Pipeline/2025-465
Resolution Enacted 37729

Request the City Budget Office provide balanced program offer information for Portland Parks & Recreation as pilot project for FY 2026-27 budget

Final ActionMateriality · Tier DReadiness · Ready With Caveats
Official record
What is being decided?

Request the City Budget Office provide balanced program offer information for Portland Parks & Recreation as pilot project for FY 2026-27 budget

What happens next?

Derived from official scheduling fields

Where has it appeared?

2 Council session appearances; latest Dec 18, 2025.

Decision standard · Rules v1

Decision readiness

Ready With Caveats

This measures whether decision-relevant information is visible. It does not measure whether the proposal deserves approval.

Decision definition

The requested action could not be determined.

Unknown
Legal instrument

Official text was found in the reviewed record.

Complete
Financial impact

The official impact statement includes financial information.

Complete
Funding source

Funding information appears in the impact statement; inspect the source for precision.

Complete
Supporting documents

No linked attachments were found on the official page.

Unknown
Implementation

Implementation language appears in the official text.

Complete
Document stability

Stability requires at least two observed snapshots; the system will update this after another ingestion.

Unknown
Alternative

Not found in the reviewed official text.

Assumption

Not found in the reviewed official text.

Risk

Not found in the reviewed official text.

Dependency

Not found in the reviewed official text.

Evidence
  • This framework should outline the data, systems, staffing, and preparatory work required for every bureau to produce a comparable revenue-and-expense breakdown beginning no later than the FY 2027–28 budget cycle.
Information Request
  • The City Budget Office will return to Council by October 2026 with: A proposed standardized template for all bureaus;A readiness assessment detailing what support bureaus need to meet these expectations; andA proposed implementation schedule, including potential policy updates, that ensures all bureaus adopt this enhanced transparency standard in the next budget cycle.
Outcome Measure

Not found in the reviewed official text.

Official material

Documents

0 linked files
Official page textRead

WHEREAS, City Code Section 3.16.010 provides that the City Budget Office is responsible for coordinating development and administration of the city's budget; andWHEREAS, City Code further provides that the City Budget Office is responsible for monitoring expenditures and revenues for the city and all bureaus and providing this information to the Council when requested; andWHEREAS, City Charter Sec. 2-128 and ORS 294.423 provide that the Council is the budget committee for the city; andWHEREAS, Portland's new form of government became effective on January 1, 2025, and the newly constituted Council took office while the City Budget Office was already in the process of working with the administration and bureaus to develop the FY 2025-2026 budget; andWHEREAS, during budget committee and Council hearings on the FY 2025-2026 budget, Councilors expressed dissatisfaction with the level of detail in the information they received, particularly regarding the personnel, materials, and services, and capital that were funded by different revenue sources in individual bureaus; andWHEREAS, the 2025 Parks Levy specifically identified three types of services that would be funded with the Levy; andWHEREAS, Finance Policy (FIN) 2.04 provides that the Council may request information on revenues, expenditures, and performance at the program level; andWHEREAS, it is important for Council and the public to receive information early in the budget process about the different types of funding that support programs, the types of services that are being provided with different types of funding, and the number of staff working on each program; andWHEREAS, the Council recognizes that requiring this type of information from all bureaus and offices citywide would not be feasible for the FY 2026-2027 budget; andWHEREAS, the Council would like to institute a pilot program for Portland Parks & Recreation in the FY 2026-2027 budget to determine if providing such information allows the Council to better perform its budget responsibilities.NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that pursuant to City Code Chapter 3.16 and FIN 2.04, the Council requests that the City Administrator, through the City Budget Office, require Portland Parks & Recreation to prepare its requested budget for the FY 2026-2027 budget with information showing the different types of funding that support programs, the types of services that are being provided with different types of funding, and the number of staff funded in each program by revenue source; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Administrator, through the City Budget Office, will require the Portland Parks & Recreation FY 2026-2027 budget to clearly show which of the bureau's programs are supported in full or in part by the 2025 Parks Levy, and how that is aligned with the text of the ballot information; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council requests the City Administrator, through the City Budget Office, to include such direction in the budget preparation guidelines; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if the Mayor's proposed budget for the Portland Parks & Recreation is not based on the additional information referenced in the first be-it-resolved statement, the Council, acting as Budget Committee, anticipates that it will require such information be provided before approval; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that to ensure this pilot establishes consistent and equitable transparency standards across the City, Council directs the City Budget Office, in partnership with all bureaus, to develop a scalable reporting framework based on this pilot. This framework should outline the data, systems, staffing, and preparatory work required for every bureau to produce a comparable revenue-and-expense breakdown beginning no later than the FY 2027–28 budget cycle. The City Budget Office will return to Council by October 2026 with: A proposed standardized template for all bureaus;A readiness assessment detailing what support bureaus need to meet these expectations; andA proposed implementation schedule, including potential policy updates, that ensures all bureaus adopt this enhanced transparency standard in the next budget cycle.

