With all of the debate swirling around Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio’s call for outsourcing park maintenance, it was at least mildly amusing that fancy new signs went up at WG’s River Glen Park earlier this month.

Far be it for WGx to suggest this is anything other than a coincidence, but the new sign styles have been around for quite a while, and it does seem funny that RGP gets a new one in the midst of considerable debate over whether city employees are the most efficient caretakers of our valuable park spaces.

If you’ve missed the discussion, you can read more of the full story right here …

Oliverio first floated his idea in April with a press conference at the Rose Garden. It took a day or two, but then San Jose’s powerful labor movement responded with significant concern, delaying the discussion before it could really start. The history of SJ parks maintenance follows the ebbs and flows of the economy, and is a hot discussion as the City faces considerable budget trouble.

The WG Times published a well-balanced article on the issue in its May edition, wondering if the proposal could really have much impact:

While it’s an idea that many in San Jose support, it’s also a conundrum. The parks maintenance staff is unionized and the city requires that private contractors provide wages equal to what union workers receive, so some wonder where the savings will be. It’s also puzzling because for the first time in at least five years, the proposed parks budget is being increased after being cut to the bone to provide for other city services.

The Mercury News editorial board (the one who dropped its original endorsement of Oliverio in the most recent election) offered its opinion, mostly avoiding the maintenance issue and chiding Oliverio for handling the publicity ineffectively.

The WG Resident waited a few weeks, but finally chimed in with its opinion, siding with Oliverio in his call for a pilot project:

Just because it’s not the way we’ve always handled park maintenance doesn’t mean it’s not worth a one-year pilot to see how it stacks up against the tried and true way in a time of limited resources.

While it’s true that the new kid on the block doesn’t always know how things are supposed to get done, sometimes that can be a great advantage.

Since the City Council is supposed to make a decision tonight (Agenda — see Section 5.2), another dialog has been sparked on the WGNA eList.