February 2018

New Year's Resolution?

A key attribute of the "Lean Oswego" Continuous Process Improvement is that it is continuous. It only works if it becomes a habit, part of our corporate culture. And not something sporadic, like dusting off the treadmill in response to a New Year's resolution.

So what have "Lean Oswego" folks been up to in the last few months? A lot, it turns out:

Planning

• Planning is working on a significant streamlining of staff reports for development applications through a simple checklist approach.
• Planning is also assisting other city departments in preparing land use applications for city projects, saving time and consultant dollars required for permitting.

Planning and Fire

• The Fire Marshal now indicates at the pre-app stage if the proposed development will require Fire review at the land use stage. Before, Fire was routed all pre-app and land use cases for review and applicants were charged a fire review fee at both stages. The new process saves review time by the Fire Marshal by eliminating unnecessary land use review and saves money for applicants who no longer have to pay the Fire Review fee at the land use stage if Fire review is not necessary.

HR

• The Central Safety Committee moved to electronic packets.
• We no longer print performance review paperwork in HR, and more and more PAFs are completed through Laserfiche.

IT

• IT has completed fiber connections to the Clackamas County fiber ring for most city buildings, saving significantly on our Internet bill, and providing much higher speeds.
• The new website, recently unveiled, should be easier to keep updated, and will provide better navigation and searching.

Police

• LOPD Records has worked to implement an encrypted transmission system for both case files and email.  This means that we no longer need to hand carry reports and data to the District Attorney of Courts; and we’ve eliminated a tremendous amount of paper.
• The Police Department has become a big fan of Dropbox for information sharing, and has spread the use of the technology to other police departments, the courts and the District Attorney’s Office -  again, a real increase in efficiency and real decrease in the amount of paper we use.
• The Police Department now has a huge variety of apps for use by the officers in the field.  Officers use their smartphones to access resources ranging from policy, to scheduling, to criminal codes.  These apps help to increase efficiency by placing the information right into the hands of our officers.
• The Police Department now completes an abundance of “classroom training”  online.  From Haz Mat to Cultural Competency, to use of force – the bookwork is done in the office – leaving more time for practical hands on training.

Library

• The library's new RFID check out and check in equipment is very efficient...and cool to watch, too.

Engineering

• Engineering has drafted standard drawings and specs that will help both us and developers

City Manager's Office

• The Records team with help from departmental staff has made huge progress in digitizing documents in the records center and recycling the paper files.
• Long attachments to ordinances and resolutions are no longer printed and then re-scanned when the final documents are signed, but instead are kept in digital form.
• Lake Oswego University is completely paperless, with all class materials distributed via mobile devices (mostly inexpensive Chromebooks).

WELCOMING NEW EMPLOYEES

Kim Vermillion joined the ACC in January, providing admin support at the front counter. Kim was born and raised in the San Jose area, graduating from Willow Glen High School. She thought she would always live there, but then she and her husband Steve visited the Northwest, and she was hooked. They have lived in West Linn for many years, raising a son and daughter there (now they are 23 and 25). For the past six years, Kim has worked for the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. Through experience in her own family, she discovered she enjoyed working with older people, and has found a good fit at the ACC. Outside of work, she has many interests, mostly outdoor-related including riding ATVs on the coast, snowboarding, and pickle ball. And she ran a half marathon last year. She breaks a new hire streak in that they don't have a dog or cat.

December 2017

Respect Human Dignity
The news has focused lately on the sexual harassment patterns of a variety of public figures. It's too bad, because in a perfect world, these folks would be positive role models, not negative ones.

As an organization, we all share a commitment to treat each other with respect. The personnel policy includes an entire six-page section (1.3) on "Anti-Harassment and Non-Discrimination." It focuses largely on what not to do, which is helpful information.

