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GREENSBORO — If it’s not broke, why fix it?

That was the consensus Thursday when Guilford County’s Board of Commissioners heard proposals for merging the county’s planning department with Greensboro’s and bringing the county’s human services under one organization.

The sticking point: neither change is likely to save money or improve efficiency.

“What’s the point?” said Commissioner Bruce Davis. “I was ready to hear the arguments, but once they said there were no cost savings and it wouldn’t really improve the work, I just didn’t understand why we would do it.”

On the question of consolidating oversight boards for the county’s public health, mental health authority and social services, the commissioners heard from County Attorney Mark Payne, Drake Maynard from the N.C. Office of State Personnel and Jerry Fox, a retired Mecklenburg County manager.

Maynard said the state hasn’t heard any complaints about Guilford County’s health services in the past few years, and the state has had no problem working with them. The merger was entirely up to the county, he said.

Fox said Mecklenburg County merged its human services agencies 20 years ago. While he couldn’t point to any cost savings or specific examples of efficiency, he said he believed it improved communication between departments and gave the county commissioners more control over the departments and their employees without having to go through the state’s personnel office.

“I think your decision would probably be made on your belief in a system where the county commissioners are directly accountable for services that use a lot of county funds,” Fox said.

That was an argument that appealed to board Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston, who said he supports the commissioners having more direct control. Challenged on the point by other commissioners, Alston said there had been “whisperings” about miscommunications between departments that he thought the board should deal with more openly.

Davis was joined by Commissioners Carolyn Coleman and Mike Winstead in asking just what Alston meant, and who had been whispering.

“Well, I’ve been whispering,” Alston finally said. “And someone should be shouting it out loud.”

But without any actual evidence of miscommunication or inefficiency, Alston couldn’t convince the rest of the board.

“I’m not whispering,” Davis said. “I’m shouting out loud it’s a bad idea.”

“Our service isn’t a problem, we’re not saving money, and the only other thing I could see in it is getting away from the state,” Winstead said. “That doesn’t seem to be a problem either.”

“I think we can probably improve what we’ve got right now without necessarily having to go all the way to merging those departments,” said Commissioner Kirk Perkins.

None of the heads of the human services departments were asked to speak Thursday. Several commissioners suggested getting them all in one room to establish whether there are problems. Alston agreed, but argued fewer layers between the departments and the commissioners would make them easier to manage.

“It don’t have to be broke for us to fix it better,” Alston said.

The discussion of merging the planning departments was a little more complex.

Marlene Sanford is chairwoman of the Intergovernmental Planning Task Force, which has been studying a merger since April. She’s also president of the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition. She said her task force’s study found that the county can’t count on a merger saving money or making the departments more efficient, but it would make development easier once the economy turns around.

Sanford’s task force recommended a merger by the end of the year, saying the path for developers is too obstructed now.

In the end the commissioners agreed to consider the merger, but many said it might be better to concentrate on making the existing system more user-friendly.

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com