LANCissues.org -- the website
for the many citywide and regional issues
facing LA's emerging Neighborhood Councils
LANCissues.org

LANCissues.org - the website
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The Citywide Issues Group
for citywide and regional issues
facing LA's Neighborhood Councils
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Here's one of our current issues:

Losing the Services of our Park Rangers

December 15, 2005

Dear concerned City Parks friends and patrons,

Yesterday afternoon, the City Council unfortunately voted for more City bureaucracy by approving the Office of Public Safety. However, they also professed support for the Park Ranger department by allowing them to remain in parks as full Peace Officers. The Zoo, the Library Department, and other consolidated agencies lose their entire staff. Due to all of your efforts, only Rec and Parks is allowed to keep a security force.

Regardless of how ugly and difficult this past two years' struggle with this issue has been, we pretty much wrestled the behemoth to a tie -- they get OPS, but we get to keep our Park Rangers and have some civilian oversight over the monster.

If we hadn't fought this, we'd have OPS -- with no controls-- and a token few naturalist Rangers, plus a parks department with no ability to provide security to the very parks for which they are responsible.

Getting the Rangers funded for 37 positions is next. The General Manager of Rec and Parks says that he requested 37 Park Rangers in his 2006-2007 budget request but the CAO is, of course, balking. So there is more work to be done. Keep an eye on your email and www.SavetheRangers.com

But first, let's all take a well-deserved holiday break...

Thank you, everyone!!!

-Kris

Kristin C. Sabo
(Parks volunteer, GGPNC PROS Committee member, FTDNC stakeholder)
ksabo@wildwildwest.org

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Losing the Services of our Park Rangers

for earlier details in this issue, see: 040907-LosingParkRangers-Kristin.html

Issues Regarding the Proposed January 26th, 2005
Office of Public Safety within GSD
(aka 'the Consolidation', or the 'Park Rangers' issue)

Attached are six major issues with the proposed Office of Public Safety within General Services Division [GSD] that remain either unanswered or unsatisfactorily answered as of this date. A number of community groups including the Greater Griffith Park NC, Echo Elysian Park NC, and the Sierra Club have adopted versions of these points as their current position on the Park Rangers -- Consolidation issue. These six point were originally developed by the GGPNC's PROS Committee (Parks, River, and Open Space) after PROS committee members attended and participated in at least six, 2-hour public presentations held by GSD, SEIU Local 347, and RAP (Dept of Rec and Parks), five different City Council committee meetings, many local NC and community group meetings, and spent literally hundreds of hours investigating the realities of the proposed process.

If any or all of these six points concern you, please take these points to your respective community groups for discussion and possible action as soon as possible. The suggested response is to write your City Council member(s) and the Mayor's office and ask that these points be resolved to your organization members' satisfaction before the proposed Consolidation is moved forward. In the interest of clarity, please be as specific as possible in your letters. The most recent estimated date for the Consolidation to take place that was stated publicly is March 5th, 2005.

I am the original author of these points on behalf of the GGPNC PROS Committee, so if you have any questions, need clarification, or simply would like to discuss the issue, please feel free to email me at ksabo@wildwildwest.org. I will be more than happy to relate our research and experience with this complex issue.

Whatever your community group(s) ultimately decides about this Consolidation, please write your City officials as both individuals and as the groups themselves and specifically express your opinion on this important City-wide issue.

Thank you.

Kristin C. Sabo
(Parks volunteer, GGPNC PROS Committee member, FTDNC stakeholder)

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GGPNC PROS Committee Recommendations 1/5/2005
Actions To Take and Problems To Resolve Before the Implementation of the Proposed Office of Public Safety (`the Consolidation') Takes Place

1. There must be a dedicated Parks Bureau within the proposed Office of Public Safety whose officers are assigned to work specifically and exclusively within the Parks.

(A dedicated Parks Bureau ensures the continuation of Rangers' complex and specific body of expertise over time, despite employee turnover and retirement.)

2. There must be civilian oversight of the proposed Office of Public Safety.

(Civilian commissions oversee Departments using deadly force in the performance of their duties. The General Services Department is one of only two City departments without citizen oversight. Since the GSD's proposed Office of Public Safety is, in effect, a second police force, there must be a civilian commission that approves policy, provides accountability and responds to incidents.)

3. Before the proposed Office of Public Safety is implemented, its operating rules must be settled to the public's satisfaction.

(When public safety is the issue, verbal assurances that "the details will be worked out later" are not enough. All memos of understanding (MOUs), methods of accountability, benchmarks, duties, and requirements for operations of both the proposed Office of Public Safety and the Recreation and Parks Department's regional Park Ranger corps must:
- be specifically and clearly defined in writing
- have passed through all involved unions' 'meet and confer' processes
- have passed through all public comment recommendation, and approval process
- have been approved by the City Council)

4. The Recreation and Parks Department must receive the dollars needed to initiate and maintain the City approved regional Park Ranger corps of 30 officers for large regional parks.

(This corps was created by the LaBonge-Hahn-Greuel City Council Motion, File # 04-2043, supported by the GGPNC and other NCs and passed by the full City Council on December 14, 2004. To date, it has not been funded by the City.)

5. The Recreation and Parks Department's regional Park Ranger corps must be paid commensurate with their level of education as compared with similar positions requiring college degrees within the City of Los Angeles.

(If the pay inequity issue is not resolved, the so-called "Ranger Retention Issue" will continue within the Recreation and Parks Department regional Park Rangers corps.)

6. The Recreation and Parks Department's regional Park Ranger corps must retain the ability to write citations and enforce City codes. Rangers with Peace Officer Status must be permitted to use it.

(Preventing certified Rangers from performing these duties wastes a valuable resource, reduces the amount of security in the parks, and invites contempt from and emboldens violators.)

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Kristin Sabo
ksabo@wildwildwest.org