Muscogee County GaArchives Photo Person.....Allen, James R. 
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Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 May 17, 2007, 7:19 pm

Source:             Sesquicentennial Supplement II, Ledger- Enquirer
Name:               James R. Allen
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/allen12882gph.jpg
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                    Years of Work Brought Consolidation

                            By Constance Johnson 
                            Ledger Staff Writer

  To Martelle Layfield, consolidation means unity.
  "It's no longer we-they. It's us," said the Columbus lawyer, a member of the 
select panel of 19 which wrote the charter for the Columbus consolidated 
government.
  "We may not agree with all the decisions made. We all enjoy the benefits of 
the 'us' attitude."   One of the benefits Layfield is certain of, although he 
can't put a dollar figure on it, is a lower tax bill than he would have to pay 
two governments, city and county.
  No one knows, of course, what would have happened to the tax structure had 
the former City of Columbus and the Muscogee County government not been 
consolidated, as they were on Jan. 1, 1971.
  But the pattern in places where city and county governments have merged is 
favorable in comparison with other cities that have not.
  Two southern cities that were pioneers in the consolidation move, Nashville, 
Tenn., and Jacksonville, Fla., have found this to be true. 
  Taxes in Nashville-Davidson are lower than those for the combined city-county 
rates in Memphis, Chattanooga or Knoxville, Tenn., said Joe Foster, formerly of 
Columbus and now press aide to Nashville Mayor Richard Fulton.  
  Jacksonville has the lowest tax rate of the 26 largest cities in the nation, 
claims Mike Tolbert, another former Columbusite who is now an aide to 
Jacksonville Mayor Orville Hans Tanzler.
  And there's no question that other Florida cities envy Jacksonville's 
government. At a recent meeting that brought journalists and local government 
officials together in St. Petersburg, the chorused wish of mayors and city 
managers was consolidation. Without it, they predicted, growth will become 
chaotic, services and the environment deteriorate, and taxes soar.
  Lower taxes weren't promised when consolidation of Columbus and Muscogee 
County governments was being considered in the late 1960s. Instead, those 
advocating merger talked of a "more efficient, more responsive" government, 
and, down the road, less taxes than local citizens eventually would face in 
supporting dual governments.
  The real problem, as they saw it, was division and duplication, with the 
county government pulling in one direction and the city goverment in another. 
Neither the city nor county had much clout at the state level and virtually no 
national recognition except as the home of Fort Benning.
  Columbus' lack of good roads isolated it from the rest of the nation; the 
only two expressways out of the city ended in the villages of Ellerslie and 
Cusseta. There was no coordinated planning for metropolitan area growth.
  City and county commissioners derided each other at their separate meetings, 
and bickered over trivialities at their rare joint meetings.
  Consolidation did not come easily. More than two decades of thought, work and 
one abortive attempt at merger preceded the formation of the Muscogee County 
Charter Commission in 1969 and a successful vote on consolidation in 1970.
  The merger of the Columbus and Muscogee County health departments in 1940 and 
of the city and county schools in 1950 had provided successful small scale 
models of consolidation. And in 1956, the county turned over miles of water and 
sewer lines outside the city to the Columbus Water Works.
  In early 1961, in line with a Muscogee County Grand Jury recommendation, a 
Citizens Committee was appointed to consider consolidation. After months of 
controversy and dissension, the committee proposed that the city and county 
commission be abolished and replaced by a new single six-member commission and 
an elected mayor.
  A referendum on the new single comission failed, undermined by a highly 
organized campaign of opposition in which consolidation was denounced as 
a "Communist conspiracy."
  Five years later local voters approved three constitutional amendments that 
would have permitted mergers of the city and county commissions, the boards of 
tax assessors and other parallel city and comminty departments. None was ever 
used.
  Nevertheless, the idea of consolidation continued to gain adherents, and in 
1967, a consolidation study committee was created. After months of study and 
travel to other cities that had consolidated, the committee decided it did not 
have the legal authority for its task. It proposed that a charter commission be 
created, with powers defined by the General Assembly.
  This brought about a constitutional amendment authorizing the creation of a 
charter commission, and thereafter, actual enabling legislation for the 
Muscogee County Charter Commission, setting its goals, powers and limitations 
(no changes could be made in the courts, the sheriff's department or the school 
district.) 
  The commission's first 15 members all white, were appointed by the city and 
