Skip to main contentA new city audit says the proposed $62-million Oregon Sustainability Center, which may never get built, is already costing the city a lot of money.
City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade this morning released her agency's review of how efficiently the City of Portland spends money on downtown office space for 2,200 city workers.
The audit found the city is generally doing a good job of using city-owned space rather than renting from others—with a couple of significant exceptions, both of which relate to the Oregon Sustainability Center.
Uncertainty about whether the building will become reality, the audit found, has led to violations of the city policy that calls for prioritizing the use city-owned space over privately-owned space.
In short, city bureaus haven't sought cheaper places for their offices—while lots of vacant city space remains empty—because of this uncertainty about the proposed center.
That Sustainability Center—which would be joint venture of the City and the Oregon University System—is in limbo because legislators, who control the University System's borrowing authority, are skeptical of the project's benefits.
Meanwhile, auditors found that uncertainty over the project has led two bureaus—Revenue and Fire and Police Disability and Retirement—to enter into relatively expensive leases in privately owned buildings, even though the city has 26,000 square feet of empty space in the 1900 Building, at 1900 SW 4th Ave. (That empty space costs the City $800,000 annually).
Those bureaus decided to stay put rather than occupying the city-owned space because of the possibility that the city would sell the 1900 Building to help finance its share of the Sustainability Center.
WWeek 2015