Willamalane Park & Recreation District (OR)

Hi Jamie,

I hope you're doing well. We met when you led the week-long 110% Financial Sustainability training at Willamalane Park & Recreation District in Springfield, Oregon, this past January (2026). At the time, I had already been a manager in our Finance and IT Department for several years, but I had only recently stepped into the role of leading both teams the previous May.

I just finished reading The Bison Principle over the last 24 hours, and I wanted to reach out because so much of what you wrote resonated with what we have been working through as an organization.

When I stepped into that leadership role in May 2025, we were in a difficult financial position. We had just adopted a budget with a projected General Fund ending balance of only $486,919. While we had dedicated capital resources, including approximately $1.8 million in our Building and Construction Fund and $7.7 million in System Development Charges, nearly all of the construction funding was already committed, and our General Fund was clearly under pressure. Over the previous several years, expenditures had consistently outpaced recurring revenues.

One of the first real conversations I had with our Executive Director after stepping into the position was that I did not believe we should pursue a bond measure at that time. My feeling was that before asking our community to invest in additional assets, we needed to first strengthen the financial health of the organization itself. To his credit, he took that message to heart. Looking back now, I believe that conversation became a turning point for our district.

As I read The Bison Principle, I found myself reflecting on that conversation. Rather than focusing on expanding what we own, we have challenged ourselves to first become a financially sustainable organization that can responsibly maintain and operate what we already have. That shift in thinking felt like one of the central messages of your book.

Over the past year, we have completed a district-wide reorganization that redistributed responsibilities across departments and eliminated the need to refill two executive-level positions. We promoted from within, streamlined operations, and focused on making the organization stronger instead of simply adding resources.

We also successfully passed our first temporary operating levy in an incredibly close election this past May. From the beginning, we were intentional with our messaging to both our Board and the public. The levy is not our solution. It simply provided us with the time and stability needed to implement the real solution. We viewed the levy not as permission to spend more, but as an opportunity to fundamentally change the district's financial trajectory while maintaining the level of service our community expects. We know we cannot rely on temporary taxes to fund operations indefinitely, and we have built our strategic financial plan around ensuring we will not have to.

Our long-term strategy has several components working together. We plan to continue expanding recreation revenue opportunities while placing a greater emphasis on strategic partnerships, sponsorships, and grants as dependable supplemental revenue sources. We intend to pursue annexation of areas that are benefiting from district services but are not currently contributing property taxes to support them.

We are also committed to completely redesigning our cost recovery model so it reflects the true cost of delivering services, rather than only direct labor and materials. Before evaluating individual programs, our first step will be understanding the full cost of operating each building and space throughout the district. From there, we can have more meaningful conversations about our programs by balancing community benefit, community reach, and financial sustainability.

One of the biggest lessons I took away from your book was the importance of truly understanding what it costs to deliver the services we provide. I believe that is one of the most important conversations we need to have as an organization over the next few years.

We have also received some encouraging momentum. Our Parks Foundation recently received a $14 million legacy gift dedicated specifically to maintaining our parks, not constructing new ones. At the same time, our Parks Division is developing a comprehensive inventory of deferred maintenance so we have a clear understanding of our long-term obligations before making future investment decisions. Again, I could not help but think about your emphasis on stewardship and making decisions with the long view in mind.

The results over the past year have been encouraging. Although our FY26 budget anticipated ending the year with only $486,919 in the General Fund, we actually finished at approximately $1.7 million. For FY27, we adopted a budget with a projected ending General Fund balance of approximately $2.16 million.

Our updated five-year financial strategy continues rebuilding reserves while increasing annual transfers to our Building and Construction Fund to better address deferred maintenance. We currently have no plans to acquire major new facilities or properties, and all of our existing debt will be paid off by 2031. Most importantly, our financial projections show that by the fifth year we will have generated more recurring annual revenue than the temporary levy provides. In other words, our goal is to ensure the district is no longer dependent on the levy before it expires.

Perhaps the biggest change over the past year has not been in our financial statements. It has been in how we think. Conversations that once focused on balancing the next budget have evolved into discussions about stewardship, sustainability, deferred maintenance, cost recovery, strategic partnerships, and ensuring future boards inherit an organization that is stronger than the one we inherited. That cultural shift has been just as meaningful as the financial improvements.

I know we still have a tremendous amount of work ahead, and I certainly do not think we have figured everything out. But for the first time in quite a while, I genuinely feel we are building a resilient organization rather than simply balancing budgets.

I apologize for the lengthy email, but this has become something I am incredibly passionate about. Looking back, I am very proud of how far we have come in just over a year. More importantly, I am proud that our leadership team made the conscious decision to prioritize organizational sustainability before pursuing growth. We still have a tremendous amount of work ahead, but I truly believe we are building a district that will be financially stronger for decades to come.

I also wanted you to know how much I enjoyed The Bison Principle. I read the entire book in about 24 hours because I simply could not put it down. While the concepts resonated with me personally, I also believe they would be incredibly valuable for our leadership team. I plan to recommend it to our entire Executive Team and our Board of Directors because I think it provides exactly the kind of perspective that helps organizations make better long-term decisions.

Thank you again for writing The Bison Principle and for the Financial Sustainability Certificate Program you provided us in January. Reading the book after living through this past year gave me an entirely different perspective. It reinforced many of the decisions we have made and gave me even greater confidence that we are moving in the right direction.

I hope our paths cross again someday.