But the issue of county financial stability and its ability to continue to take care of the Parkway, which it has been doing for several years in a pretty poor manner, will lessen as higher salaries are paid and more cities incorporate.
Our suggestion is to follow the example of the Sacramento Zoo and have a nonprofit organization contract with local government to provide daily management and fund raising for the parkway, moving it into a much stronger position for the future while county funds continue to shrink.
An excerpt.
County has turned corner in negotiations
With the county's largest unions agreeing to new pacts -- including 4,000 office and welfare workers -- officials hope to quickly settle with a dozen smaller unions
By Ed Fletcher and Deb Kollars - Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Sacramento County has "turned a corner" in protracted contract negotiations with its employee unions, putting two weeks of labor strife in the rearview mirror, officials said.
Tuesday marked the first day since Labor Day that no employee unions asked members to skip work.
The county reached a tentative agreement at 5 a.m. Tuesday with United Public Employees Local 1, representing 4,000 county office and welfare workers. Hours earlier, agreement was reached with the union representing a mix of health workers, the last of the unions striking against the county.
The tentative agreements mean that 62 percent of union-represented county employees either have accepted new five-year contracts or will soon vote on tentative agreements.
Forty-eight morning-shift workers -- apparently missing the message that the strike was over -- were reported as AWOL Tuesday. The county promised leniency.
After a string of late-night bargaining sessions, Steve Lakich, the county's director of labor relations, sounded an optimistic tone Tuesday.
"With the UPE agreement in, I think we have turned a corner," Lakich said.
Twelve of the 18 unions representing county employees have yet to reach an agreement with the county, but Lakich predicted that many of the smaller unions -- now that they've seen what the larger unions are getting -- would settle soon.
