One step towards equity

Attached at the end of this post is a letter (pdf) dated February 5, 2007, from Commissioner Dan Saltzman to Mayor Tom Potter. In it, the Commissioner-in-charge of Portland Parks and Recreation points out that Portlanders are unlikely to vote for a new levy in 2008, if they continue to see the City of Portland using the current levy to backfill the Parks budget instead of funding it adequately from the General Fund.

No kidding.

It’s the end of the letter that most caught my attention (as in, tell us something we don’t already know). I noted in my January 24 report on the Parks budget community meeting held last month, that the citizens present pointed out that the bureau’s budget proposal perpetuated an unfair funding strategy the Council has chosen to implement over the past two years. I wrote:

“Six community centers, plus the city’s two tennis centers, were targeted as “transitional sites” in the last budget. Meaning, “transitioning” out of full-funding by the city, by demanding that volunteers switch their focus from program support to fundraising, becoming self-supporting. These six are the Hillside, Sellwood, and Fulton Community Centers, Multnomah Arts Center, Pittock Mansion, and the Community Music Center. The tennis centers are already gone, axed in the last budget. Only Pittock Mansion volunteers embraced this top-down plan. At last night’s meeting, representatives from several of the other sites asked that with the improved budget outlook, their parks facilities should be restored to full funding comparable with other centers. Neither Director Zari Santner nor Parks Commissioner Saltzman agreed to advocate for this return to fair funding at Council. Their proposal is to provide $500,000 to help the sites “transition” – that’s $500,000 total, not each.”
That’s how it was left at the end of the meeting – basically “tough luck, that’s the way it is, that’s the Council’s policy and we can’t change it”.

I was therefore surprised and pleased to see the following paragraph in Commissioner Saltzman’s letter to Mayor Potter on February 5:

“I also wanted to highlight a concern the public has continued to express regarding the status of the “Transition Sites” – those programs required to absorb a 20% reduction in General Fund support by generating addition resources in partnership with the community. Included were the Hillside, Sellwood, and Fulton Community Centers and Multnomah Art Center, Community Music Center and Pittock Mansion. These programs have been successful in meeting this goal and will no longer be considered “Transition Sites”.”

Notice the phrase “will no longer…”. This is not written as a request, rather a pronouncement by the Commissioner-in-charge. It seems to be a done deal, an internal administrative decision, apparently shuffling money allocations from various sources to go back to covering these six facilities without requiring their staff and volunteers to push for further levels of fundraising. It’s not clear whether the six will continue to be the Cinderella sites of Portland’s parks system, perpetually required to raise 20% of their operating revenue every year while other facilities don’t have that burden, but at least the previous plan to “transition” them out of all General Fund support seems to be dead.

I’m disappointed that the Tennis Centers are not included in the decision, especially since rumor has it there were no bids on the Request For Proposals to take over the management of the Portland Tennis Center by Benson High School – what then is the plan for tennis there and in St Johns? But I am happy to see Commissioner Saltzman not only heard but acted on citizens’ advice at the budget forum, in dropping the unfair “transition” status for the other six sites. Changing direction in response to public testimony is often A Good Thing to see in an elected official, and certainly better late than never.