Bring us all together.

That was the consensus of our Leadership Pittsburgh group that spent the last nine months studying whether a merger of the city and county made sense. While not everyone believes it should be done without further due diligence, a fairly broad consensus emerged that the fragmented state of our government today is not helping our present and will surely crimp our future.

		Enzo Santilli is managing director of the Pittsburgh office of MarketSphere Consulting (enzo.santilli@marketsphere.com). He is a member of Leadership Pittsburgh. RELATED ARTICLE Forum: City-county merger -- still a lousy idea

In short, the focus is on merging government services provided by Allegheny County with the city of Pittsburgh. Currently, many of the county government's functions are more regional in nature -- that is, they benefit a broader constituency. Unfortunately, a lot of what they do does not extend to the city -- creating a hole-in-the-doughnut effect. The location of highways, the attraction of businesses, the accommodation of shopping malls all suffer from our crazy quilt of municipal boundaries. If you've been stuck in traffic driving through the city's Squirrel Hill neighborhood to get to the suburban Waterfront development, or stuck on the suburban Freeport Road to get to the city's Waterworks Mall, you'll know what I mean.

With a variety of misconceptions existing, some clarification of the task at hand is in order. The proposed consolidation:

Is not about causing 130 independent municipalities to disappear overnight. Your local mayor and police force will stay intact. Struggling municipalities may choose to become part of the consolidated government but are not obliged to do so.

Is not about taxing suburbanites to pay for the city's debt structure or services. Successful consolidations retained a two-tier tax rate so that the urban districts, whose citizens receive a different level of service, pay differently.

Is not about merging school districts. They would be intact.

Is not about massive government job reductions and tax relief. Some consolidations saved a little money, but most reduced duplication through attrition and used the consolidation to slow the future expense-growth rate.

That's right. The consolidation isn't really about cutting your tax bill and sending a pink slip to your neighbor who works for the government. Some job realignment and inefficiencies do occur, but in many cases, resources are redeployed to fill gaps in services where the current tax dollar does not reach. Thus, there is a more efficient and equitable distribution of services countywide.

The main and foremost reason we should consolidate the city and county governments is that it will enable us to create, plan and execute our economic and social development more simply and with one consensus voice. The resounding theme of the municipalities who have consolidated their city and county governments is that a new business, a new developer, a new infrastructure improvement is much more likely to go to an area where planning is fast, easy and streamlined. Those with capital to invest in our region know well of our 2,500 taxing bodies in Pennsylvania. We have to change.

Furthermore, an effect of several of the consolidations was that it stabilized the population of the consolidated area as it attracted growth. That alone would be a much-needed shot in the arm for our county.

Make no mistake about it, opposition will be fierce. We've already seen the failed attempt of Wall Borough and Wilmerding Borough -- combined population of less than 2,000 -- in our own backyard. In most consolidations elsewhere, the plan was rejected a few times before it succeeded. If you remember Plan B, get ready for a C. But note that no government has decided to unconsolidate. Change can be hard, but good.

The critics will also cite Philadelphia, with its economic woes, as an example of failure -- an effort that took nearly 100 years to complete. Just remember that a structure doesn't guarantee success. It still takes leaders to execute it.

So far, our local leaders haven't stepped up much to champion our shared future. Perhaps it's time we challenge them to do so. A consolidated city and county would make us the eighth-largest city in the nation, ahead of Dallas. That's something every fan in Steelers nation should love.