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Politics & Government

City, County Consider Shacking Up

The City of Napa, which owns three times as much downtown real estate as Napa County, has formally invited the county to consider the possibility of consolidating or "co-locating" the two municipalities on city property.

The and the held a rare joint meeting last month to discuss two major topics of interest to citizens in both municipalities: state budget cuts to local services and the city’s invitation to the county to consider sharing office space downtown.

The city’s overture offers an alternative to the county’s proposed multistory “” development along Third Street, which is opposed by many city residents for its size and mass.

The county has one acre to work with; the city has three, according to officials.

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 The city’s proposal also raises the possibility of providing better services to residents and property owners who now must shuttle between city and county offices to obtain all the services they need.

“We share a similar customer base,” said assistant city manager Nancy Weiss, “and we have similar functions.”

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The county supervisors agreed to allow the city to conduct a six-month study of the feasibility of “co-locating” the two municipalities’ offices, before resuming the discussion.

The special joint session began with a series of brief reports from several county department heads on the current and potential impacts of the state’s budget crisis, which threatens many services used primarily by city residents: Medi-Cal, CalWorks, In-Home Supportive Services, First Five and juvenile probation, among many others.

“With the (extension of the state’s) vehicle tax not approved, there will be a significant reduction in programs,” said assistant county executive Britt Ferguson.

But with the final state budget still under discussion in California, county officials could only warn of more belt-tightening without providing many hard numbers.

“The legislature passes the budget, then various state departments allocate (funding) to the counties,” Ferguson explained to the two governing bodies.

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