At a public meeting Monday night regarding the potential for a merger between the city of Syracuse and Onondaga County governments, some Syracuse community members doubted whether such a merger would be beneficial.

The meeting — held in the Southwest Community Center — was led by Melanie Littlejohn and Sharon Owens, who are both members of Consensus, a group that recently released its preliminary options report. The report outlined suggestions for government modernization in Onondaga County.

Owens said Monday that the goal of any merger would be to improve Syracuse’s declining population, poverty and economic issues.

Monday’s meeting was broken into two separate presentations — one focused on infrastructure and the other on public safety — before Littlejohn and Owens opened the floor to comments and questions from those in attendance.

The infrastructure presentation focused on four elements: street and highway management, water, wastewater management and solid waste management. For each issue, Littlejohn and Owens outlined the challenges presented as well as the recommendations offered in the Consensus report.

Those recommendations consistently included creating some type of consolidated entity to better manage the issues.

The same format held true for the public safety presentation, which focused on fire protection, emergency medical services, law enforcement and correctional facilities. Again, the presentation outlined the challenges presented by each issue and the recommendations for solving those issues centered around consolidation.

But when they got their opportunity to speak, a number of community members voiced skepticisms about the potential consolidation.

One woman said she was concerned about what might happen to workers if services in Syracuse and Onondaga County were combined.

A man in attendance later echoed those sentiments, saying there are already not enough jobs in the city.

“Maybe there’s a path toward consolidation that produces more jobs,” he said. “But I think we’re really territorial about the few jobs that we do have.”

Another man, who said he is a Syracuse firefighter, questioned whether a merger would be beneficial for the fire departments.

“When I go into a building, I know the guys behind me are going to do exactly what I know they’re going to do,” he said. “… If we’re dealing with the county, I (won’t know that). My life is very important to me. I want to go home in the morning. So if we’re going to do this, everybody has to be trained the same.”

In response, Owens said there were proposals in place that called for uniform training for workers following any potential consolidation.

Another woman said she understood how consolidation might make sense for financial reasons, but added that she questioned whether it would serve the best interests of the people living in the city of Syracuse.

“We’ll have all these (workers) who are from the county area and not from the city,” she said. “So when they’re working here, they won’t really be representing what’s going on in the city. They’re coming from another place.”

After the community members finished voicing their concerns, Littlejohn emphasized that nothing is set in stone.

“These options are for discussion,” she said.

Owens added that neither she nor Littlejohn sway one way or another in making a decision and encouraged those in attendance to make sure all community members have their voices heard.

“Your points are well taken,” she said. “You walk out of this room and you grab five more people and say, ‘Have you heard about this discussion?’ And if you need our help … call us. … Our job is to make sure that you’re in that discussion.”

Published on February 2, 2016 at 12:04 am

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu