The next time you go to a city park, bring your pruning shears and garden gloves: Park maintenance in the city is about to be dealt a $119,000 budget blow – leaving the department with one-man maintenance crews and increasing the burden on volunteers to pick up the slack. “I’m not happy to say this, but we have inadequate resources and inadequate staffing,” Director Jim Combs told the City Council Tuesday. Even with a department budget reduced by more than 60 percent and staffing reduced by ... mcorker JAT comment-68215 2012-05-22T16:40:27Z 2012-05-22T16:40:27Z Why weren't the contracts written to include emergency dispatch requirements? I would think you'd have more flexibility with private contractors, since you call all the shots, whereas with unions you call very few. In any case, I know you have a tough job. Good luck. JAT 2012-05-22T16:40:27Z jrewers2 comment-67970 2012-05-17T00:06:15Z 2012-05-17T00:06:15Z Hi Craig, we have tried to outsource Park Maintenance in the park. The problem is when you use contractors, you don't get the response time you need to community concerns. With crews on dispatch to 311 and our supervisors, we can deal with issues as they come up in our park system - which they do everyday. Speaking for the maintenance of our Urban Forest, we did move more toward contracted maintenance, and were able to go from a 20 year pruning cycle to a more standard 7, but it was a hybrid syste, in which our staff supervised the contractors, as they are the experts - we do need people that know and care about our parks. It might just come to the voters, and they will decide....if we can't afford it, we will have to consider major changes. jrewers2 2012-05-17T00:06:15Z cogmeyer comment-67967 2012-05-16T23:03:48Z 2012-05-16T23:03:48Z Mark, what in the world are you talking about? cogmeyer 2012-05-16T23:03:48Z Craig Powell comment-67963 2012-05-16T21:19:36Z 2012-05-16T21:19:36Z Outsourcing park maintenace has to be on the table. To its credit, the city council approved outsourcing city golf course maintenance last fall for a projected annual $500,000 savings. Outsourcing basic park maintenance will save many times that amount. In William Land Park we have seen the park maintenance crew reduced from 19 full-time park workers in 2005 to just three workers today, all of whom are over 60 and nearing retirement. Despite monthly park clean-ups by 50 to 90 volunteers of the Land Park Volunteer Corps, we can barely hold back the tide of mounting neglect. Outsourcing has to be considered and very soon. Raising taxes to fund park care before trying outsourcing maintenance is simply nuts. Why should city taxpayors pay higher taxes for services that could be provided less expensively by private contractors who will do the work while creating twice the number of current jobs, particularly for unemployed young people. Does McCarty seriously believe that 2/3rds of recession-slammed Sacramento voters will vote for such a tax hike? Craig Powell 2012-05-16T21:19:36Z Mark comment-67953 2012-05-16T19:54:27Z 2012-05-16T19:54:27Z That's great Issac but you are aware aren't you that Sacramentans have a reputation of being stingy? I'm not saying that the fine people who contribute on Sac Press are though. Most the people here are informed or at least interested in what's going beyond their front door. Mark 2012-05-16T19:54:27Z Mark comment-67949 2012-05-16T19:49:12Z 2012-05-16T19:49:12Z Or you can be a complainer and assume (wrongly) that your civic responsibility ends at begrudgingly paying your taxes and obeying the law, well other than the traffic ones anyway. Mark 2012-05-16T19:49:12Z Isaac Gonzalez comment-67947 2012-05-16T19:20:25Z 2012-05-16T19:20:25Z I know that Sacramentans are good citizens; I created and manage the Tahoe Park Neighborhood Association's Park Beautification Program, and we have had six park clean-up events in the last two years, with two more set for 2012. At each event, dozens of people come out to help make sure Tahoe Park remains and safe and clean place for families to come together. If someone starts such a group, and advertises it properly, people will and do show up to make a difference. Isaac Gonzalez 2012-05-16T19:20:25Z cogmeyer comment-67941 2012-05-16T17:04:34Z 2012-05-16T17:04:34Z The obvious question here is what is the cost if all park maintenance staff are laid off, and the services outsourced to a non-union private contractor? it is truly bizarre that city council is so beholden to the public employee unions that they dont even bother to explore practical solutions before immediately agreeing to service reductions. cogmeyer 2012-05-16T17:04:34Z JWS comment-67919 2012-05-16T15:59:20Z 2012-05-16T15:59:20Z City parks belong to us, the people of Sacramento, and not to some independent and impersonal entity we call 'the city'. Therefore, we have a responsibility to take care of our parks. In the past we were financially able to hire enough people to do the work for us but times are tough so we are going to have start picking up the slack. This is nothing new. Even in wealthy cities like New York there was a time when park maintenance was so low that New Yorkers were forced to step up and step in to ensure that their great parks would survive into the future. Today we face comparably far fewer problems here in Sacramento. The question is are Sacramentans as good of citizens? JWS 2012-05-16T15:59:20Z