Durham City Councilman Howard Clement wants to merge city and county government. In fact, he says Durham’s future depends on it. From the News & Observer (emphasis is mine):
Merging Durham’s city and council governments has been formally proposed numerous times since the mid-1920s, but each proposal has either been abandoned or defeated in public referenda in 1960 and 1974.
Clement said in November that he planned to raise the issue again, because the current recession’s effects on local-government budgets require cutting government costs.
Today, he said he mentioned merger “just to get it in the record,” and was “pleasantly surprised” that others were receptive.
“We’re going to have to merge government in Durham, in my opinion, to save Durham,” Clement said.
