FORGET NOT FIELD QUALITY

The City Council gave the green light to the City Manager to pursue the outsourcing of public safety, a path which alleviates the budget crisis and preserves Parks and Recreation. But, in the name of protecting park maintenance workers from layoffs, the outsourcing of park maintenance is being soft pedaled. That is placing government jobs in front of field quality. If you have not been on the fields, specifically if your children have not played soccer on the fields, you might not know that the grass is too long, the gopher holes too many and the general quality sub par. Look, I am a happy guy, because it looks like the parks are going to remain open. And I like the idea that some of the park maintenance workers are going to be re-purposed to the sewer upgrade. People feel strongly that these are nice, upstanding hard working and talented city employees. But the City Manager indicated that actual layoffs to enable maintenance outsourcing will not happen and that we will have to wait for retirements and the like, before this option is fully implemented. Hells no! Government is here to provide services, not jobs. Government needs to relentlessly pursue the most efficient delivery models. This isn't the moment to push on this issue. The larger budget issues and public safety outsourcing needs to be pushed over the goal line. But let's bookmark this issue and be ready to return to it when the time is right.