Metro's natural areas program needs clearer management priorities to care for its growing inventory of land, according to an audit released today by the regional government's auditor.
The report from Metro Auditor Suzanne Flynn said Metro's management of its natural areas land could be improved and is too reliant on the initiative and experience of employees involved in the natural areas program. It said the regional government lacks clear standards for maintenance work.
"More clarity is needed to strategically plan what maintenance will be done, who will do it and how it will be funded," the audit said.
Flynn, in an interview, said she had been looking at auditing the management of the natural areas since her 2006 election to the post of auditor. The audit began in earnest about a year ago.
Its release coincides with a discussion at Metro as to whether the regional government should ask voters for a five-year property tax levy to pay for maintenance at the natural areas.
About 13,000 acres of natural areas have been acquired since the 1995 passage of a bond measure to buy habitat around the region; another bond measure, approved in 2006, is still being used to acquire property. Metro Sustainability Center director Jim Desmond said he agreed with the findings of the audit, and emphasized that the region has been focusing on buying properties and making immediate fixes to them.
"We've been acquiring properties at a very rapid pace in a relatively short period of time," he said. "Our priority was to get on the ground and focus on what these properties needed from day one."
That could be dealing with illegal ATV trails across properties, or trees falling onto neighboring properties, Desmond said.
But with Metro adding more and more natural areas, a more comprehensive look is needed, the audit said.
"Ad hoc management may have been sufficient to meet objectives when the amount of land Metro owned was relatively small," the audit says. "Now, the complexity of the system demands more structured management."
It recommended the program should clarify priorities, establish standards, document work and create consistent management procedures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its work.
The report stopped short of saying Metro needs a stable source for funding maintenance at the natural areas. But it pointed out that costs of maintenance are increasing.
It said Metro should develop specific maintenance plans for each of its natural areas. Desmond said that work has already begun, with the release late last year of a portfolio report detailing the scope of Metro's parks and natural areas.
He said more specific planning for each of Metro's natural areas could take three to five years.
"I don't see the audit as critical of anything we do, I see it as a push to get started on the important planning we need to do to go forward," Desmond said.