March 2014

Meetings With Staff
One of my resolutions for 2014 is to meet individually with every member of the city staff. We've tried to block off Thursdays for this, and it's become the highlight of my week. I've thorough enjoyed learning about the background, talents, ideas, and interests of the folks working for the city.

Some staff members have asked, "when's our turn?" Anne-Marie Simpson is handling the logistics, and this is a challenge with different shifts and locations for staff. The last few weeks, I've been meeting with police department staff, and as our largest department, this will just take some time.

Quarterly Briefing
Anne-Marie has also scheduled the first 2014 city manager briefing on current issues and Q&A session for Wednesday, March 19 at 10:00 a.m. in the Willamette Room of the West End Building. Join us if you can. Free coffee and donuts!

News
The Evergreen Group, developers of the proposed Block 137 (Wizer) project have asked for a continuance of the Design Review process to see if they can address some of the concerns raised by the Design Review Commission.

On March 18, if everything goes as planned, the City Council will formally adopt the long-anticipated update to the Comprehensive Plan. Congratulations to the staff of the Planning & Building Department and to the community members who have worked so diligently on this project. It is a major milestone in the City Council's goals.

We were as surprised as anyone on Google's announcement that Lake Oswego is being seriously considered as a Google Fiber community. The availability of 1,000 megabit per second (gigabit) broadband service will be a fantastic opportunity for our residents. Google is asking for information on mapping, location of utilities, right-of-way permitting process, and other technicial information. At this stage, David Kudna in Engineering is the point person in communicating with Google. If our information seems OK--and we're confident it will be--Google will, later this year or early in 2015, invite residents to sign up to have their neighborhoods be the first served. For more information, see https://fiber.google.com/newcities/

Thanks to the staff of all departments, and especially Streets, for taking care of our community during February's snow storm. I attended the debriefing session on February 14, and was so impressed by the professionalism of our staff, and the willingness of departments to support each other.

February 2014

City Council Policies and Goals

On January 11, the City Council held a full day retreat to discuss overall policies for the city, and to set goals for 2014 and beyond. They refined the wording over the subsequent meetings and adopted them on February 4. Note that the goals statement basically represents the City Council's own workplan for 2014 and future years. It assumes that the City of Lake Oswego will continue to provide excellent day-to-day service to its residents and businesses.

Please see the goals and policies, posted on the city web site at: http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/citycouncil/2014-city-council-goals-and-policies

More News

Wizer Block Development. The Design Review Commission listened to hours of testimony on the project in two meetings in January. They are scheduled to discuss the development proposal and make a decision on it on February 19. Their decision can be appealed to the City Council.

West End Building Sale and Rezone. Kensington Investment Group, the purchaser of the property, has said they are working on more detailed plans for use of the building and property. On February 4 the City Council voted to send the rezone decision back to the Planning Commission to see if this new information affects their decision to deny the application to rezone the property to "general commercial." The final decision on any changes in zoning is made by the City Council. According to the agreement between the City and Kensington, the sale is contingent on the zone change. Staff have negotiated a lease-back agreement when and if the sale goes through, to buy us some time to relocate staff and equipment.

LO-Tigard Water Project. The current boom in shale oil and natural gas fracking caught everyone by surprise. It's good news for energy prices, but bad news for our water project. The same crews and equipment that were expected to bore under the Willamette River and Oswego Lake for our 4-foot pipe are now in very high demand by the oil and gas industry, and can command premium prices. In response, our design team has regrouped and is working on a route around, rather than under, the lake. The size of the bore under the river is being reduced and the Request for Proposals reconfigured to encourage more competition in bidding. The proposals are due on February 20th. Other aspects of the project are going relatively smoothly.

2014-15 Budget

In our representative democracy, the City Council in theory has the final say in tax and fee rates, and how money is spent on city services and facilities. In practice, the state government has increasingly interfered in local control, especially in the area of local finances. The city's home rule authority has been greatly dimished through tax and fee limitations, and through a growing pile of unfunded mandates.

Given this reality, we are doing some fine-tuning to the internal budget preparation process, to give departments more autonomy in proposing budgets that respond, as much as possible, to Council goals and priorities. Organizations in both the private and public sectors have found that as long as the organization's mission and goals are clearly understood, the folks in the front lines are in the best position to figure out how to stretch available resources as far as possible.

New Years Resolution from Mr. Grammar Person

Words and phrases we hope we never hear (or read) in 2014:

• Incentivize
• Utilize
• 24/7
• In a timely manner
• Reach out to
• Enclosed please find
• Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber