Organizational and Personnel Impacts on Local Government Consolidation: Athens-Clarke County, Georgia

Abstract

:Civic reformers tout consolidation as a means to increase the economy and efficiency of local government functions and services. However, little is known about the actual impact of consolidation due to the small number of governments that have merged. Moreover, the consolidation literature focuses primarily on preconsolidation efforts. The present research seeks to help fill this gap in the literature by focusing on the organizational and personnel effects of the Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, consolidation. The author draws conclusions about the specific case and proposes possible strategies for building a framework to assess the potential viability of future consolidation efforts and to examine retrospectively the organizational and personnel aspects of consolidated governments.