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Canby residents and parks committee press council for clearer accounting of parks maintenance fee and future projects
Summary
Park volunteers and a parks commissioner pressed the council to clarify how the city accounts for park maintenance fee revenue and how that money is prioritized. Park committee members said they lack detail about the fee balance and asked for clearer reporting and a policy on use of funds for maintenance vs. capital projects.
At the May 21 Canby City Council meeting, residents and a parks committee member asked the council and staff for clearer accounting of the city’s park maintenance fee and details about what the fund pays for.
Jim Simnan, who said he serves on the parks and recreation board, told the council the board wants to "find out where the city's parks and rec maintenance fee, where that goes," and requested staff provide numbers so the committee can plan for maintenance and small upgrades. Finance staff and the city administrator explained that park maintenance fee revenue posts to a single line item and some of the fund pays for labor costs for park maintenance; system development charges (SDCs) fund larger capital projects such as the recreation complex and certain new park elements.
Why it matters: Citizens said the city collects roughly $400,000 annually in park-related revenue and want transparency about how the money is split between labor, materials and project work. Councilors asked staff to provide clearer breakout information and for the park committee to return with priorities.
Key details
- Citizen request: Jim Simnan said the parks board needs an accounting so it can plan whether maintenance fee funds can pay for upgrades such as restroom or parking improvements at parks. He asked how the committee should request that information from staff.
- Staff response: City staff said much of the maintenance-fee fund pays personnel costs for park upkeep. The city also uses SDCs for major capital projects; those SDC-funded projects do not come from the park maintenance fee. Finance staff acknowledged limitations in current accounting software for producing extremely granular breakdowns but said they would provide GL detail to satisfy requests where possible.
- Follow-up: Councilors and staff agreed to provide more specific general-ledger detail for recent years where records exist and to discuss a clearer policy about park maintenance fee priorities and allocations.
Ending
Council members said the park maintenance fee policy and accounting will return in future committee and council discussions; staff noted some historical data are purged and suggested a near-term approach of providing current-year and recent GL detail while improving forward-looking coding to allow clearer reporting.
