IT IS GOOD THAT the city and county commissions have so quickly approved the task force to study the possibility of consolidating city and county law enforcement.
It is good that the task force plans to hold its first meeting in the next few days.
That said, wait a minute!
When the city commission discussed the task force at Wednesday’s meeting, Commissioner Ray Toso raised the possibility of adding representation from outside Emporia to the task force. Only two members of the seven-member group live outside the city.
Mayor Jim Kessler said he thought Toso had a point. But then the commission went ahead and approved the task force as proposed.
The county commission voted Thursday morning to approve the task force.
If the task force winds up recommending consolidation, this haste to start the process could doom a proposal from the outset.
If the elections of 2006 proved anything, it was that the residents of Lyon County who live outside Emporia have a deep distrust of the motives and common sense of the people who live in the city. That distrust killed both the proposal to add two members to the county commission and the proposal to hire a county manager.
The same distrust could kill any consolidation plan that issues from a task force perceived by county residents to be biased from its inception.
There is still time to add more county representation to the task force before its work begins in earnest.
Expanding the group would reassure rural residents of the county and might help avoid strife down the road.