But early in my career, a guy named Frank Hardesty summed it up in a positive way: respect human dignity. It's a three-word guiding principle that covers so much. And adding the word "dignity" is an important piece of it. As a practical matter, it's hard to always respect other people, because being human, they don't always behave respectably. But we can always respect (preserve or build up) the dignity of our fellow human beings.

Explicit sexual harassment is certainly a violation of this guiding principle. But it goes much beyond that, in the way we treat and view each other.

Sign up NOW for Lake Oswego University!
By popular demand, we're offering another Lake Oswego University "graduate" program. Get all the information here.

Welcoming New Staff

Janet Millette is now officially on the staff of the ACC as transportation coordinator, meaning she manages the various outings of the participants at the ACC, and often drives the bus herself. But she's lived in Lake Oswego since 1991, and for the past twenty years, has been a volunteer at the ACC. Janet grew up in southern California. She has five grandchildren, and in her free time, enjoys pickle ball and knitting. In a rare turn for a new hire, she has no pets herself, but enjoys a few vicariously through her children and grandchildren.

Kirk Carnahan has joined the Public Works staff as an electrician. Kirk was born in Portland, graduating from Wilson High. Growing up, he was familiar with Lake Oswego, with grandparents who lived here. He lives in Fairview and has two children, 10 and 8. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, hunting, hiking, snowshoeing, rock hounding, and boating. He does have two dogs: a Chow/German Shepherd mix, and a toy Poodle rescue dog. His mother Karen (LOFD) is proud to have her son join the City of Lake Oswego family.

Leslie Lai is in the middle of training as a dispatcher for LOCOM. Leslie was born in Salem and graduated from Gresham High. Her first career was as a school teacher, but she was interested in a career change; her father, a firefighter with TVF&R, suggested being a 9-1-1 dispatcher, and so far she's really enjoying it. Leslie has a three-year-old daughter, Sydney, and a Pug dog. She's a Blazers fan, and enjoys camping, going to the beach, and cooking.

November 2017

Introducing New Staff

The Finance Department has welcomed Rosana Franca to their staff, providing front counter customer service for (mostly) passports and utility bills. Rosana was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and moved to the States with her family. She graduated from Torrance High School in California, and worked in the airline industry for several years. She and her husband Ricardo live in Lake Oswego, with a daughter at Lakeridge High and a son at George Fox University. Outside of work, Rosana enjoys running, reading, and music. And she has a Golden Retriever.


Jason Doty started work as an officer with the Police Department about

a month ago. It's a return to his roots: Jason grew up in Lake Oswego and graduated from LO High. Back then, Ken Engstrom was the School Resource Officer, and Jason says that Ken had a strong influence in his decision on a second career as a police officer. Prior to joining our staff, Jason worked for thirteen years as a manager with Office Depot. He lives in Tigard and off duty enjoys camping, hiking, and skiing. And he has a Yorkie.




Summer Scenes

From the August staff mountain bike day on Mt. Hood...

From left: Shawn Flye (taking the selfie), Bob Irving, Nancy Flye, Scott Lazenby, Ivan Anderholm, and Weston Pay

Celebrating a good ride

September 2017

Hawaii Lake-O 2017

My thanks to all the folks who helped put on the great picnic on August 17. They include:

Planning Committee:

Amanda Creek; Anya Woodhouse; Patrick Foiles; Karen Carnahan; Lucas Pakes; Jenny Slepian; Lisa Stark; and Gail Hoddevik

Crew:

Chip Larouche; Maria Bigelow; Dave Arpin; Ryan Anderson; Kurt Minges; Jeremy Christensen; Matt D’Andrea; Marty Butts; Chuck Sciarrotta; and Ben LaBounty

Here are just a few of the mug shots:

Introducing...

Abel Wright has joined the Maintenance staff, in the wastewater crew. He comes to us from Sherwood, where he worked in parks maintenance, and prior to that, the City of Eugene, in streets. Abel was born and raised in Clatskanie, and served ten years in the US Navy. He and his wife live in Sherwood with their four children, ages six through 12. They are all in youth sports, and Abel coaches flag football. Abel also enjoys boating and fishing. They have two dogs and a cat.



