By raising the population above 30,000 the new city might also become an attractive location from stores such as Wal-Mart to manufacturers looking for a new place where labor is plentiful and inexpensive. Such a merger of cities would also help develop a broader and healthier economic development strategy. Now it is common for city managers to compete with one another in order to tempt a business to locate in their city rather than some other part of the county. A merger of cities would reduce the level of competition and also promote a long-term economic development strategy. In the private sector, corporate mergers are taken for granted.
Companies merge because it makes economic sense.
Yet, mergers and the public sector do not appear to go together. Fortunately, the state Assembly has recognized cooperative and regional approaches as the path to betterment. Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg has set up a Commission on Regionalism. One of its missions is to promote regional collaboration among local governments. I am confident that a merger of smaller cities in Kern County will benefit the residents of those communities immensely, as well as those living in the rest of the county.