Naming and Sponsorship Policy in Portland Parks
The proposed Sponsorship and
I’ve just browsed through the proposals. The Sponsorship proposal doesn’t include changes I suggested and thought important, or those from the public feedback at the Citywide Parks Team meeting. For instance, the policy statement is still not clear that we expect our parks to be funded primarily funded through taxpayer dollars in the General Fund. They didn’t give mandatory preference to off-site recognition of corporate sponsorship, by changing the language to say this “shall be given” instead of “will be given”. One word changed/staying, big difference in the policy.
There is still no clear direction for whether corporate logos are allowed in parks. This issue should be called out specifically. “Logo” is defined, but then the policy only says that “The form of any on-site recognition shall be of an appropriate size and color and shall not detract from the park surroundings or any interpretive message.” I can’t tell from this whether corporate logos are allowed/desired/prohibited or not.
No public review of sponsorship contracts is offered. That’s OK for program support, but I think there should be some public input when sponsorship involves corporate advertising in a park. Perhaps if citizens had been aware that their choice was the Pepsi logo on scoreboards at community centers, or no scoreboard, they would have chosen the third option of fundraising for a no-logo-scoreboard.
I’ll be interested to read comments if those reading the proposed policies have concerns. I read policies like this with both a particular desired outcome, and an undesired outcome in mind, to see whether the proposal would allow what I want and stop what I don’t. On first read-through, I think PPR and the Parks Board have accomplished the task of proposing a policy to Council that is 90% correct. I hope citizens will participate in requesting needed tweaks at the Council hearing on April 11.