About the City Budget Office

Information

The City Budget Office (CBO) provides timely, accurate, and unfiltered information and analysis regarding budgeting, forecasting, and fiscal policy issues to the Mayor, Commissioners, City Auditor, City bureaus, and the public.

On this page

CBO Workplan148.01 KB

About Us

We are a small, highly-motivated team providing bureau-specific and Citywide budget and program analysis, economic forecasting, Citywide performance management, and Portland Utility Board management, analysis and support. CBO’s primary function involves coordinating the development of the City’s budget, including analysis and recommendations of each bureau’s operating and capital budget, financial plan, and performance measures. Duties include monitoring the high-level expenditure and revenue trends of all City funds throughout the fiscal year, coordinating budget amendments, analyzing City programs and policies, reviewing ordinances for fiscal and policy impacts, and providing fiduciary oversight of the General Fund and Recreational Cannabis Tax Fund.

In addition to providing analysis and recommendations to elected officials and the public, analysts are available to City bureaus for consultation, training, and technical assistance in matters related to budget, finance, and performance measurement and management. Analysts conduct research in response to inquiries from elected officials, City bureaus, the media, and the public. CBO strives to help the Mayor and City Council make decisions that preserve the long-term fiscal health of the City, and to help bureaus achieve Council’s priorities by using City resources to efficiently, effectively, and equitably deliver desired outcomes.

City Budget Director, Jessica Kinard

As the City Budget Director, Jessica Kinard leads a 16-person team focused managing the budget process, supporting Council budget decision-making, and providing unfiltered information and analysis to elected officials, bureaus, and the public.

Jessica joined the City Budget Office as a Principal Financial Analyst in 2015. She came to Portland from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Public Policy and Finance, where she served under the late Mayor Ed Lee, helping to balance the City and County’s then $8+ billion budget. Jessica helped develop and advise on budget and policy issues on a range of topics, with a focus on human services, aging and adult services, and children’s programming and policies.

Before beginning her career in city government, Jessica worked in the non-profit sector. She managed the launch and growth of Experience Corps Oakland, an intergenerational tutoring and mentoring program that placed and supported older adult volunteers in several Oakland, California elementary schools. Her passion for finding and implementing lasting solutions to poverty led her to study social and urban policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and transition to a career in public service. She believes in the importance and promise of local government to provide services that are effective, efficient, and which support equitable outcomes for all communities.

Jessica holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. She lives in Southeast Portland with her husband and two children.