KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Will the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas be dissolved?
That's what elected officials are trying to figure out.
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Carol Marinovich, who is now retired, was one of those leaders who worked to bring the city and county governments together 26 years ago. She served 10 years as Mayor/CEO of the Unified Government.
"I traveled through neighborhoods a lot and saw so many homes for sale, blight, things that had been forgotten and thought we could be doing so much more with years of catch up to do," Marinovich said.
It's one of the reasons a grassroots effort to unify Wyandotte County was solidified in 1997.
Backing up a 1997 consolidation study, advocates for consolidation, Rev. CL Bachus and Marinovich, said the primary concerns were about taxes going up, along with a lack of revenue, lack of growth and decline of housing.
The new unified form of government was proposed as a share between Kansas City, Kansas, Bonner Springs and Edwardsville.
"We were losing thousands of people a year," Bachus, who served co-chair of the consolidation committee, said. "When I moved here, there was 180,000 people here. It got down to 147-148,000."
Community leaders at the time said the city-county government that existed before consolidation was not working.
They said the unified form of government helped rebuild their cities.
"All of the things haven't happened that we wanted to happen, but I do think progress has been made," Rev. Bachus said.
At about the same time as voters approved consolidation, developers broke ground on the sprawling Village West district that included the Kansas Speedway and the Legends Shopping Center.
"I don't think we'd have the Kansas Speedway or Legends without a consolidated government," Marinovich said. "Now, we have all that sales tax coming in from Legends and property taxes too."
Now they fear the government they once helped unify could possibly go back to what it was.
Bachus said the idea is frightening.
"Sometimes people just want to tear something up," he said. "They don't have nothing to replace it with, they just want to change it to say they were a part of some kinda change."
In a news conference earlier this month, current UG Mayor/CEO Tyrone Garner called for the dissolution of the UG.
"I was disappointed to hear our mayor speak and say it hasn’t worked because I think he’s wrong in that regard knowing where we were before consolidation," Marionvich said "We are in a much better place because of consolidation."
There are others who need to hear more about plans to get rid of consolidated government.
"It's a unique animal," said Pastor Bruce Draper, co-president of Churches United for Peace. "There's no doubt about that. It has its strengths and maybe its weaknesses. I think it can work, but it takes people in the Unified Government and citizens who want to make it work."
If the consolidated government dissolves, Marinovich said it won't come without a cost.
"Who else is going to pay for the increase? You just can't dissolve it and say, 'OK, courthouse operate.' It doesn't work that way," Marinovich said.
Neighborhood meetings on whether to keep the unified government or make changes are expected to start in November.
A task force also will be formed to gather opinions and make recommendations for changes to the current government.
