Executive Summary
Hardin County Unified Government Study July 1, 2011
Submitted To:
The Honorable Harry L. Berry Chairperson Hardin County United P.O. Box 568 Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42702 The Honorable Ken Howard Chairperson Hardin County United Governance Subcommittee c/o Hardin County Justice Center 120 East Dixie Avenue Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701
This study was prepared under contract with the Lincoln Trail Area Development District, Kentucky, with financial support from the Office of Economic Adjustment, Department of Defense. The content reflects the views of the Lincoln Trail Area Development District and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Economic Adjustment.
Submitted By:
Luke B. Schmidt President L.B. Schmidt & Associates, LLC 6316 Innisbrook Drive Prospect, Kentucky 40059
Executive Summary Hardin County, Kentucky finds itself in a very unique position today. The County is growing rapidly due to the recent base realignment (BRAC) at Fort Knox. With base realignment, Fort Knox is adding approximately 7,500 new jobs to the local economy and the post is transforming from its single focus on training to more of a white collar headquarters mission. The impact that this is having on the County is enormous. The Elizabethtown Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) of which Hardin County is the principal county is expected to grow to 131,000 people by 2015. There is new construction everywhere: homes, businesses, roads. BRAC’s realignment has propelled the MSA into various national rankings, including:
First fully contained MSA in Kentucky to move from recession to recovery The MSA led all Kentucky MSAs in job growth from February 2010 – February 2011 The MSA ranked fourth out of all U.S. metros in personal income growth (2008 – 2009) Out of 398 metros, the MSA ranked 16th in the 2011 Best Cities for Job Growth report
Although Fort Knox is the local economy’s driver, the community has a diversified economy with significant manufacturing and agricultural operations. The largest single industrial tract in Kentucky – the Glendale megasite – is in Hardin County. Beginning in 2009 and concluding in 2010, as part of its efforts to capitalize on the community’s growth, Hardin County Government commissioned a visioning project with the goal being to build upon the community’s strengths and current growth opportunities by identifying weaknesses, maximize efficiencies and establish strategic goals. The vision project included a community strategic assessment, key stakeholder survey (which resulted in a 72% response rate) and a benchmark analysis of five peer counties in Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. Three overarching themes emerged from the visioning process:
A desire to unify the community in order to leverage its size to improve the efficiency of the delivery of services
A desire to speak with one community voice in order to improve the community’s standing and stature in Frankfort and Washington
A desire to eliminate duplication when and where possible by combining groups and organizations in order to improve efficiency and more efficiently market and promote the community
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Two of the questions asked in the key stakeholder survey addressed the multiple layers of government in Hardin County: At present, local government in Hardin County (not including Fort Knox) consists of both city and county governments which comprise the following jurisdictions and agencies: 14 fire departments six municipal governments, four municipal police departments, three municipal planning and zoning organizations, three water districts, three school districts, two industrial foundations, two visitor bureaus, one county government, one county sheriff’s department and one county planning and zoning organization. All of this to serve a community of 100,000 people. How effective is the current system?
Current Jurisdiction/Agency System 74
80 70 60
The present system works just fine
50 Percentage 40
26
30 20
The present system has entirely too much duplication of services
10 0 How effective is the current system?
When asked if the community is best served with the current configuration, and as illustrated in the chart which follows, fully 90% of the participants favor studying communities which have unified government/services, or actually implementing unified government.
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Government Service/System Delivery 48
Percentage
50 40 30 20 10 0
42
Yes, the present system works just fine
10
Do you feel that the community is best served as it is currently configured when it comes to economic development, land use planning, the delivery of government services, etc., or should some form of consolidation be considered?
No, some form of consolidation should be considered to improve cost efficiency
Communities that have consolidated some or all of their services should be examined to see what works and what doesn't
Following the conclusion of the Vision Project, a new group, Hardin County United (HCU), was established. HCU is tasked to examine each of the 24 strategic goals which were developed during the visioning process. Focusing on the significant desire to unify the community, HCU commissioned a study of unified government options for Hardin County. In setting the tone for the project, HCU Governance Subcommittee Chairperson Ken Howard asked the committee and its consultant to approach the project by invoking the Mayflower Concept. In other words, much like the early settlers arriving on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, imagine today that 100,000 people are arriving on the banks of the Nolin or Ohio Rivers where Hardin County now lies. Instead of having a county government and six municipal governments, and assuming that the community could start over, how should the community govern itself?
Would it again install a county government along with six municipal governments?
Or, might it consider some form of unified government?
