The list of 70: http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_18058431?source=pkg
http://www.mercurynews.com/california-budget/ci_18058381

Here is a list on a Google Map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... urce=embed

Sad news.

$11 million dollar "solution" to a ~$10 billion dollar budget gap.

The prison guards overtime budget is 10x what they are going to save by closing the parks.

you can prob still just camp there though and plan on a primitive experience, right?

The Castle Crags closure is especially interesting. Fortunately, if I recall, the trail access is on the state park, but the climbing in on national forest land. If I am right, this may make it a little longer walk, but hopefully will not really affect access.

The article says private non-profits are not allowed to take over administration of the parks due to union rules. I wonder what nonprofits are interested?

this seems to have become an annual ritual...

It would surprise me if anyone is naive enough to think state/regional/local governments close parks to save money. They close parks because tax payers like them and they complain when they are closed and gov'ts take the opportunity to explain to the tax payers that the park is closed because they don't pay enough taxes. The regional government I worked for sold parks and swimming pools to local municipalities while rank and file BEAT COPS earned up to a quarter million USD a year due to their incredibly generous union contracts and nepotism.

ExcitableBoy wrote:It would surprise me if anyone is naive enough to think state/regional/local governments close parks to save money. They close parks because tax payers like them and they complain when they are closed and gov'ts take the opportunity to explain to the tax payers that the park is closed because they don't pay enough taxes. The regional government I worked for sold parks and swimming pools to local municipalities while rank and file BEAT COPS earned up to a quarter million USD a year due to their incredibly generous union contracts and nepotism.

I KNOW exactly what you're saying.

The pendulum seems to be swinging toward PRIVATE ownership of previously PUBLIC-owned lands and parcels.

It's enough to make "ROBO-COP" go into early retirement !!!

Washington Monument Syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington ... t_Syndrome

fedak,

Nice link, I didn't know there was name for it this tactic, I just though it was SOP for gov't. In case folks think I am employing hyperbole, here is a link to an Excel spreadsheet with with employees, job titles, and annual pay for the regional gov't I worked for. http://lbloom.net/KC2009.xls

Enable editing and sort, high to low, on 2009 income. The highest paid public employees are medical doctors and cops. Look at the amount of overtime paid to the cops. Must be hardworking public servants to earn all that overtime, right? Well, cop pensions are based on the salary of the last years you work. In the last few years of service, incredible amounts of overtime are funneled towards the soon to retire officers to inflate the salaries their pensions are based upon. Couple that with a guaranteed 5% salary increase every year, COLAs, and the best union around (what other union will fight tooth and nail for you to keep your job after you shoot to death a deaf, geriatric, disabled homeless person to death) and a fellow can do pretty well for himself, especially considering the low, low, low, bar candidates must crawl under to become cops.

Here is a list of the qualifications to earn up to $250,000 a year:


>21 yo
US citizen
GED. That's right, you don't even need a HS dipoloma
Ability to read and speak english. Note that the ability to write in English is NOT a requirement.
Drivers License
Normal color vision (based on the Ishihara standard range of normal color vision as determined by the medical exam)
Uncorrected vision of 20/100 or better, correctable to 20/30 with the use of glasses, hard contact lenses or soft contacts you have worn for less than one year OR
Corrected vision to 20/30 or better with soft contact lenses you have worn for at least one year (in this case there is no uncorrected vision standard) OR
Uncorrected vision of 20/30 or better.

Below is a list of all the things that specifically WILL NOT DISQUALIFY a candidate

Drugs
Criminal Activity
At fault driving collisions
Moving violations
Driving While License Suspended or Revoked.
Dishonorable Military discharge
Suspension, revocation, or denial of a Law Enforcement certificate (CJTC/POST) in any state

ExcitableBoy wrote:fedak,

Nice link, I didn't know there was name for it this tactic, I just though it was SOP for gov't. In case folks think I am employing hyperbole, here is a link to an Excel spreadsheet with with employees, job titles, and annual pay for the regional gov't I worked for. http://lbloom.net/KC2009.xls

Enable editing and sort, high to low, on 2009 income. The highest paid public employees are medical doctors and cops. Look at the amount of overtime paid to the cops. Must be hardworking public servants to earn all that overtime, right? Well, cop pensions are based on the salary of the last years you work. In the last few years of service, incredible amounts of overtime are funneled towards the soon to retire officers to infate the salaries their pensions are based upon. Couple that with a guaranteed 5% salary increase every year and a fellow can do pretty well for himself, especially considering the low, low, low, bar candidates must crawl under to become cops.

A little different here in California. The California Public Employees pension board stopped that practice ("spiking") about 10 years ago. Not only was overtime being used to spike a pension, but unused vacation would also be added over the last three years of work to increase retirement benefit calculations (the pension is based on an average of the last three working year's salary). It also amazes me that mimimum retirement ages have not been adjusted upward as life expectancy has increased.

California Prison Academy: Better Than a Harvard Degree
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 30398.html

Happy Ex-California resident.

EB,

Drunk driver comes and kills your entire family. No cop to pull em over.
Dude abducts your daughter and she gets raped, strangled and buried. No cops to track her down.
Teenybopper goes way to fast down the 5, loses control and puts you in a ditch. Forget climbing. Forget posting on the net. You're sipping through a straw. No cops to keep the speed down. No cops to create a consequence fear.

Cops get paid good for a reason.

Minimum requirements don't cut it anymore. Guarantee that the non-qualifiers mentioned above will cause a candidate to get bumped from the year long process of getting hired. It's like becoming a SEAL, just because you can do the 10 pull ups doesnt mean you're getting past the other candidates.

I was running a physical for Oregon State Patrol last year against 500 other people that day. That was just one testing intake out of who knows how many (I know for a fact there was another testing scheduled for the following weekend).

Finally recieved a letter in the mail (after several other trips to Oregon) that due to budget constraints, they would no longer be considering out-of-state applicants. Postmarked almost a year to the day I too their written test.

I keep reading about furlough days and peace officer layoffs. Public safety is getting slashed across the board, nationwide. I have a degree, clean nose, smarts, ambition. Doesnt matter.

Ive been to Colorado, Washington, Oregon, California and here in Nevada for testing. I have farrrr too many federal applications out there. It's hard times for LEO wannabes like me.

I can't speak for corrections but we know the people behind bars and that many of them will never change. They have to be kept somewhere until a better solution can be found.

Regardless, there is NOT a low bar right now and in 5 years, your police force will be very qualified. Very smart. Very capable. Don't bash public safety- those people die for you. Yep, they are killed every day preserving your safety. They are killed every day just doing their job.


Oh yeah, and I have been testing since December 09.

Ski;

Problem I have with cops/firefighters is their constant harping about how dangerous the job is and how they should be compensated more for it. There has to be a point where 'risk compensation' as part of a pay package ends and taking personal responsibility for entering the job field begins; you've got to realize what is about before you get into it and just accept some risk. Granted cops do face more danger (irrational human nature), but ya still have to realize no amount of 'risk pay' is going to matter when you're in a jam. I used to work for a fire agency (admin capacity) and there were a lot of guys in the job simple because it paid so much better than what they could get with their 4-year college degrees. The basic tactic dealing with a building fire was "stand back and keep it from spreading" (it can burn to the ground as long as it doesn't spread), also save people if you can do it without putting yourself in a death defying situation. Add in fitness time pay, holdover pay, pay for attending training class while off duty (which will lead to pay increases), and other such schemes, and retirement at 50 years of age with 90% of pay, and its a sweet job.