MACON, Ga. — It's been a decade since Macon and Bibb County tied the knot, forming a consolidated government and becoming the fourth-largest city in the state.
Voters approved the plan in 2012, and the general assembly also signed off. January 1, 2014, Macon-Bibb County was established. Now, 10 years later, current and former county leaders are sharing their reactions.
"I think a lot of the sales pitch was around how much savings could be realized," Commissioner Virgil Watkins said.
Tax savings and economic development were two major points for the merger.
"People in the city paid both county and city taxes," former Bibb County Commission Chairman Sam Hart said.
Efficiency was also in the mix.
"We were our own worst enemy," former Mayor Robert Reichert said. "We reduced the number of elected officials from 21 to 10."
Reichert says for the most part, it's all gone to plan. Hart says he feels they accomplished most of their goals, and that they helped Maconites in the long run.
He fears cutting down the number of elected officials also cut down access to them.
"Reduced, I guess, representation. The equity of the representation," Hart said.
Watkins, who once served on the 15-member Macon city council, feels the same. He was against consolidation from the start.
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"Living in deep, rural Lizella and living in Pleasant Hill, the wants, needs and desires of those communities are just different," he said.
Sheriff David Davis says uniting his department with the Macon Police Department helps them protect the entire county more efficiently.
"Criminals, they may do something in what used to be the county today, but then tomorrow, they're going to the city doing it. So, we're able to track them and make those cases no matter where they may go," Davis said.
Watkins says so-called 'early outs' may have hurt the sheriff's office and other government agencies in Macon-Bibb County. He says the newly formed government offered some employees early retirement to cut costs.
As a result, "Response times are worse. By and large, we all feel less safe," he said.
He says that goes for government services, like responding to See, Click, Fix requests.
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Sheriff Davis acknowledges they also could have contributed to slower deputy response times over the last decade. Davis estimates the sheriff's office lost a combined 800 years of experience to early outs.
"You could say about 100 people left within a year, or year-and-a-half after consolidation, that really significantly impacted. And those were people who had been at both agencies," Davis said.
He says the COVID-19 pandemic also kept numbers down and prevented them from catching up, but he says now, they're finally turning the corner with the help of more competitive wages and part-time deputies.