CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The push to merge Charlotte and Mecklenburg County government services into one has been talked about before, but the pressure has never been on quite like this.
City and county budgets are tight, so some leaders are pushing to consolidate and save.
Mecklenburg County Commission Chairwoman Jennifer Roberts is starting with a little trash talking.
"We can do that in trash pickup. We could combine our resources," Roberts said.
What she's really talking about is Keep Charlotte Beautiful and Keep Mecklenburg Beautiful. They are both nonprofits run by paid city and county staffers, and both basically do the same thing. They fall under Keep America Beautiful and are designed to combat litter and keep the streets clean.
"We realize there's some opportunity to help merge those two," said Charlotte City Councilman Edwin Peacock. "When you can save and merge the resources of both the city and the county staff, certainly Chairman Roberts and I are in favor of that."
Roberts said, "We have overlap like that in a number of areas."
She thinks storm water, solid waste and television production services are all departments that could potentially be consolidated to help save taxpayers money and provide better services.
Peacock says the city planning department is awfully quiet these days with very few people coming in for permits. That's why both say merging the Keep America Beautiful groups should be just the beginning.
Roberts said, "I would love to eventually see a merger of the two governments in those areas that we know there's some overlap where it would actually be better for the citizens."
She sees money saved and better services, but admits there may be jobs lost. And both Roberts and Peacock say that's why the first challenge will be getting city and county staffers to work together to figure everything out.
Peacock said, "The two staffs will not work together unless they're instructed to. As much as you want them to, they just don't."
"I think we're going to have to continue to push and nudge and cajole people into actually looking at this on the staff level and the board levels," Roberts said.
"That's the stuff that a board member needs to be looking at -- how can we save the taxpayers money?" Peacock said.
Both tell NewsChannel 36 they plan to address their individual boards about this in January.
