A Puff Piece & the Lessons of Hunter v. Pittsburgh

One of the things that was lacking in the Iron County Press
until the advent of Iron County Doings is a rational analysis
of information that’s made available by local governments,
and the impact their announced plans can have on the lives
of the citizens. Today we begin an analysis of the report
placed on the internet by the City of Iron River that’s called
“FUTURE CONSOLIDATION, COOPERATION, and
COLLABORATION PLAN.” This may be acquired in hard
copy at the Iron River City Hall or accessed on the internet
at:

http://www.ironriver.org/downloads/pdf/consolidation_services.pdf.

It is clear from the title alone that Iron River’s intention is
to consolidate even more. The only problem that is created
by the desire to consolidate is that it further consolidates
local political power that’s already in too few hands.

We repeat the text from the document that describes the
plan to consolidate the Cities of Gaastra and Caspian.

“Shared City Management – The City of Iron River is
directly adjacent to the City of Caspian and the City of
Gaastra. Both of these municipalities are physically
smaller in size and therefore maintain substantially
smaller work forces than Iron River. Although they
both rejected total consolidation in 2000, these two
communities continue to share many services through
existing collaborations and formal agreements. The
physical location as well as other common
administrative elements provides the ideal situation
to employ one City Manager to oversee the operations
of all three communities. Eliminating the duplication
and sharing the cost of this administrative position
could result in a substantial savings to each
municipality. Estimated annual savings for the City
of Iron River...$85,000.”

There are a number of propagandist falsehoods built
into this piece. The first one is in the projected savings.
The existing City of Iron River would not save $85,000
with the additional consolidation. The false projection is
the savings to the citizens of Gaastra and Caspian and
mislabeled as savings to Iron River.

The reality requires doing some arithmetic. The
projection simply eliminates two paid municipal
positions that cost the projected amount. That’s not
the right approach.

The 2010 population of Gaastra and Caspian represent
29% of the projected total population of a city that
combines all three cities. In 2011 the city manager’s pay,
including benefits and special considerations
approximates $250,000. 29% allocated to the added
cities amounts to a cost of $72,500 for those citizens.
So the projected $85,000 is replaced by $72,500
providing a savings of $12,500 to those citizens, or about
$10 per citizen to lose the level of control over their own
politicians that they now enjoy.

Of course, given enough time that “advantage” will
disappear soon enough. The pay raise schedule for Iron
River’s city manager has been established as we
previously published in November 2011. That schedule
is:

2010 $104,939
2011 $111,235
2012 $117,909
2013 $124,982
2014 $132,482
2015 $140,431

And the increases continue unabated as far as the eye can
see, and beyond.

The average reader may think they’re safe from
consolidation because they voted it down in year 2000,
and they’ll vote it down again. But that’s a false sense of
security. State ordered consolidation, against the will of
the people, has happened in the past and held by the
courts to be legal.

We have only to look at the Supreme Court case of
Meriwether v. Garrett, 102 US 472,1880 for the principle:

http://tinyurl.com/7wrtfa4

“The right of the State to repeal the charter of Memphis
cannot be questioned. Municipal corporations are mere
instrumentalities of the State for the more convenient
administration of local government. Their powers are such
as the legislature may confer, and these may be enlarged,
abridged, or entirely withdrawn at its pleasure. This is
common learning, found in all adjudications on the subject
of municipal bodies and repeated by text-writers. There
is no contract between the State and the public that the
charter of a city shall not be at all times subject to
legislative control. All persons who deal with such bodies
are conclusively presumed to act upon knowledge of the
power of the legislature. There is no such thing as a
vested right held by any individual in the grant of
legislative power to them.”

In Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, the state legislature
combined the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny against
the will of the people.

http://tinyurl.com/84edsqv

The citizens of Pittsburgh voted in favor of consolidation.
The majority of the citizens of Allegheny voted against.
The State of Pennsylvania and the courts consolidated
the cities anyway.

The power structure of local Iron County politics does not
find a neutral arbiter at the state level. Beware.

This is the first of several articles that will analyze the
Iron River plan. It doesn’t seem to get any better as we
proceed. As Reagan copied a philosophy from the Russians,
“Trust but verify.” Right now the citizens of Gaastra and
Caspian are in a state of ignorance, not realizing their
municipalities have been announced targeted for
consolidation by their “big” neighbor. After all, there has
been no discussion or disclosure of Iron River’s plan in
either the Iron County Reporter or by the radio station
WIKB, up till now the two primary means of the people
getting the news.

Iron County Doings predicts consolidation unless the
two smaller cities take an active role in opposing it now,
not later. If the citizens of Gaastra and Caspian don’t
mind consolidating with the City of Iron River after
seeing the significant waste and ineptitude in past
Iron River consolidations, they simply have to wait and
do nothing. It is critical to remember that procrastination
is a decision.

Bill Vajk