With this in mind, the unified government study set the following goals and objectives:
Examine Hardin County’s existing government structure
Conduct an analysis of key local issues
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Examine unified government structures and conduct case studies of communities with unified government systems
Hardin County’s Existing Government Structure
At present, Hardin County is home to 60 government jurisdictions, county departments, utilities, and municipal departments, and, in addition, the County is also home to 34 official boards and commissions, for a total of 94 government entities to govern a community of 105,000 people
Significant duplication exists between the County government and the six municipal governments in terms of workers and budgets
On a combined, general fund basis, the community supports a budget1 of $62,617,292 and a workforce of 774 full time employees (this works out to an average of 7.3 workers per 1,000 citizens)
Differences exist between the six municipalities in terms of size, revenue, the number of workers and services provided
In spite of the fragmented manner in which the community has developed, a significant urban core has emerged in Hardin County between the three principal cities – Elizabethtown, Radcliff and Vine Grove – and the rapidly developing unincorporated areas of Cecilia, Glendale and Rineyville
If this area had no immediate boundaries, its population would total 85,000 people and it would easily be Kentucky’s third largest city (as shown on the map on the following page)
Hardin County United Governance Subcommittee Analysis of Key Issues HCU’s Governance Subcommittee held several meetings and invited local experts in the following areas to meet with the Subcommittee to provide information on how certain services are provided in the community and to discuss the issue of unified government: federal legislative issues, fire protection, Fort Knox, law enforcement and state legislative issues. Following is a brief summary of some of the comments:
1
Fiscal Year 2010 – 2011
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85,000 people who live in this emerging urban core outside the gate on the civilian side make this Kentucky’s third largest community Page | 6
Congressional staff members prefer to build consensus when dealing with local governments on a multi-jurisdictional issue
While it’s important to build consensus, one major problem is that in many cases there is little coordination between cities and counties
If a community (such as Hardin County) is not united in its efforts to procure grants in many cases that community will not be successful
Competition for support of issues, budget requests, etc., exists in counties with more than one local government jurisdiction – would this process be better served with one request from a unified government?
Unified government would serve to benefit business development, which in turn will create new jobs
There are 14 fire departments in the community which range from career (full time professional) to volunteer
Elizabethtown and Radcliff fire departments are funded through tax structures while volunteer departments rely on voluntary property owner subscriptions
Areas served by career departments have shorter response times with correspondingly lower insurance premiums for homeowners; volunteer departments are hampered with longer response times and not always knowing how many fire fighters will be available for a call
Several existing volunteer fire stations are too close together
Unification of all county fire departments makes sense from a cost and efficiency standpoint and should be considered but should be done in a manner that would maintain the general location of existing stations
Fort Knox has worked with the state to establish a mass transit system, but more needs to be done
The post acknowledges that there are benefits associated with interfacing with one central government
Fort Benning is surrounded by a unified government and that post has found working with surrounding government on a one-stop basis to be very effective; anecdotally, Fort
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Benning leaders also believe that unified government has contributed to an increase in the region’s quality of life
The most pressing need for law enforcement in Hardin County is more personnel
If unification occurs, one consolidated police department could operate with a central office and new districts with substations; efficiencies could improve with unification
Citizens will want to know if they will have the same level of police/fire protection as they had before unification is adopted
Unified government will eliminate some competing interests and issues (which to some degree are personality driven); one government can work through issues more efficiently
The importance of speaking with one voice was stressed; competition for support of issues, budget requests, etc., exists in Hardin County (would this be better served with one request and one unified government?)
Hardin County United Governance Subcommittee Review of General Issues Related to Unified Government in Hardin County Following is a brief summary of comments received from HCU Governance Subcommittee members on the issue of unified government during past meetings:
Separate executive and legislative bodies are needed to govern Hardin County in the future
A strong executive leader is also needed
Concern was expressed about giving up representation through the existing six municipal city councils in favor of a unified government structure
Yet, given the growth in Hardin County, perhaps the time has come to leverage the size of the community and to begin thinking in terms of “we,” using the success of One Knox as the example
A larger legislative body is needed (compared to the existing Fiscal Court) for a unified government structure
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In addition to district representation, at-large members of a new unified structure are also needed; such at-large members should live in certain, specified areas in order to avoid “stacking”
Another approach would be to merge certain, existing departments (the existing countywide 911 dispatch service, along with the Greater Hardin County Drug Task Force were given as examples)
The issue becomes one of going from the existing “cooperative” government to one of unified government
The Commonwealth of Kentucky prefers an approach which will best serve the entire population of the entity in question
Efficient and effective government ultimately means unifying government
[Our community] cannot afford the expense of hiring a full time engineer to address the community’s water needs; the community might be better served, from an efficiency point of view, with unified government
County residents take pride in the history of their community
County residents need to ask what will be best for the community 50 years from now
Everyone needs to be willing to think outside of the box
Unified Government Structures Under existing Kentucky law, there are three types of unified government structures which can be explored for Hardin County:
Urban County Government (Lexington model) Consolidated Local Government (Louisville model) Unified Local Government
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Unification is the best decision ever made in the community Since consolidation, government has been more efficient and responsive Unification won’t necessarily save money; however, it will help to mitigate future cost increases
Unified Government Case Studies Significant detail can be found on each of the five communities which were examined later in this Study. In each case, the unified jurisdiction created two types of service districts: Urban Services District (which usually correspond to the old city and provide a higher level of services) General Services District (covers the entire county and provides all basic services)
Unification has improved the community’s standing and stature in Atlanta and Washington
While each community has had positive experiences with unification, the comments at left from Athens – Clarke County provides a typical summary of each community.
Unification caused the community to look at all previously existing codes and ordinances and not only reconcile the laws, but improve them
In each of the five case study communities, as part of the campaign to win approval, local leaders agreed not to lay off any public workers following merger. While work roles did decline later, it was due to attrition and overall work force levels have been maintained without significant growth.
Bob Snipes Deputy Manager Athens-Clarke County Government
All in all, unified government has provided positive benefits to each of the five communities. Recommendations
Recognizing the significant benefits which will accrue to the community, the author recommends that the community pursue a unified government between Hardin County Government and each of the six municipal governments, utilizing the Unified Local Government concept, as allowed by Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) KRS 67.900 – KRS 67.940.
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