40th Anniversary of Performance Auditing in Portland

Portland voters approved Ballot Measure 51 in 1986. Measure 51 amended City Charter to allow the Auditor to conduct performance audits. May 20, 2026 marks the 40^th anniversary of its passage. Since then, the Portland City Auditor has released over 250 performance audits.

At its introduction, performance auditing grew from the accounting profession and sought to provide a new way of looking at program results to save money and improve local government services. Portland was considered a leader in performance audits amongst local jurisdictions. It served as a model for other municipalities seeking to establish or expand their audit functions. Mark Funkhouser, former city auditor and mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, explored the history of performance auditing in his doctoral dissertation, The Spread of Performance Auditing Among American Cities. He traced the steady growth of annual increases in the number of cities where performance auditing had been adopted starting with City Auditor Jewel Lansing's efforts in Portland. And over time and through revisions to government auditing standards performance auditing has evolved into a robust field that seeks to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of government functions.

At the City of Portland, performance audits have been used to recommend improvements to numerous aspects of City life including policing, transportation, water and sewer service, job creation, homelessness, support for performing arts, and City operations.

Portland City Auditors who oversaw performance auditing: Jewel Lansing, Barbara Clark, Gary Blackmer, LaVonne Griffin-Valade, Mary Hull Caballero, Simone Rede

Past City Auditors Jewel Lansing (1983-86), Barbara Clark (1987-98), Gary Blackmer (1999-2009), LaVonne Griffin-Valade (2009-14) and Mary Hull Caballero (2015-22) contributed to the growth of performance auditing in Portland by fostering performance audits that looked at topics with an impact on Portlanders. Gary Blackmer said that he appreciated audits with a focus on the human costs of poor public service, citing an audit of the Police Bureau's sex crime investigations. Noting a worrisome trend in sex crime clearance rates during an initial audit of police investigations in 2005, things continued to worsen and he put a focused audit on the audit schedule, releasing the sex crime investigations audit in 2007. There was a wholesale replacement of the detectives as part of the police bureau response. The audit was recognized by the media and won an award from the Association of Local Government Auditors.

Mary Hull Caballero also felt audits that showed how City services and programs affected historically underserved neighborhoods and individuals were particularly impactful. She cited work on the police's gang team's patrol and investigations, the City's Enhanced Services Districts, Emergency Management for people with disabilities, City Collection practices, and police surveillance as topics that she audited that mattered to community members.

Simone Rede is building on the tradition of performance auditing in Portland by strengthening the feedback loop between Portlanders and the Auditor, by virtue of it being an elected position. Thanks to public input, she has prioritized audits with the most potential for public health, safety, and equity impacts, and a focus on the City's homelessness response. These include audits of climate justice, the arts tax, and the Joint Office of Homeless Services. She has also sought to align audit work with the new form of government by addressing Citywide issues, such as asset management, and to increase public engagement with audit work by presenting results to Council and using accessible reporting methods.

The Auditor's Audit Services Division fulfills these commitments to transparency and public engagement by ensuring all audit reports are permanent City records and preserved by the City Archives. The most recent performance audit reports are available on the Division's website. Many historical audit reports can be accessed electronically through E-Files. The City Archives has also compiled a timeline detailing the history of the City Auditor, dating back to the position's establishment in 1864. For accessibility we are also providing a text alternative with the timeline's content.

Click here to visit the timeline exploring the history of the Portland City Auditor's Office.