July 2014

News & Events

Pardon Our Mess!  There is work going on all over town. LO-Tigard water project, Kerr Parkway, PGE transmission line upgrade, and much more. The city web site and LOTWP website have maps and schedules to let folks know what's happening when.

Wizer (Block 137) Development. The developer submitted revised plans on June 2. See the web site for information about the project, including the developer's narrative description of the changes they made in response to concerns from the Design Review Commission. It will probably be scheduled for DRC consideration again in late July.

West End Building. On June 3, the City Council approved a purchase and sale agreement with Nick Bunick for the WEB. It gives Mr. Bunick two months for his "due diligence" inspection of the property, and to arrange financing. For the time being, at least, the agreement assumes that the current city uses of the building will continue. Stay tuned...

Lake Oswego University is taking a brief summer break...and is also inviting new enrollment for the fall term. Classes meet over lunch on the second and fourth Thursdays (starting again on September 11). No prerequisites necessary; just an inquiring mind. If you're interested, please contact LOU Provost Anne-Marie Simpson. For continuing students, no need to re-register; see you at the special summer session on August 14 (with no reading homework!).

Personal Notes

For many organizations, summer is a relatively quiet time. For cities like ours, summer is the busiest time--construction projects, events like the 4th of July parade, Farmers Market, concerts and movies in the parks, and the list goes on. At the same time, we want to enjoy the Oregon summer weather with our families, and travel while the kids are out of school, so we're often short-staffed. Thanks to all of you who get us through it and make it all work.

"How come my colleague got a birthday card from the city manager, but I didn't?" -- Lonely in LO.
Dear Lonely: Don't feel left out! The cards are commemorating birthday milestones that end in a zero...so the most you'll have to wait is nine years.

Finally, our hearts go out Fire Lieutenant Kevin Soyk who lost his son Hayden in a car accident.

June 2014

Policy & Administration
Some local guest columns in the LO Review accused city staff of not following city council policy direction. I don't believe there was a factual basis to the charges. Nonetheless, it's always good to reaffirm our commitment to our system of representative democracy.

The city management profession adopted a code of ethics in 1924, and ever since, adherence to this code has been the only qualification for membership in the International City Management Association. The code includes these tenets:

Tenet 1 -- Be dedicated to the concepts of effective and democratic local government by responsible elected officials and believe that professional general management is essential to the achievement of this objective.

Tenet 5 -- Submit policy proposals to elected officials; provide them with facts and advice on matters of policy as a basis for making decisions and setting community goals; and uphold and implement local government policies adopted by elected officials.

Tenet 6 -- Recognize that elected representatives of the people are entitled to the credit for the establishment of local government policies; responsibility for policy execution rests with the members [and staff].

A colleague once summarized it this way: "Our councils have the right to run our cities into the ground, and we have the duty to help them." There's some hyperbole here, but truth too: the elected city council members own the policy domain, and they hire us to carry it out.

To me, it's odd the issue has even come up. We sought direction on policies and goals from the City Council at their January retreat, and carrying them out has driven much of our work. The comp plan update is complete, the implementation package for the sensitive lands revisions is going to the Council on June 3, we're making significant progress on catching up on the backlog of street maintenance, and we've negotiated a sale agreement for the West End Building. These are all significant council goals for 2014.

City council policies are subject to constraints: laws of nature and economics; laws of the state and federal governments. But here too, if council policy requires it, we need to push the boundaries of these constraints as far as we can. The State of Oregon has spent the past half century removing, piece by piece, local home rule authority, and I believe we have a responsibility to the community we serve to restore local control. But that's a topic for another time...

May 2014

City staff gave David Donaldson a nice send-off for his new job as Vice President for Human
Resources at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo.

I've been contacted by colleagues from around the state, interested in the position. This speaks well of the desirability of Lake Oswego as a place to work. Over the past nine months, I have relied heavily on David's knowledge of the organization and community, and for me, his ideal replacement would be an individual with a similar knowledge and insight. For this reason, and to provide a promotional opportunity for our highly-qualified staff, I plan to do an in-house recruitment for the position.

Nick Bunick has made an offer to purchase the West End Building for $20 million. He has stated his willingness to allow city staff and facilities to remain in the building even after he (or his nonprofit organization) purchases it. We're still working on the details of a purchase & sale agreement, and the whole thing is contingent on his ability to secure financing. We'll keep you posted...

The Evergreen Development Group is still back at the drawing board, working on modifications to their design for the Wizer (Block 137) development. We expect they will have something ready for the Design Review Commission soon. 