county commission, and Dr. Thomas Y. Whitley, president of Columbus College, 
was elected chairman. Later responding to protests that the black community had 
been ignored, four blacks were appointed to the commission.
  Among hundreds of decisions made in the course of a  year's work, the charter 
drafters had the most difficulty with the type of government, taxing districts 
and charter amending powers.
  The final proposal called for an elected mayor and 10-member council (four 
district and six at-large), and an appointed city manager. Separate taxing 
districts were to be established later, according to the level of services 
provided. Three routes for amending the charter were included in the document: 
by act of the General Assembly, by a referendum initiated by the council, or a 
referendum initiated by a petition of citizens.
  The charter commission's plan to create one powerful position of city 
leadership was brought to life by the first consolidated mayor, the late J. R. 
Allen.
  Although the charter states that the mayor is to be official spokesman for 
the consolidated government and its chief advocate of policy, it also gives the 
council the power to thwart the mayor, who does not have a veto and whose 
policies and budget must be approved by the council.
  Allen viewed the relationship of the mayor's office to Columbus as parallel 
to the president's role as the national leader. He immediately set out to give 
Columbus not only a new image but a change from the inside out.
  He reorganized the police department, made it known the city would be 
aggressive in seeing new industry, shook up boards that did not fit his concept 
of progressive action. He used his distinctive position as a  southern 
Republican mayor in supporting federal revenue sharing and sought out federal 
grants for recreation, urban development, law enforcement, comprehensive 
planning and several experimental projects.
  Allen also brought intergration into the city government in a manner that 
could be a model for affirmative action programs.
  His death in a plane crash in 1973 cut short a meteortic political career 
that many thought would lead to the governorship or high national office. But 
Allen's three years effectively  shaped the mayor's office. His successor, Bob 
Hydrick, a more able administrator although not as charismatic as Allen, 
continued the progressive stance until his defeat in the 1974 backlash against 
Republicans and Watergate.
  Although Mayor Jack Mickle wasn't as involved as either Allen or Hydrick (a 
member of the charter commission) in consolidation, he supported it and used it 
to the city's advantage, primarily in getting state-federal aid for highways, 
urban. renewal, health facilities, and programs to fight unemployment.
  Today, criticism of consolidation is seldom heard in Columbus, but many 
individuals who live outside the 1970 city limits still object to paying the 
higher tax that came to that geographic area when it became a part of the city. 
  The official response to this is that these property owners, almost all of 
whom depend on the Columbus economy for a livelihood, are now paying their 
share for services and benefits they've long enjoyed.
  Across the nation, metropolitan areas with a multiplicity of governments look 
enviously on those communities that have consolidation.
  Cecil Branstetter, a Nashville attorney, explains why consolidation is 
popular there. "From the standpoint of  public services and costs, 
consolidation has been successful," he said.
  Nashville hasn't had a property tax rate increase since 1971, and the 
political bickering that went on between competing goverments has evaporated.
  Other advantages, from the public viewpoint, came through consolidation of 
schools, law enforcement and fire protection, he said.
  In Jacksonville, where the county and several city goverments were 
consolidated in 1968, there are fewer paid public employees today than in 1970, 
Tolbert said.
  Other economies have been realized by creating one motor pool, one data 
processing center, one purchasing department that serves the school district as 
well as the city.
  Although there are still only a few consolidated goverments in the nation, 
and only one in Georgia, interest in consolidation continues. It has been 
defeated in Brunswick, Athens, Macon and Augusta, but the idea is not dead. 
Savannah is now considering consolidation.
  As Columbus continues to grow and spills over into adjacent counties, another 
form of consolidation may be explored.
  The person who works in Columbus but lives outside the city limits will be 
just as concerned with schools, recreation, hospitals as those who once lived 
on farms in Muscogee County, Layfield said. "We may see the same trend in the 
future, the need for a cohesive unit, an economical way to provide the services 
the voters need and want." 
  It's a long way off, he predicted, but in time the  Harris County line will 
be as immaterial as the old city limits of Columbus. 

Special Sesquicentennial Supplement II
 Ledger-Enquirer, Sunday , April 23, 1978. Pg S-3.

James R. Allen , b ca 1930 d. 2/15/1973 , plane crash., buried Parkhill Cem. 
(CGT)
site for list of Mayor'
http://www.columbusga.org/CoC/Mayor_list.pdf

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