Tom O’Halleran told us how the house and senate do not pay attention to details, and hats off to Tom for living in that environment for as long as he did. But it sure did not give me or many in the room a lot of confidence in the government to fix what they screwed up.

Parks chairman Reese Woodling danced around private concessions but absolutely refused to move further into the total privatization discussion. What was amazing was the statement that some board of directors in NY would not care about our heritage, although it would be the sole purpose of a private entity under a strict contract with the state to perform to PROTECT our heritage. It is obvious Mr. Woodling has never been in a business with real contracts and obligations. I would suggest to Mr. Woodling that he study the privatization policies of Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana who privatizes everything he can, including leasing an INTERSTATE toll road (80/90) that extends across the entire north part of Indiana. Billions of dollars collected; a better road, better repair and faster toll collection than the state EVER did. And their board of directors is in Europe. Indiana went from a deficit of over $200 million to a surplus – in THIS economy. Time to stop protecting your fiefdom.

I also found comments from Sandy Bahr disturbing concerning privatization. She actually said that a private entity would not take care of the parks. Huh? A corporation destroying its own assets? Sandy, go into private business before you come off the wall with comments like this. No corporation destroys the assets that make it money. They IMPROVE and build on those assets, and our state parks ARE that asset which any company would protect to improve their revenue, especially under a strict and monitored contract from the State of Arizona.

The comment that people could use the national forest for recreation but families may want the security of the state parks is fair enough. But to make a statement or infer that a private entity cannot provide security is absurd and insults the intelligence of the citizens who attended.

One gentleman running for office suggested we tax plastic bottles and get the money there, or increase the fees that the state charges mining companies to mine copper. Fair enough, but I did not hear where these fees would come back to the citizens of the state, like a portion of oil fees is sent directly to citizens in the state of Alaska. Somehow these funds are to be earmarked for the parks? If that were even possible, we all would be sitting in the same room again 5 years from now dealing with a different state house, different governor and a new set of reasons why dedicated funds are again diverted. Folks – we are talking about government here. Wake up. They cannot commit to a program for ANY period of time, and they always spend too much! Why do we insist on trusting the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome. I believe that’s called insanity.

I also take exception to the comment that the volunteers that help make the system work would not volunteer if the parks were run by a private entity. Huh? Does that mean all the hospital volunteers would quit also? If you have love for your state parks, then you will volunteer no matter who is running the show. And god bless those volunteers we have today. They are enthusiastic and do a great job.

If you privatize the management of the parks, you have a contract that the company MUST manage ALL the parks. The statement that a private company could pick and choose between those parks that are profitable and those that may lose a little was unbelievable, again showing sheer ignorance of contracts and how they are structured and again insulting the intelligence of those who attended. You think the post office makes money running to a farm 100 miles into nowhere in North Dakota? You take the good with the bad and figure out how to make money. You average it out; there are always some loss leaders.

Whatever the state would get as income would be a known factor in the contract, thereby keeping their hands out of the till. That’s the only way this works, money coming in, not our tax dollars administered by the people Tom said were incapable of handling it. Whatever those funds are, take $300,000 a year, hire two folks to monitor the execution of the contract, put them on the road 4 days a week, 5th day to write the report to send to the state. And make sure there are penalties for non compliance. And most of the state workers could be hired by the private entity, so very little or no jobs lost.

This is not tough folks, but you have to have a little experience in these matters. Neither I or others at the meeting heard any experience talking that night. All we heard was more inefficient government and our parks going down in flames.

It would also have been appropriate to allow a bit more time for public comment. Many of us after the meeting felt that this was just a big presentation by people wanting more government and could care less about public input.