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County tightens community input and equity tools as budget strain increases
Summary
Multnomah County described reforms to community budget advisory committees (CBACs), standardized onboarding, and an equity-in-budgeting toolkit for departments. The central CBAC urged multi-year planning, clearer outcomes metrics and earlier transparency to improve public input as budget cuts continue.
County officials and community volunteers outlined changes to how Multnomah County solicits and uses public input in the budget process and how equity will be embedded in departmental decisions.
Amada Perez, director of the Office of Community Involvement (OCI), described operational improvements: a centralized volunteer application system (Better Impact) to track demographics and membership, a standardized multi-session onboarding for new CBAC members, feedback-loop letters that report back on how CBAC recommendations were handled, and year-round recruitment to maintain compliance and membership.
Central CBAC representatives — Sean Pingley and Terry Harris — presented a thematic review of CBAC transmittal letters and offered recommendations: adopt multi-year planning to reduce the inefficiency of repeated year-over-year cuts; define outcome metrics tied to the strategic plan and budget; make equity criteria more specific and measurable; and ensure any centralization of services is implemented transparently so year-over-year comparisons remain meaningful.
Chief Diversity and Equity Officer Laura Shepard and departmental equity manager Demetri Maddox described Multnomah County's "equity and empowerment" lens and provided a practical example from the Department of Community Services (DCS). That framework asks departments to consider five P's — people, places, process, power and purpose — and to score constraint packages or additions against priorities such as core services, compliance, credibility, equity, safety and staff success. DCS paired numerical scores with equity statements to help managers prioritize under constrained budgets.
Commissioners welcomed the improvements and said they expected equity managers to be engaged during department budget presentations. Board members also asked for more consistent client and demographic data about who uses county services so outcomes can be tracked across reductions and program offers.
What happens next: OCI and departments told the board they will continue to refine CBAC processes and the equity toolkit, produce standardized templates, and report back on outcomes and community-representative measures during the work-session schedule.
