Key representatives from the pro-merger advocacy group Better Together and the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis debated regional government consolidation, head-to-head, at the Post-Dispatch Thursday morning.

Pat Kelly, executive director of the Municipal League, and Dave Leipholtz, research director at Better Together, met on the Inside the Post-Dispatch podcast. Taping was also live-streamed on Facebook.

It is the first time since the release of Better Together's report that representatives from the two agencies have debated the subject in public.