| 2016 | 2017 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adopted — Parks & Recreation | 26.3 | 26.1 | 36.0 | 36.7 | 34.3 | 35.3 |
| 2018 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|
| Proposed (FY2017–19) | 29.2 | 29.7 |
$ millions. The adopted figures appear in Open Budget Oakland's files under four department labels — “Oakland Parks & Recreation” (FY2015–16, FY2016–17 files), “Oakland Parks, Recreation & Youth Development” (FY2019–20 file), “Oakland Parks and Recreation Department” (FY2020–21 file), and “Oakland Parks and Recreation” (FY2021–22, FY2022–23 files) — with no overlapping years, so they are merged into one row. The series starts at FY2016 because the FY2013–14 and FY2014–15 adopted files list no parks department: parks was budgeted inside “Community Services” ($85.4M/$85.1M), which the FY2015–16 file splits into Human Services and Oakland Parks & Recreation. FY2018–19 exist only as proposed budgets — the proposed row — and the source's adopted files end at FY2022–23. The FY2011–13 proposed budget book carries General-Fund-only figures for the Office of Parks and Recreation under three budget scenarios, not comparable to the all-funds totals here; they are in the CSV as budget.book.proposed.office_of_parks_and_recreation.
Proposed = the spending plan the Mayor submits to the City Council. Adopted = the appropriation the City Council approves when it passes the budget — an authorization to spend, set before the fiscal year begins, not a record of what was spent. Actual = spending as reported after the fact in audited financial statements (ACFRs). Oakland budgets in two-year cycles; fiscal years here are labeled by their end year (FY2022–23 → 2023). Amounts are department totals across all funds unless noted.
No audited department-level actual-spending series for parks exists in the documents this site draws on. The City Auditor's compiled General Fund actuals cover police and fire only, and the audited financial statements (ACFRs) report governmental spending by function, not department — parks department spending is folded into the “community services” function (labeled “life enrichment” before FY2012) together with other community departments. The one parks-specific audited series in the ACFRs is the recreation enterprise below, which covers fee-funded recreation programs, not the department.
Source: Open Budget Oakland. 6 facts, 1 metric, 2016–2023. CSV
No independent anchor exists for this series: Open Budget Oakland is a community re-publication of the city's budget files with no second publisher of the same aggregates. Phase 2's available check is a band comparison against the budget books (budget.book.*) where the years overlap, not an equality..
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program expenses ($ thousands) | 94 | 68 | 159 | 160 | 734 | 1,087 | 384 | 652 | 520 | 740 | 492 | 643 | 855 | 681 | 872 | 730 | 1,317 | 777 | 683 | 725 | 1,156 | 813 | 1,586 | 871 |
| Charges for services ($ thousands) | 100 | 122 | 58 | 244 | 197 | 237 | 487 | 796 | 286 | 118 | 575 | 372 | 503 | 295 | 711 | 272 | 554 | 540 | 325 | 651 | 1,294 | 377 | 267 | 1,036 |
The city runs part of its recreation programming as a small business-type activity; each ACFR's Statement of Activities reports its expenses and charges for services, audited, in thousands of dollars. The statement format begins with the FY2002 report; the FY2002–2007 PDFs carry the same line but their text does not extract cleanly, so those years are not shown. No program-utilization data is published; a public records request is pending.
Both lines move by large multiples from one year to the next on a base of a few hundred thousand dollars: expenses run $68K to $1,586K across 2002–2025, with a median of $730K, and the two lines do not move together. The years above 1.5× the median — 2018 ($1,317K of expenses against $554K of charges for services), 2022 ($1,156K of expenses against $1,294K of charges for services), 2024 ($1,586K of expenses against $267K of charges for services) — were each checked against the printed Statement of Activities in their own ACFR and against the ten-year statistical table that later ACFRs reprint; both sources carry the same figures, so they are as published rather than extraction errors. The reports do not break the activity down further or explain the size of the swings, so what drives them is not established.
Source: ACFR. 48 facts, 2 metrics, 2002–2025. CSV
311 requests routed to Parks are on the Public Works/311 page.
Charted separately, in thousands rather than millions: overtime is 0.1–1.2% of total wages in the years shown (the source's total-wages figure includes overtime).
The dip bottoming at 2021 is a fall in the number of positions reported, not a gap in the source: wages go from $11.9M in 2016 to $8.9M in 2021 while the positions reported under this label go from 1,034 to 560, and both recover together by 2024 ($13.6M, 744 positions). Average pay per reported position rises across the dip ($11.5K to $15.8K), which is consistent with the department's part-time and seasonal recreation positions being the ones absent. The Controller files record only what was paid, and state no reason, so the reason for the drop in positions is not established from this source.
Source: California State Controller. 30 facts, 3 metrics, 2015–2024. CSV
State Controller payroll figures are calendar-year (January–December) totals. The budget and ACFR figures elsewhere on this page are July–June fiscal years labeled by their end year, so the two are on different bases and the years are not comparable.