Amid government layoffs, budget cuts and looming contract talks, the state's top labor relations official is stepping down.

Ronald Yank told Department of Personnel Administration staff on Tuesday that he's leaving. The Brown administration, which hadn't named a successor to the key post as of late Tuesday afternoon, declined to make Yank available for an interview.

Department spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley said Yank is leaving "around the end of this month..."

Feelings are facts – and sometimes they're the most important facts when you're talking about resolving conflicts.

How else to explain the nearly three months – and unnecessary furlough days for 60,000 affected state workers – for six unions to reach new labor deals with Gov. Jerry Brown?

"These were very tough negotiations," said Brown's labor chief, Ron Yank. "There are still some hurt feelings. I understand it."

Brown brought in Yank, a former state labor lawyer, to get contracts with the groups that didn't reach deals with then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger...

The State Worker column in today's fiber and cyber Sacramento Bee looks at Gov. Jerry Brown's pick to head the Department of Personnel Administration, Ronald Yank.

We spoke with several sources in both labor and state government to get a sense of Yank's leadership style and history. We also spoke with him on the phone for about 15 minutes on Wednesday, shortly after the Brown administration officially announced Yank's appointment. The conversation was lively, engaging and frank. Here are some snippets of what he said...

A gubernatorial appointment can be the political equivalent of a Rorschach test: Everyone sees it but assigns different meanings.

Take Gov. Jerry Brown's appointment of retired labor attorney Ronald Yank to direct the Department of Personnel Administration.

The position oversees labor negotiations covering roughly 200,000 state employees. DPA also handles labor disputes, such as the ongoing court fight over state worker furloughs...

The State Worker has learned that a labor attorney who has represented the state prison officers' union will be tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown to run the Department of Personnel Administration.

We'd heard buzz from Monday's inaugural festivities that Ronald Yank would be named to head the department, so we asked this morning. Lynelle Jolley, department spokeswoman, confirmed, but said she had no other details.

Yank's appointment, which could be announced today, sends a strong signal that Brown is eager to get a contract deal done with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. Yank has represented CCPOA as an attorney with Carroll, Burdick & McDonough LLP...