Response to Diana Diamond’s Article, March 21, 2007
Diana Diamond (“Guaranteed work for life for Palo Alto city employees”, Wednesday March 21) deserves our support. Many excellent articles have appeared in the Weekly addressing concerns over the perennial infrastructure problems largely ignored by members of our city council and city staff. The comparative analysis by city included in Diamond’ article, offers a disturbing picture. Palo Alto appears to be overstaffed compared to other cities with comparable populations and services. Cities should follow the lead of private industries by trimming back their workforces when budgets are tight. No city has a social obligation to maintain large number of employees when operating at record deficits. No doubt the presence of large number of ‘purpose shirt union employees’ had the desired effect of discouraging city council members from making the hard choices of outsourcing work to save money which is desperately needed for upgrading our crumbling roads. Unless the city staff makes tough choices, unfunded liabilities will cripple us financially.
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