Gov. Jerry Brown plans to close 70 state parks and historic sites, but the impact shouldn't cost current permanent employees their jobs, according to the the union that represents park rangers and California's parks director -- assuming the state gets the tax revenues Brown wants.
The California Statewide Law Enforcement Association said that its representatives talked with the Department of Parks and Recreation about the shutdowns in March.
"At that time, DPR represented that no layoffs of full-time bargaining unit members were contemplated. However, if the tax extension sought by the Governor was not obtained and more drastic cuts were implemented, layoffs would be likely," the union said on its website.
California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman said the department is expected to lose about 200 permanent positions, though most of those will come from eliminating some of the department's roughly 500 vacant posts.
"We're going to have to eliminate those positions and then move people around," Coleman said last week to Capitol Bureau reporter Torey Van Oot. "The layoff process will be initiated... but whether or not people at the end of the day will be unemployed, we're hoping not. We hope that we can save all of our permanent staff."
The state's layoff program allows senior employees whose positions are eliminated to displace junior colleagues in similar jobs, so it's likely that some park staff will have to move to continue working for the government.
"That can be very destructive to a lot of people because it's hard to move across the state if you have a spouse with a different job or things like that," Coleman said, "so I don't want to understate the challenge this is going to pose to our staff and the difficulty they are going to experience."
PHOTO: The California Governor's mansion, one of 70 state parks and historic sites slated for closure by Gov. Jerry Brown. Sacramento Bee file / Jose Luis Villegas
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