Our View: Parks veto

Significant public comment, a budget that could absorb the money ($140,000) and the need to keep a solid full-time foundation to leverage the most out of volunteer and seasonal help for city parks programs.

Ossiander also said she's confident that parks director John Rodda will make the most of the money the Assembly restored to his budget with the veto override. That's a sentiment shared by the Assembly's Patrick Flynn, who backed the override vote. Both said Rodda's efforts for a strong volunteer force in the parks depend on good, full-time employees with the knowledge and ability to organize and deploy those volunteers.

The mayor argued that the city could save money and suffer no loss in services by turning three full-time positions into four seasonal positions. The public response was skeptical, particularly with regard to events like the autumn Tuesday Night Race Series, which attracts more than 1,000 participants to its races and is well-organized with a host of volunteers serving under full-time parks employees.

As Flynn pointed out, it's not just the marquee events like Tuesday races that gain by experience and full-time attention. He noted an email from a teacher who works with at-risk kids which described invaluable help from parks personnel in setting up activities for his students.

The original vote to restore the parks positions was 6-5; after Mayor Dan Sullivan's veto, Ossiander and Bill Starr, long a budget hawk, changed their votes to make the eight needed for override. Both are Chugiak-Eagle River reps, and thus familiar with Rodda's work when he ran Chugiak-Eagle River parks, which are separate from Anchorage parks.

There are several lessons here. One, citizens can still make a difference. Ossiander heard the opposition to the cuts, and that opposition was part of the reason she changed her vote.

Two, people want government programs on any level to be effective, efficient and make the most of resources for the good of the community. If people can see that performance, they'll pick up the tab.

Mayor Sullivan's drive to save money while providing the same level of city services is what residents elected him to do in 2009. And for 2012, he got the budget he sought, which will keep property taxes more than $1 million below the cap and increases below 2 percent.

Cutting the parks positions, however, looks like a case of fixing what isn't broken.

BOTTOM LINE: Override of parks veto makes sense.