Mayor vetoes motion to study merger of city, county park departments

This just in -- reporter Edie Grossfield will crack out a quick version of this for the web and we'll have more later (and for print Saturday): Mayor Brede has vetoed the city council action to study merging the city and county park departments. According to the veto message, he "personally supports a review" to determine if "operational and cost efficiencies can be achieved."

But he vetoed the motion approved Monday "due to the manner in which it was brought up" by council member Ed Hruska, "with no consultation with the Park Board (to my knowledge), City Staff or myself." He goes on to note that the Parks Department is one of the city's largest, with 74 full-time employees, several hundred part-time employees, 13 separate divisions and a budget of $14.6 million.

More shortly.

Comments

[rayschmitz]

The basic issue is the absence of any mention of this on the agenda, why did the chair not rule the motion out of order as a violation of the spirit of the open meeting law. Looking at the council agenda that appears after the meeting with the results of the actions this does not appear as an addition to the agenda. The mayor may be miffed because it was not discussed with him but the real issue is the public.