It will be a busy summer for construction projects, and an obstacle course for LO residents (and city staff) trying to get around town. See the construction schedule and construction schedule and map.

As I write, the Budget Committee is still meeting and deliberating on the 2014-15 budget. The proposed operating budget is a "hold-the-line" budget. Most of the interesting decisions center on the capital improvement plan (how to finance the upgrade to the Operations Center, long term funding of street improvements, etc.). The budget preparation process gave departments more authority and responsibility over their own budgets (see the "budget process and philosophy").  While they do tend to be fiscally conservative, several of the appointed members of the budget committee have managed large organizations themselves, and understand the reasons for this approach. We expect the committee work to wrap up on May 8.

The planning staff have made significant progress on a replacement for our current "sensitive lands" regulations. A full package of proposed changes will be reviewed by the City Council in a work session on June 10.

Special April 1 Edition

NEWS
The Katniss Everdeen Group, developers of Block 137, have abandoned plans to build a combined retail and housing project. They have instead secured tenants for the existing building. Proposed retail uses include a medical marijuana outlet mall ("biggest on the West Coast!"), the Lake Oswego Head Shoppe, tattoo parlors, a Piercing Spa, and exotic dancing. "No density, no dogs," said developer Kat Celery.

Not taking "no" for an answer, the Free Oswego Lake action coalition plans to airlift ski boats onto the lake this summer using Chinook helicopters. In response, the Lake Corp has put in an order for a surplus Dolphin-class submarine equipped with 650mm torpedos from the Israeli Navy.

The Dark Forest Neighborhood Association has nominated three vine maples along the fence of the Dark Forest School as Heritage Trees. "William Stafford's dog piddled on them," according to the nomination form.

City Manager Spot Lozenges urges all city staff to honor Earth Day (April 22) by bringing a worm to work.

REGION
Emboldened by Vladimir Putin, the Molalla Prairie Hamlet has annexed the south part of Oregon City and all of Molalla. "You has property rights too, ya know," said Commissioner Gassie Jones in a note of congratulations.

STATE
State legislators have hit upon a new formula to guarantee their reelection: first, create a pile of bad laws that mandate, limit, and preempt local government. Then, when those laws prove to be unworkable, emerge as heroes by superseding those laws by legislative fiat. "It really worked out well with the land use Grand Bargain," exulted Sen. Orem Bukshot (D-Toadleg).  House leaders noted that future targets include local property taxation, employee relations, public pensions, bids and contracting laws, and records and open meetings laws. "There is almost no limit to the bad laws we can supersede," said Rep. Margaret Beekeep (R-Piglick).

NATION
Foreign policy matters have distracted President Obama from his primary interest of "focusing on the economy." M. Friedman of the Chicago School of Economics noted, "Just as well; do we really want to trust our economy to the same outfit that gave us the TSA?"

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

January 2014

Some December Photos

2013 Annual Holiday Luncheon

Many thanks to the holiday luncheon committee for putting on a great party: Scott Matthew, Marty Butts, Susan Millhauser, Jessica Kayl, Karen Carnahan, Suzy Gabriel, Chuck Sciarrota, and Janice Reynolds.

Excellence Awards



Dawn Pecoraro.  Compassion and kindness in helping a family in need in Lake Oswego.

Toby Hays and Scott Carlson. Fire & rescue training in Bolivia.



Judy Rossner. Goes above and beyond in providing great customer service to users of park facilities.



Bob Burgeson and Kevin Batridge. Took the initiative to find an alternative solution for a temporary chemical feed system at the water plant which resulted in saving the City $90,000.

Cydny Flectcher. Responsible for the overwhelming success and measurable increase in participation in the City’s teen programs.

The Coveted Geek Awards

Presented virtually from Orlando, Florida by Chip Larouche with the assistance (in reality) by David Donaldson

Bev Ross

Larry Goff



Sue Scobert

Other Geek Award Winners (not pictured): Bob Blezinski and Walt Williams

Parks & Recreation Holiday Lunch in Pictures

Greg Tracy, Antonio Garcia, Ryan Stee, Bill Heggie. And no alcohol was served!



Dawn Grunwald, Megan Big John, Jan Wirtz

Deb Campbell, Kathy Schilling, Marry Kelly

Sugarplum Fairies Jan Wirtz, Jamie Inglis, Kelliegh Bradley, Jodi Pluhacek

 

Employee Survey Results

 

In Memoriam

 

City staff this week received the sad news that Ray Montgomery, Superintendent of Water Operations, passed away on Sunday 12/29, after a battle with cancer. Ray was only 46.