Council narrows mayor-and-council budget to a modest reduction; directs staff on travel and youth trip priorities

The Tigard City Council continued its discussion of mayor-and-council budget reductions and, by consensus, directed staff to pursue a modest 3% reduction scenario with targeted adjustments rather than deep cuts.

Finance Director Eric Kang and Deputy City Manager Emily Church presented scenarios showing how 3% and 10% reductions would affect discretionary items. The department said most of the mayor-and-council budget is personnel and nondiscretionary; the proposed scenarios focus on discretionary line items such as professional services, memberships and travel.

Councilors settled on the following guidance during the discussion: pursue the 3% (scenario 1) approach; reduce consulting/contract professional services for mayor-and-council items by $10,000 where feasible; reduce each councilor’s travel/training allocation by roughly $1,000 (several councilors volunteered that they could tighten their budgets), and seek a reduced first-year allocation for the city’s “Move with the Mayor” events (staff and the mayor discussed lowering the partnership budget from a proposed $2,500 to a smaller first-year amount).

Council members expressed support for maintaining several national memberships — specifically the National League of Cities and the League of Oregon Cities — because members said those groups provide advocacy, networking and technical assistance. Council also discussed leveraging outside sponsorships (for example, Pacific Power/PG&E sponsorship historically used to subsidize youth travel) and asked staff to document past sponsorships and participation.

On youth travel, Finance presented an option to support two Tigard Youth Advisory Committee members and a chaperone to attend the National League of Cities conference in Washington, D.C. Councilors emphasized priorities for that program: (1) preserve the opportunity for Tigard youth to attend, (2) give priority to seniors and to youth who have not previously attended, and (3) seek sponsorship or cost reductions where possible.

Council left detailed budget adoption for later committee and budget meetings; the meeting record shows the council accepted the 3% scenario guidance for further budget work and asked staff to return with materials for the April/May budget committee process.

Clarifying details: staff said the mayor-and-council budget represents about 1% of the general fund. The suggested $10,000 reduction targets consulting services; travel and training historically have been underspent, and councilors agreed to modest, targeted reductions rather than cancelling core national memberships. The council asked for follow-up reporting on exact historical spends, membership benefits and sponsorship opportunities for youth travel.