The city and county haven't always gotten along as much as they should, even when both were run by Republicans. Now, the city seems set on undoing one of the few good city-county cooperative efforts:
Allen County officials have begun to prepare for the city's move from the building that the two governments have shared for four decades.
“I met with the mayor (Tuesday), and it looks like the city will be moving out (of the City-County Building),” County Commissioner Bill Brown said. “We're not shooing them out, but we are looking at our options.”
[. . .]
The mayor has told me and others that the price on the Renaissance building has come down. Price is one thing, but would this be the best move? We'd be going into a building that's even older than the one we're in now.”
Brown, meanwhile, has said Renaissance owner George Huber has described the city's move as a “done deal."
Even if it could be shown this move would save money, the savings would have to be weighed against the loss of convenience for taxpayers who have been used to going to one building for both city and county government needs. But it looks like it could even be costlier than the current arrangement, which makes the whole idea even worse. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