Chris Myers joined our library staff after spending the last 14 years

working as a librarian for the Oregon Episcopal School. He had earlier worked for Multnomah County, Beaverton and Oregon City libraries, and before that was an administrator for Central Catholic High School. He has a degree in history from Stanford University, and a MLS. Chris was born and raised in Portland, and spent a few years in Washington DC after college. He and his wife have three children ages 15 through 19. Chris enjoys playing golf, cooking, eating pie, watching old movies, and of course, reading. And to break a streak: he does not have a dog.

August 2017

News Briefs

At their June 20 study session, the City Council gave the okay for a trial run at city-sponsored Fourth of July fireworks at Foothills Park in 2018.

Vanessa Sturgeon and her team are putting finishing touches on the design for the North Anchor project on B Avenue between State Street and First Street. She hopes to break ground in spring of 2018.

Anthony Hooper reports the rebuilt Maintenance Center is ahead of schedule, with the plan to move into the new buildings in early September.

LOPD relied on the help of a number of other law enforcement agencies in keeping the peace during the March 4 political rallies. They invited representatives of these agencies back on July 18, and Captain Dale Jorgensen provided an overview of how the event unfolded, and lessons learned. He emphasized the importance of the formal and informal partnerships with other cities and counties.

________________

Please join us at the 2017 employee picnic--4:30-7:00 on Thursday, August 17 at Millenium Park. If you haven't sent in your RSVP, there is still time: http://forms.ci.oswego.or.us/EmployeePicnic/

_________________

Meet Your New Colleagues

Caitlin Hoddevik is providing administrative support at our Adult Community Center. Caitlin grew up in Lake Oswego and graduated from Lakeridge High. She earned a Bachelor's Degree from Portland State University, studying exercise science and aging services. She came to us after working for Club Sport for seven years, where among other things she designed fitness programs for seniors. Caitlin lives in West Linn, and like most new employees, has a dog. Outside work, she enjoys hiking and working out. If her last name sounds familiar, her mother Gail works in Human Resources.

Kacey White started work in May as our instrumentation technician at the new Water Treatment Plant. He has done similar work for the past six years for a private company in Nevada. Kacey was born and raised in Longview, WA. He met his girlfriend in Las Vegas; it turns out she's from Longview too. Kacey has two beagles and enjoys fishing, hunting and other outdoor activities.





Carson Wu has joined our Finance Department in utility billing. Carson was born in Hong Kong; his family moved to West Linn when he was ten, and he graduated from West Linn High. He earned a college degree from the University of Washington, and for the past eleven years has worked in utility customer service for the City of Portland. Carson and his wife Joyce live in Lake Oswego, and have a fifteen-month-old daughter. Carson enjoys parks and hiking with his family, and is also into cars and collecting. No dog...but they do have a cat.





Sonja Johnson is now our stormwater quality coordinator in the Engineering Department ("the new Anne McDonald"). Sonja was born in South Dakota, and lived in other states, including in Colorado at 9,000 feet. She says she moved to Oregon to get away from snow (sorry about last winter), and has done similar work for the City of Newberg since 2009. She has a son who has graduated from high school and is headed to college in Texas, and a daughter in college in Chicago. Sonja lives in Beaverton and enjoys travel and scuba diving. And she has two cats.

Teri Gilbert began her new job as police officer in late June. But LOPD was familiar to her: since December, she had been working as an intern for the department as part of her Criminal Justice degree at Clackamas Community College. Teri is a Clackamas County native, born and raised in Molalla. She has been working in day care for the past four years. When I asked what got her interested in becoming a police officer, she attributed it to some good role models from officers she observed while growing up. She'll start her police academy training in Salem on August 14. Like many of her colleagues, Teri enjoys being outdoors--hiking, camping, fishing--and sports, especially playing basketball. She has two dogs and a cat.

