PPPM Graduate Student Research
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/25839
2024-03-28T10:55:30ZLane County Strategic Equity Lens Implementation Project
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/28898
Lane County Strategic Equity Lens Implementation Project
Arrington, Angela; Hill, Colin; Johnson, Kari; Niitani, Allyson; Wagner, Erika
The Lane County Equity Action Plan, adopted in January 2021, is aimed at improving equitable outcomes for its populations through the implementation of an equity lens in daily operations. The implementation of the equity lens framework is a change process that requires frequent evaluation and revision of policies, both internal and external. The authors conducted personal interviews with individuals in Lane County, Multnomah County, and the City of Portland who had experience in equity and inclusion, and reached four recommendations for Lane County to implement its Equity Action Plan.
12 pages
2021-06-01T00:00:00ZApplying the Equity Lens Without a Cultural Tax
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/28897
Applying the Equity Lens Without a Cultural Tax
Gillespie, Cimmeron; Li, Jinyu; Lindberg, Imani; Sato, Hatsue; Yamada, Strick
The United States is a culturally diverse nation but has a history of exploitation, racism, and discrimination, particularly in the criminal justice, healthcare, and education systems. In the summer of 2020, calls for social justice and equity arose, leading to the development of equity lenses in many cities to approach diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. This project focuses on the equity lens in Lane County, Oregon, and provides an analysis based on informational interviews with county officials. The research aims to answer how an equity lens can be applied without creating a cultural tax on BIPOC communities, defined as a burden placed on people of color to educate about racism and discriminatory practices. Key findings from the research include the need for ongoing equity training for managers and employees, equity implementation on a managerial level, the collaboration between offices and departments, avoiding tokenized positions for employees of color, and consistent review of plans to establish best practices.
2021-06-01T00:00:00ZMemorandum: [Lane County Parks Funding Analysis]
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/26750
Memorandum: [Lane County Parks Funding Analysis]
Fields, Katie; Hoagland, Emerson; Rhodeland, Amelia; Wood, Laney
This memorandum is in response to a request from Lane County Parks for potential revenue
sources to address maintenance backlog and to provide suggestions for sustainable long-term
maintenance funding for Lane County Parks. The following sections provide context for this
memorandum, case studies of comparable Oregon parks departments and districts, three potential
funding packages for Lane County Parks, and the recommendations based on our findings. Also
provided is a matrix along which we evaluated our funding packages.
17 page memorandum
2019-12-11T00:00:00ZOperationalization of the Strategic Plan: An Analysis of Lane County through a Fiscal Stewardship Lens
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/26151
Operationalization of the Strategic Plan: An Analysis of Lane County through a Fiscal Stewardship Lens
Conway, James; LeMay, Donovan; Mehdi, Fatima
Lane County’s 2018-2021 Strategic Plan puts forth three strategic lenses including Financial Stewardship, Equity, and Collective Impact. This report focuses on the use of financial stewardship, the prudent and transparent management of funds, as a strategic lens for setting the perspective from which goals should be viewed. The report outlines ways to approach and efficiently improve the budgetary process through citizen participation that cultivates validation, technology that increases transparency, and the budget process that assures accountability.
Summary of Key Findings
Based on the definition of financial stewardship published in the strategic plan, we focused on researching how Lane County could improve its accountability, transparency, and use of analytical tools in decision making, and how:
• citizen participation would improve accountability to the public
• technology can improve the transparency of Lane County finances, and
• performance measurements can improve the budget process.
Citizens can currently interact with the government through various channels. The impact of the communication or participation isn’t always effective. Ways to increase validation among community members are reshaping the hierarchical structure of meetings and using fiscal intelligence to safeguard efficiency for the expenditure of taxpayers’ dollars. Citizen participation is a collaborative process between community members and government that assures financial stewardship through validation, accountability, and trust. Accountability is best achieved when the political culture of the community is correctly assessed. Finally, in conjecture with validation and accountability, holding additional meetings early in the budget formulation process, and changing the financial language through community finance education will install the institution of trust in the collaborative process.
Transparency is accomplished through direct information and communication between constituents and government administrators. Currently, Lane County applies minimum transparency requirements by publishing all transactions in a list. An open data portal that makes the transactions organizable or interactive would encourage participation and improve transparency. The data portal could also use geo-referenced maps to display where public projects are occurring so that citizens can have high quality data to help structure their feedback and best recommendations for the projects. Lane County already has existing open data software- Tableau and Geographic information system- that could be better utilized for these outcomes.
Lane County’s budget process has only three meetings for public hearings or comment. The budget committee is made up of the county administrator and citizens appointed by the county commissioners. Changes to each year’s budget occurs after meetings where department heads give presentations. The department heads propose a budget after receiving one annual budget training. Performance information is then selected at the manager’s discretion. The budget process and committee members would benefit greatly from standardized performance information when deciding on awarding more or less funding to government programs.
2020-06-01T00:00:00Z