Part II -- Parks v Recreation at County Council

Yesterday there was a hearing on whether or not to fold Recreation into Parks, or to fold Parks into Recreation, or just leave the two as they are.

Nothing was directly resolved, and there will be more public hearings on this, where the members of the Public have an actual chance to sign up to speak.

Yet the general picture that I took away from this was that the County Council members present -- Marc Elrich and Nancy Floreen were the only ones I could actually see from my boxed-in little corner of the standing-room-only crowd -- were well aware that rumors were flying.

Parks made an excellent presentation, so far as I was concerned, pointing out that due to the size of their organization, it would not be too difficult for them to absorb the functions, and even the personnel, of the County's department of Recreation, which in any case mostly operates out of buildings on lands owned by MNCPPC Parks. Recreation, on the other hand, didn't make a particularly good case for being able to absorb Parks without resolving a whole raft of labor issues including transferring retirement packages, etc., with a subtext left hanging that this could be a playground for Union representatives trying to force issues. Yet one thing definitely came out of the statements of the delegation from Recreation: County Executive "Ike" Leggett really wants the County's parks to be entirely under his own, and only his own, top-down authority.

I wonder why that would be.