ORDINANCE NO. 181543

Accept a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for $18,200 for discovery and scoping for a system to provide the public greater ability to report and track maintenance issues on park property (Ordinance)

The City of Portland ordains:

Section 1. The Council finds:

 1.  ParkScan is an on-line maintenance reporting and feedback system originally developed to address park maintenance issues in San Francisco. The Neighborhood Parks Council (NPC), a San Francisco-based non-profit, developed the ParkScan program in partnership with their city’s park department.

 2.  The ParkScan program has proven successful in San Francisco. Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) wants to explore adapting and implementing a similar system here. ParkScan helps in achieving several goals of the bureau’s strategic business plan, including managing and protecting our assets; reaching and involving the community; improving our service delivery; and enhancing organizational development.

 3.  ParkScan would provide an array of benefits both to the City and the community including:

     a.  empowering and encouraging civic responsibility among        previously uninvolved citizens;

   b.  centralizing service requests into a database, which will improve        our ability to track, report, and identify maintenance trends,        provide data for maintenance planning and budgeting, and increase      efficiency;

   c.  improving customer service and satisfaction;

   d.  benefiting from park users’ observations to more effectively direct        resources to higher priority problems;

   e.  improving transparency and accountability; and

   f.  strengthening trust between the community and the City.

 4.  The NPC approached PP&R to partner with them in the implementation of the ParkScan program in Portland. Conditions of the grant stipulate that PP&R will contract with the NPC to explore the issues and feasibility of adapting ParkScan to Portland.

 5.  No local match is required by this grant, however there will be time spent by City staff from several Bureaus on the work of this grant.

NOW THEREFORE, The Council directs:

a.  The Commissioner in Charge of Parks is hereby authorized to accept the grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in the amount of $18,200.

Passed by the Council: January 16, 2008    GARY BLACKMER

Commissioner Saltzman          Auditor of the City of Portland

Prepared by: Bryan Aptekar:kmg          By /s/Susan Parsons

December 13, 2007              Deputy  

BACKING SHEET INFORMATION

AGENDA NO. 64, 107-2008

ACTION TAKEN:

JAN 09 2008 PASSED TO SECOND READING JAN 16 2008 9:30 AM

ORDINANCE/RESOLUTION/COUNCIL DOCUMENT NO. 181543