Back in 2011, I was privileged to hear a wonderful speaker as he made the rounds, speaking to several area organizations about consolidation. At the time, we were at some our highest levels of unemployment in the recession, governments were forced to cut services and municipalities were raising taxes.  The city of Venice had just experienced a large turnover of its council and Jerry Abramson, the first mayor of a consolidated government in America – Louisville metro – was asked to come to Sarasota to share his experience, good and bad.