>-----Original Message----- > R.T.Rybak concludes: > >I don't think anyone has taken a hard enough look at what would actually be >saved if you fully merged the complete organizations, which may or may not >make sense, but at the very least the decision-making should be in a single >place. [TB] My general belief is that government should take place at the most local level. In the case of the City Council, Library Board, Park Board and Board of Estimate and Taxation (where some members are elected) they are elected by the same voters in elections held on the same day. All of these boards represent the same constituents, thus the same interests. One only needs to look as far as St. Paul to see a Park System that is part of city government, in their case Public Works. The combining of similar duties in the park system and city government can only save money. Why do we need 2 police departments, separate street maintenance, etc.? Priorities? Does anyone believe that a City Council that had responsibility for parks and libraries would put a higher priority on building a Target store in downtown above the needs or our libraries and parks? I don't think even our City Council is that out of touch. I don't know that this combination will save huge numbers of dollars, but the efficiencies would certainly get us better value for our tax dollars. Terrell _________________________________________________ Terrell Brown Brown Volunteer Committee 110 West Grant Street Minneapolis, MN 55403-2315 (612) 371-3014 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.terrellbrown.org _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
