A buddy from Fairfield said the other day that he thinks the proposal to merge the Des Moines and Polk County governments is based on an awkwardly cobbled document and is an ill-conceived plan that probably won’t achieve any of its desired goals for a more unified approach to government in the metro. Given the bridges burned in the casino deal reached by the city of Des Moines, Polk County and Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino, he may be right about that – but not because the plan is flawed.

I responded that though on the surface the proposal doesn’t appear to make a lot of sense because it doesn’t attempt to bring the suburbs under one umbrella government, it’s nevertheless a sensible baby step toward the notion that we’re all in this together. The subject of uni-government came up as we were discussing the plight of one of the Fairfield area’s smallest burgs, Libertyville, which had a devil of a time a couple of years ago getting anyone to agree to serve as mayor and just announced another vacancy on its city council.

“You ought to be thinking about consolidating local governments in your county,” I said.

He’s still on life support. It won’t work in Fairfield, he sputtered. All progress in the city would grind to a halt if the conservative farmers in Jefferson County, some of whom are outspokenly opposed to ideas originating from Fairfield residents who practice Transcendental Meditation, were given a say. His predictions were dire. “You could pretty much forget about an Ed Malloy (Fairfield’s progressive mayor and a meditator) being elected to head a countywide government,” he said, resigned.

I told him to take the local politics and personalities out of the equation and ask if it’s reasonable to take a more regional approach to government that eliminates redundancies in services and consolidates tax levies, perhaps reducing them overall. Yes, maybe, he said, but things are going so well in the sandbox that it’s hard to fathom changing the play group.

That’s the problem with achieving change in Iowa. People tend to look at their individual circumstances, then make their choice based on how they’ll be affected. All Iowans, whether they’re in urban Polk County or rural Jefferson County, need to stop thinking in terms of what is best for them individually and start thinking regionally. If consolidation of local governments and services is a good idea someday, why not today?

Change is imperative. With reductions in state aid to local government over the past couple of years, the Legislature has sent a clear signal that government has to change. When the public-sector employees of Iowa’s 99 counties, 945 cities, 2,000 townships, and state and federal governments are tallied, Iowa outranks most states. Clearly, the glut is at the local level.

The pro- and anti-merger folks are gearing up for the Nov. 2 election, when the proposition to merge the Des Moines and Polk County governments will be on the ballot. Whether you support it or oppose it, make sure you’re basing your decision on what makes smart government rather than who the players are.

E-mail Beth Dalbey, editorial director for Business Publications Corp., at bethdalbey@bpcdm.com or call her at 288-3336.