We were privileged to have Terrence Jones, Professor Emeritus of Political Science from UMSL as our guest to discuss the city-county merger plan from Better Together. Professor Jones produced a four-page analysis of the plan which was available to meeting attendees. Here is a link to the analysis.
The proposal is bi-partisan and calls for the most sweeping re-organization of local government in the United States. The professor noted several concerns with the plan, among them…
- The plan is undemocratic. Major decisions are to be made by just the replacement for the county executive and the city mayor.
- The plan can be imposed on St. Louis City and the county without a single vote from the city or county in the state-wide election on the authorizing state constitution amendment.
- Local government would become more bureaucratic.
The professor also noted that the amendment from Better Together is longer than the United States Constitution. It would be very hard to modify in the future.