THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 25, 1994 TAG: 9411250095
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 129 lines
For months a dedicated group of volunteers has struggled to wrap a wedding package for Pasquotank County and Elizabeth City, with the realization that some residents are sure to feel there are more thorns than roses in the gift.
They'll deliver that package - a plan for merging county and city governments - on Dec. 14, said L.P. Hornthal, chairman of the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Study Commission.
``This is all about a hope for a better life that will cost less for everybody,'' he said.
``Many of us who have been involved feel this is one of the most important efforts we've ever made,'' said Hornthal, an Elizabeth City attorney who heads a major North Carolina law firm.
For more than a year, 22 area citizens - women and men who are doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs - have pored over other community merger histories to decide whether Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County should go the way of, say, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach or Suffolk in nearby Virginia.
In those Tidewater communities, rural and urban governments have married in their counties and now live as one.
When they submit their Dec. 14 recommendations, the members of the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County study commission will have completed what they call ``The First Phase'' of a long and difficult pre-marriage procedure.
Next will come ``Phase Two'' decisions by members of the Pasquotank County Board of Commissioners and Elizabeth City Council: Do they really want to become engaged? This involves pre-nuptial agreements to make sure nobody gets shorted in joint checking accounts and that no dowry heirlooms have been hidden in the barn.
If all goes well, a civic marriage as complicated and full of witnesses as any royal wedding will then take place with the U.S. Department of Justice holding on to the double rings until the voting rights of everyone involved has been approved. The N.C. General Assembly will probably perform the ceremony by enacting legislation that makes the marriage legal.
``The biggest problem is one of public education,'' said Randy Keaton, Pasquotank County manager and a member of the executive committee of the merger study commission.
``We had trouble ourselves when we first looked at this,'' Keaton said, ``It isn't a question of the county taking over the city or the city taking over the county, and it isn't a question of county residents paying for city improvements.''
So far there has been no comment or coaching from the U.S. Justice Department, which ultimately will decide whether the plans of Hornthal and his associates pass racial equality tests.
African American voters hold a slight majority in Elizabeth City, and four of eight members of the city council are black. The seven-member board of county commissioners elected by white majority voters in rural Pasquotank includes one black.
Hornthal has relied heavily in the merger study on the counsel of R.L. ``Bobby'' Vaughan, a faculty member and coach at predominantly black Elizabeth City State University. Vaughan is vice-chairman of the merger commission. About one-third of the members of the commission are leaders in the African American community.
White members of the study group expect to have their recommendations scrutinized by African American residents who may be fearful of losing the hard-won voting power that gave them a powerful voice on the Elizabeth City council.
``A fundamental aim of any merger plan would be greater equity for all residents in local government,'' Hornthal said.
Both Hornthal and Keaton emphasized that a key feature of any consolidation would be a ``municipal service district'' - an area where city services are provided and paid for by citizens within the district. Merger commission members hope that a service district would prevent suburban residents from feeling that they were being unfairly saddled with city responsibilities.
And history-lovers need not fear the extinction of community heritage in a future ElizaTank or PasquoCity, commission members said. Several members, like Phyllis R. Cartwright, a Centura banker who lives on Halls Creek Road, are fiercely protective of country living.
Preliminary reports by study group subcommittees indicate that a considerable amount of consolidation of local and county government will be recommended in the Dec. 14 study.
A sure-to-be controversial plan to combine the Pasquotank County sheriff's department and the Elizabeth City police force generally found favor with a Public Safety study group, headed by Steven Gabriel, a N.C. coastal management official.
``This subcommittee would have to conclude that it is not only feasible but advisable that law enforcement be consolidated,'' said the Public Safety report released last month. ``There (are) no glaring pitfalls associated with law enforcement services being consolidated . . .''
But the Public Safety subcommittee recognized that there will probably be turf fights between politically active members of the existing sheriff and police departments before any merger.
``The first drawback is that there may be a perceived loss of status by some (police or sheriff's) personnel,'' said the report.
Although the Pasquotank Sheriff's Department, with about 15 employees, is smaller than the 40-member Elizabeth City police department, North Carolina's elected county sheriffs traditionally pack potent political clout.
Sheriffs normally answer to nobody, except the voters, and they often have a lot to say about who gets county jobs, who deserves entitlements, and whose tax problems need more consideration before property is auctioned off on the courthouse steps.
The Elizabeth City chief of police serves at the pleasure of city council, but an elected county sheriff, under present state law, would still function with virtual autonomy under any consolidation plan.
Sheriff Davis M. Sawyer Jr., the present sheriff of Pasquotank didn't seek re-election this year, but he is an oft-mentioned candidate for appointment to an unexpired term on the county board of commissioners when state Rep.-elect William C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr. is sworn in in January.
The Public Safety subcommittee had trouble evaluating merger of county and city fire departments. Rural firefighters are proud volunteers, while most in the city are paid.
``Making a recommendation for or against consolidation (of fire departments) was not as easily determined as in some of the other service areas,'' said the Public Safety report. Potential for morale damage among members of the widely disparate city and suburban fire departments would have to be recognized, the report added.
But the subcommittee concluded there ``were no glaring pitfalls associated with fire protection services being consolidated.''
The Administration subcommittee lost no time deciding that the existing city council and county commissioners' board ``could be replaced with a single board'' at a considerable saving to taxpayers.
Consolidation of city and county management operations would have to involve ``a complete merger,'' the subcommittee said.
Over time some jobs would be lost at city hall and in the county administration buildings, the joint commission said, but most would be through relatively painless retirement and natural attrition. by CNB