Without getting into the labor relations part, according to an employee survey, the city has no fewer than 107 staffers with at least 50% of their time spent on communnity engagement activities across all city agencies. Seems like a lot of room for consolidation and efficiency.
Comments
https://www.portland.gov/civic/documents/employee-survey-results/download
But community engagement cuts will be corrosive to the relationship between the people of the city, city gov, and the business community at a time when we need community buy-in for economic dev.
Especially given that some staff do things they call "community engagement," but are really more communications.
I'd prefer a Council-led strategy for CE before a staffing model (or cuts).
But still seems like a lot…