Consolidation Study

In the fall of 2002, a group of doctoral students in UCF's College of Health and Public Affairs asked their professor, Dr. Aaron Liberman, to let them tackle an issue of special interest. Their five months of research and study led them to the conclusion that the consolidation of Orange County, the City of Orlando, and other municipalities would make local government more efficient, cost effective, and responsive to the citizens.

In the interest of generating some dialogue on the subject, UCF Metropolitan Center Director Linda Chapin asked the students to present their findings to a panel of experts including Jean Bennett, former Orange County Administrator; Mayor Joe Terranova, former mayor of Winter Park; Howard Tipton, Sr., former Orlando City Administrator and then interim Director of Lynx; and Tom Wilkes, Jr., former Orange County Attorney. Jane Healy, of the Orlando Sentinel, served as moderator.

The forum was held at Leu Gardens on Wednesday, February 26, 2003. A summary of the students' work follows:

Executive Summary for the Proposed Consolidation of Orange County and the City of Orlando

Proposed Mission Statement

Greater Orlando, a unified community preserving its diverse heritage, while providing professional service with integrity to enhance the quality of life for all citizens.

Proposed Objectives

  • Primary Objective: Structural consolidation of the Orange County Government with the governments of: the City of Orlando, the City of Apopka, the City of Belle Isle, the Town of Eatonville, the City of Edgewood, the City of Maitland, the City of Oakland, the City of Ocoee, the Town of Windermere, the City of Winter Garden, and the City of Winter Park.
  • Secondary Objectives: Concomitant with the administrative mergers of the local governments within Orange County, the Orange County Sheriff's Office would absorb the law enforcement agencies of local governments within Orange County resulting in a unified law enforcement agency better equipped to respond to the criminal justice issues within Orange County. Presently there are ten municipal police departments enforcing the law in areas already within the jurisdiction of the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The Orange County Sheriff's Office already handles patrol services for Belle Isle, and performs dispatch services for Edgewood, Oakland, and Windermere. Active duty employees of the respective agencies would not lose their jobs. Cost savings in staffing would be accumulated through attrition over a three year period.
  • A unified public safety department which would combine the various county and city fire departments and emergency response teams into a single agency. At present, eight fire departments serve various municipalities alongside, and in between, Orange County Fire and Rescue Services areas.
  • A single local government Growth Management Department which includes zoning and planning in Orange County that will provide a unified, county-wide blueprint for future development. This agency would also establish uniformity in building codes, and compatibility with environmental and aesthetic concerns. Industries could be more effectively located according to existing infrastructure considerations.
  • Unified parks and recreation administration that could assign an elevated level of expertise according to localized requirements. Specialized equipment used to maintain parks can be utilized to a greater extent than at present. Occasionally, equipment, especially in smaller municipal parks departments, remains idle for various periods of time until services are required.
  • Development of a consolidated purchasing program that will encourage economies of scale. This would require a unified Department of Fiscal Administration. At present, each community is required by statute to prepare a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), which is a very time consuming and expensive undertaking. Consolidation would reduce these efforts to a single document that would satisfy fiscal reporting requirements.
  • More equitable allocation of resources, and tax assignments within the county according to need. Non-city suburban areas pay higher rates for sewer services even though these rates are not necessarily based on a higher cost of service to the areas.
  • Combined administrative services that provide needed services to the public more efficiently and economically because of more fiscally acceptable civil servant to citizens-served ratios. This would include functions such as information technology, in which some of the smaller communities are lacking as a result of restrictive budgets. Specialists in a centralized office would be able to provide expertise remotely over the phone to governmental offices in the field. At present, some smaller communities rely on contract assistance.
  • A comprehensive public works management positioned to be proactively responsive to development and existing demands. Some County divisions, such as the Orange County Storm Water Management Division already provides engineering support for a county-wide storm water management program. The division is responsible for primary and secondary drainage systems in Orange County's twelve drainage basins. Combining other county Public Works divisions with their city counterparts would more effectively make use of equipment and professional expertise.
  • Elimination of redundancy and duplication of services, and utilizing "spillover" services more economically. Examples of spillover service would be "outside" assistance from a neighboring government that provides emergency assistance until the local government emergency services arrive. Consolidated services would result in the closest emergency services to the scene being dispatched and controlling the emergency.
  • A single taxing agency that eliminates multiple taxation of county citizens. Many citizens of Orange County presently are billed by a municipal government as well as the county government. While this circumstance may not be immediately perceptible to the average citizen, separate governmental billing offices are maintained by the respective local governments to account for allocations among the separate taxing authorities.
  • Consolidation of various other local government functions into single, county wide governmental agencies according to function, such as Community and Environmental Services, Consumer Fraud, Convention Center, Health and Family Services, Utilities.
  • A government that is more accountable to its public. At present, Orange County communities have competing goals that do not best serve the combined area's interest. Unification of local governments would require that disparate parties formulate a consensually advantageous plan that benefits a larger area of common interest. As an example, the interests of Orlando, Winter Park, and Maitland are largely congruent because the citizens of these communities are not spatially isolated from each other. These citizens often work, shop, and live in different adjacent communities. Also, priorities and concerns, such as traffic management, affect the citizens of Orlando, Maitland, and Winter Park in much the same manner.

Community Challenges to Consolidation

Overall risks

  • Overall resistance to change
  • "What's in it for me?"
  • Loss of identity of certain municipalities
  • Loss of tax base
  • A feared decrease in the quality of services in some communities

Orange County risks

  • Costs of the water system refurbishment
  • Heavy reliance on tourism for economic success
  • Public transportation
  • How to better serve the Hispanic and Haitian populations

City of Orlando Risks

  • Lower quality of services (Ex. OPD manpower)
  • Transportation/ roadway congestion
  • Heavy dependence on tourism and hospitality industry for economic success
  • Possible fragmentation of services
  • Loss of jobs

Winter Park Risks

  • Loss of identity
  • Lower quality of services (Ex. Winter Park PD)
  • Utilities (water)
  • Little room for future growth (land constraints)

Seminole County Risks

  • Transportation
  • Future Growth
  • Utilities
  • Potential tax burdens
  • Overcrowding of the school system
  • Plummeting land values

Solutions to Overcome Challenges/Risks

  • Generate and organize a series of bottoms-up strategies in order to build consensus among the citizenry of the multiple jurisdictions, the employees of these jurisdictions, the appointed bureaucracy or management structure, and the elected public officials.
  • Organize task forces to coordinate smaller "issue" task forces to include items such as: transportation, law enforcement, fire and rescue services, parks and recreation, planning and development, and the organizational structure of the new consolidated government
  • Conduct surveys in order to generate community input from citizens, public officials, higher education, Orange County School District administrators, the corporate sector, the service sector and the non-profit community, to stimulate citizen interest in consolidation
  • Educate the community and other critical actors on the process and what will happen each step of the way
  • Examine the financial impact
  • Consolidate through natural attrition
  • Develop a new departmental structure
  • Restructure the budget process
  • Once plan is in place enact in phases:
    • Year 1 Goal = Explore the possible consolidation of Orange County and its incorporated municipalities
    • Year 2 Goal = Develop a consolidation strategic proposal for ballot referendum, work diligently to ensure that the referendum is passed, and that the bill is placed on the state government's legislative agenda
    • Year 3 Goal = Begin consolidation of all governmental entities
    • Year 4 Goal = Focus on administrative protocol, departmental performance and service operations of the new unified governmental structure