This newspaper article is over a year old, but I think it would still be of interest to many budget conscious Portlanders. Not sure where the Communications, I mean PR, budget is listed on the budget calculator. It must be there somewhere, right next to consultant fees.

PR spending is bolstered amid school district cuts
Portland adds consultants and expense to a communications staff that is bigger and costlier than those in similar districts
Oregonian Saturday, February 26, 2005
PAIGE PARKER
Portland Public Schools has ramped up spending on public relations and lobbying at a time when the district seeks to close schools and faces budget cuts next year.
Superintendent Vicki Phillips and the school board have hired six consultants since June to augment a seven-member communications staff. The district also is advertising for a communications director, who would earn $102,000 to $118,000 annually.
Portland's $1.2 million communications budget represents a fraction of the district's $396 million operating budget. The department's budget includes salaries, supplies, materials and publications. The district is on track to spend nearly $650,000 on salaried communications employees and consultants this year, $150,000 more than the communications department paid in salaries last year. That's more than some similarly sized school districts spend on communications.
Phillips said the district needs temporary help from consultants because the communications and PR workload has increased, and the department is understaffed and needs reorganization.
"A consistent issue that has plagued the district has been our communications, both responsiveness and the level of capacity for internal communications," Phillips said. "We have a lot of ground to make up."
The spending comes as Phillips proposes to close four elementary schools and two middle schools. She said this week the district faces an estimated $51 million budget shortfall next school year and a potential $98 million shortfall in 2006-07 because of the likely loss of local tax revenue and looming state budget cuts.
Phillips has temporarily hired Michael Don, a former Fred Meyer executive, to orchestrate the central office redesign and lead the human resources department after former personnel chief Steve Goldschmidt was ousted. Don's contract runs from mid-January to mid-March and could be extended. He earns about $68 an hour, or $140,000 if he were to work a full year, the same salary Goldschmidt earned.
Randall Heeb, PTA president at Edwards Elementary, which faces closure after the spring term, questioned the communications spending.
Heeb said school districts need to spend money on PR to communicate about programs and public spending. "Although $650,000 is clearly excessive," Heeb said. "We ought to shine a bright light on these temporary contracts. That seems to be where this superintendent has gotten in trouble before, in Pennsylvania, and I think it would do everybody good to take a hard look at what they're doing. Put it in perspective: That $650,000 would keep both Edwards and Smith Elementary open."
Phillips' spending on consultants drew criticism during her previous time as a superintendent.
In December, the Pennsylvania auditor general criticized Phillips for failing to adequately monitor spending as superintendent of the Lancaster school district. Auditors faulted Phillips for not exercising adequate oversight, failing to require detailed invoices from consultants and, in some cases, for paying more for temporary consulting services than the district would have spent had it hired a permanent, salaried employee.
Portland Schools' senior communications officer, Brenda Gustafson, said an outside review found poor communication among district departments and with the community. She said the district is studying ways to be more efficient and cost effective in communications.
"Our goal is to save money by doing this," Gustafson said.
The 47,500-student Portland school district employs seven people in its communications department. They are paid to do community and media relations, perform research, translate documents into other languages and handle other duties.
"We help 100 schools," Gustafson said. "I don't think it's too big a staff for a district this size, with the number of people who have to be coordinated."
Other district comparisons
Seattle Public Schools, with an enrollment of 46,000, has four public relations staff members, a spokesman said Friday. The department budgets $251,092 for salaries.
The Sacramento City Unified School District, with 48,000 students, has three full-time and one part-time public affairs staff members, said communications officer Maria Lopez. They earn $311,136 in salaries and benefits a year.
Lew Frederick, Portland's public information officer, is the highest-paid member of the staff. He earns $89,159 annually.
Gustafson earns $75,070 annually, plus $700 a month for supervisory duties. The district's former lobbyist earned $86,144 until she left in January. The district has since hired a lobbying firm on a one-year, $94,500 contract.
In June, the school board hired Portland consultant Gwenn Baldwin to help board members communicate about contract negotiations and financial accountability, among other subjects. Baldwin earned $75 an hour. She billed the district $17,000 for work performed over 120 days.
Baldwin said she charged the district half of her normal rate.
Bob Lawrence is a Portland consultant whose contract runs from mid-October through March. He will earn $38,000. He said he also lowered his typical rate.
In August, Phillips hired Keith Pierce, her former communications director in Lancaster, to train Portland's communications staff and develop a PR plan. Pennsylvania auditors, in their December report, singled out Pierce for using his district-provided credit card for personal purchases.
In Portland, Pierce earned $77 an hour. The district did not require Pierce to submit an accounting of the work he performed. Pierce's contract lasted 12 weeks and limited his wages to $34,000. However, Pierce worked an additional five weeks without the required contract extension, and earned $37,000 -- $3,000 more than his contract allowed.
"That's normally not how we handle contracts here at the district," said Darin Matthews, procurement director for the school district. Matthews negotiated Pierce's contract. He said the district continues to tighten contract rules and has renegotiated some contracts as a result.
Gary Blackmer, Portland city auditor, said city contracts can be amended after they're signed, but doing so requires a document that authorizes spending above the original agreed on amount.
"It's documentation for accountability and for people who want to see what the public got for those dollars," Blackmer said.