Editorial 3.7, July 2001, by Deirdre Helfferich In Brief Due to lack of inspiration and space constraints, the editor is, the publisher is sorry to say, fresh out of editorials this month. However, a brief opinion is still possible: I think, bluntly, that it’s a bad idea to combine the borough and the city governments. The city of Fairbanks, due to its population, already has undue influence over the borough. Fairbanks is not, no matter how much it supposes itself to be, representative of the rest of the borough. The pupose of consolidation is to save money and be "consistent with the [state] constitutional policies favoring maximum local self-government with a minimum of local government units"(FDNM, 1/3/01, Dan Bockhorst). Well, sure, if you like oxymorons. Local government means local responsiveness. Local units subsumed into a larger one lose that responsiveness. Self-determination is important, and should not be sacrificed. All the communities in the borough would lose with consolidation—perhaps especially Fairbanks. | ||
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