The Oregon Secretary of State’s Audits Division released a performance audit on Wednesday of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, which manages 250 properties across the state, including the boat dock and other amenities at Cleawox Lake in Florence, Oregon, as seen in the photo above. (Oregon Parks and Recreation Department)
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department needs to conduct more safety inspections and keep better track of its assets, state auditors recommended Wednesday.
From parking lots, RV dump stations to lighthouses and yurts, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department oversees 250 properties across more than 113,000 acres, including 362 miles of ocean shore.
A 26-page audit released by the Secretary of State’s Office found the agency between 2022 and 2025 didn’t consistently complete or record quarterly safety inspections for buildings where employees work and that are accessible to the public. Additionally, auditors found the agency doesn’t adequately track its property, including vehicles, amphitheaters, utility trailers and backpack blowers.
“Oregonians love their state parks and have been able to safely enjoy them for decades,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement. “The findings in this audit will help protect that important legacy and our public dollars.”
Agency is behind on safety inspections, audit finds
Because the parks and recreation agency manages properties with significant risks, auditors said it’s essential the agency complies with safety inspections to prevent hazards. One park had no records of building inspections from 2022 to 2025, the audit found.
The agency in that same time frame received three Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations related to safety violations in the last year, costing nearly $10,000.
The lack of safety inspections puts the agency at risk of fines or expensive lawsuits if someone is harmed at a time when the agency already faces a budget deficit in the 2027-29 budget cycle. Auditors recommended the department roll out policies requiring quarterly safety inspections for buildings where employees work and clearly define the roles for execution and oversight of those inspections.
Without accurate data, insurance won’t cover Oregon park losses
Auditors also found that 38% of park assets were missing information, particularly acquisition date and cost.
Auditors found several examples of misreported state-owned assets, finding items with missing identification tags, listed with the incorrect location, or just items being completely nonexistent in the agency’s asset information system.
Without reliable data, the Oregon Department of Administrative Services cannot ensure proper insurance coverage, and the agency may bear the entire cost of damage, destruction or theft of an asset. Or in some cases, those assets will no longer be available to the public.
For example, a $50,000 trash compactor destroyed by a fire had to be replaced using agency funds because it wasn’t listed in its asset management system. In another example, Collier State Park suffered wildlife damage to a historical logging collection, but insurance could not cover the loss because the agency didn’t list it in the Oregon Department of Administrative Services’ annual risk report.
It’s unclear how much the state has spent to replace recreational assets simply because agency officials didn’t properly track it when it otherwise could have been covered by insurance, according to the audit.
Most of the agency’s funding comes from Oregon Lottery revenues, followed by funding paid by park fees, sales of road and park permits and a share of recreational vehicle registration revenues.
Auditors recommended the agency update its asset management guidance, provide recurring training to staff on asset management policies — including tagging, record-keeping and disposal procedures, as well as establish accountability measures such as performance evaluations
The agency agreed with all of the recommendations. In a response letter, Interim Director Stefanie Coons said the agency will refine its guidance to ensure quarterly safety inspections. She said new asset management training is already underway as of earlier this year and that the agency is planning for a new asset management system.
Budget constraints, however, remain a challenge for the agency.
“In recent years, (the agency) has faced significant and ongoing budget challenges that have influenced the pace of several modernization and remediation efforts,” Coons said in a response letter to the secretary of state’s audits division. “Persistent gaps between revenue and operational needs have required the agency to make difficult resource allocation decisions, and these constraints are projected to continue into upcoming biennia.”
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