be elected county-wide. The eleventh member, the mayor, will also be elected county-wide. He or she will only vote in the case of a tie, will have veto power and can appoint a county administrator with the consent of the commission. Both the mayor and commissioners will be selected in a nonpartisan election for four-year terms.
Unlike most consolidation campaigns, the Kansas City effort, April 1, which passed was successful on the first try, despite strong opposition from the county's dominant Democratic party.
Wyandotte County is the smallest county in the state. Kansas City occupies 82 percent of its land and contains 93 percent of its population. The two smaller cities in the county, with a combined population of 10,000, will remain independent.
Meanwhile, in an earlier consolidation attempt in March, voters in Georgia turned down, for the second time in six years, a proposal to consolidate Spalding County and the city of Griffin. Support for consolidation was strongest among city residents, who voted in favor of consolidation by a nearly 2-1 margin. However, more than two-thirds of county residents opposed the measure.
Spalding County has a total population of approximately 57,000 and is on the outer edge of the greater Atlanta-Fulton County metro area.
(NACo Research Director Jacqueline Byers contributed information for this article.)