Meeting-specific record

Motions, amendments & votes

3 vote records
Amendment

Motion to amend the Resolution as shown in Avalos 1: Moved by Avalos and seconded by Zimmerman. (Aye (11): Clark, Green, Zimmerman, Avalos, Dunphy, Smith, Kanal, Ryan, Koyama Lane, Morillo, Pirtle-Guiney; Nay (1): Novick)

MainPassed

Motion to refer the Resolution, Document Number 2025-465, to City Council with the recommendation it be adopted: Moved by Novick and seconded by Avalos. (Aye (4): Avalos, Pirtle-Guiney, Novick, Zimmerman; Absent (1): Green)

Official impact statement

Money & effects

Purpose & background

This resolution intends to address Council's dissatisfaction with the level of detail provided during the previous budget cycle. It proposes using Parks & Recreation's upcoming budget as a pilot to provide greater budgetary details, particularly information showing the different types of funding that support programs, the types of services that are being provided with different types of funding, and the number of staff funded in each program by revenue source.Additionally, the resolution requests the City Administrator to require Portland Parks & Recreation's FY 2026-2027 budget to clearly show which of the bureau's programs are supported in full or in part by the 2025 Parks Levy, and how that is aligned with the text of the ballot information.Parks & Recreation was chosen for this pilot in order to provide additional and appropriate fiscal oversight of the recently passed 2025 Parks Levy. This resolution is a crucial step forward in Portland's new form of government, particularly as related to Council's role as the budget authority.

Economic & real estate impacts

While fiscal oversight of a bureau or the budget broadly is of wide interest to the economic health and vitality of Portland, this resolution will provide oversight of the 2025 Parks Levy. Because the Parks Levy impacts taxes paid on properties in the city, providing Council and the public with greater detail on how those funds have been allocated and spent will create a more robust process of economic decision making during the budget cycle.

Community impacts

During the discussions around the 2025 Parks Levy, it was clear that many community members and stakeholders wanted greater transparency on Parks and Recreation's budget practices. This resolution intends to deliver on those requests. In part, this resolution will create a more robust community engagement process by allowing community members and stakeholders to have access to a greater amount of detail when advocating for or against different aspects of Parks and Recreation programming and spending.

Financial & budgetary impacts

This resolution does not have any direct financial impacts. However, it is intended to pilot a process with much greater transparency and oversight in budgetary and financial decision making.

100% renewable goal

Not applicable

Follow-through

Implementation & accountability

Responsible organization

City Budget OfficeParks & Recreation

Binding direction

This resolution does not have any direct financial impacts.

City Budget OfficeParks & Recreation · Observed
Observed commitment

This framework should outline the data, systems, staffing, and preparatory work required for every bureau to produce a comparable revenue-and-expense breakdown beginning no later than the FY 2027–28 budget cycle.

City Budget OfficeParks & Recreation · Observed
Observed commitment

While fiscal oversight of a bureau or the budget broadly is of wide interest to the economic health and vitality of Portland, this resolution will provide oversight of the 2025 Parks Levy.

City Budget OfficeParks & Recreation · Observed
Append-only history

Timeline

  1. DOCUMENT PUBLISHED

    Observed in the official source.

  2. Council Action

    Adopted as amended

  3. Council Action

    Referred to City Council