10/24/07 - State to study merger

Report on city, C’ville merger part of broader effort to encourgage consolidation

(As Published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel Reporting)

A feasibility study for merging the city of Cortland and the town of Cortlandville will be among the first such reviews under the governor’s effort to encourage consolidation of municipalities statewide.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer wants to see municipalities talking about consolidation, and the city and town were chosen as subjects through the study that is expected to be completed by April. The proposal will not be binding on the town and city.

Mayor Tom Gallagher and Cortlandville Supervisor Dick Tupper met with representatives of the state Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness on Oct. 3 at City Hall.

They were told that someone had proposed the two municipalities be examined by the state as possible candidates for consolidation.

“We have no idea where it came from — all we know is that out of the city, the county and the town, nobody we know made that recommendation,” Tupper said this morning.

A call to the commission’s office was not immediately returned this morning.

In a letter to Gallagher and Tupper dated Sept. 14, commission Executive Director John Clarkson wrote that the governor asked for and received hundreds of proposals for merger and consolidation from local governments, and that “in order to stimulate public discussion of these issues, and provide a current review of the issues and possibilities involved, several of these proposals were selected for study. The City of Cortland and the Town of Cortlandville is one such area.”

Tupper made the first local announcement on the issue Tuesday at a League of Women Voters Meet the Candidates forum at the Cortlandville Fire Station, in response to a question about consolidation from an audience member.

The commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness was created in April and had been proposed by Spitzer during his first State of the State address in January.

A report would have to be issued by April 15, according to Spitzer’s executive order that created the commission.

Since the meeting at the beginning of the month, Tupper and Gallagher said they have not heard back from the state.