June 2017

LEAN OSWEGO

Continuous Process Improvements from Departments

IT

The new ITSupport phone number rings on all “tech” desks, speeding up support to employees who call that number when compared to calling a specific tech who might not be at their desk.

Planning and Building Services

• Created a Conditions of Approval (COA) Matrix to streamline permit sign-offs among all departments – Leslie Hamilton [implementing a LOONI Award idea -ed.]
• Shortened Web Addresses for Community Development Code and LOMaps, tools frequently used by the public – Ellen Davis
• Created a Neighborhood Meeting Flowchart, replacing code text in handouts for applicants – Leslie Hamilton

Library

From Jane Carr - The adult services and reference departments have been busily responding to increased demands for seating within the library – for both tutors and for people coming to the library for quiet reading and reflection. We have been working with Facilities to repurpose and reuse discarded city furniture while we experiment with various configurations. Thus far the response has been very positive.

From Andrea Milano - I think that our Summer Reading Scavenger Hunt is a great example of “Lean Oswego.” Rather than hand out 400+ pieces of paper which are used, written on and then recycled. We make 10 laminated copies. Kids use these with a dry-erase pen, find the images around the Library and then return the laminated copy to the Children’s Desk where it is cleaned and ready to be used again.

Fire

In November the fire department changed its training platform to a new outside vendor, Target solutions, a California based multi-disciplined training program. The program is being used by many local fire departments--including the city of Portland, TVF&R, and Clackamas County Fire District 1--allowing all agencies the ability to share training material.

Different types of material and videos can easily be downloaded for various assignments for employees. The program streamlines required training, allowing engine companies to remain in their respective districts, saving time and fuel while remaining available for emergency calls. It allows users to work at their own pace to get required OSHA mandated hours and has a tracking component for certifications like EMT and Paramedic licenses where each firefighter can track their own status in “real” time. The program also allows administrators the ability to have employees “e-sign” verification that they have seen or acknowledgment of changes in standard operation guides or Operations changes.

Public Works + Water Treatment Plant

Public Works and the Water Treatment Plant have partnered together to digitalize the process for looking up material safety data sheets (MSDS). These MSDS documents are important because they give direction to employees on spill-handling and safety procedures.

 Previously, if a utility worker were to splash a chemical in their eyes while out in the field, then a co-worker would likely rush them to the hospital and while waiting would need to call an office staff member who would need to look through one of a dozen thick binders to find the right chemical by its technical name so as to give this document to the doctor. It may have been prudent to have used an eye-wash kit, but without reading the MSDS sheet one cannot be certain that this is a good or a bad idea.

The new process will allow a water treatment plant operator or a utility worker to click a link on an iPhone, tablet, or laptop and get access to all of our data sheets with a click of a button and if we didn’t have the sheet they could easily search a database of millions of sheets by common words such as “Gorilla Glue.” The cost for this is only $2,700 per year for both departments. Patti Smith is currently leading the effort to set up the virtual binders for Public Works.

Parks & Recreation

The department is in the process of converting the daily close process (accounting for payments for rec classes, etc.) to a completely paperless process.

 

May 2017

News Briefs

North Anchor  Lake Oswego resident Vanessa Sturgeon, developer of Portland's Park Avenue West project, is working on preliminary designs for the North Anchor development (north side of B Avenue from State Street to the west side of First Street. She and architect Bob Thompson will present the design concepts at the May 16 City Council meeting. The tentative plans include a 78-room boutique hotel, restaurant, 87 "age restricted" apartment units, 8,600 square feet of retail, and 287 parking spaces (including 50 public spaces).

Block 137 Work is on schedule, with the chance of some apartment units being ready to occupy before the end of the year. Workers are installing bricks on the First Street facade, contractors are starting to use the on-site parking, and the two cranes will be coming down soon.

Mary's Woods  The expansion (several residential buildings and some office/retail space) is underway on the property next to Hwy 43.

Civic Center In March, the City Council decided to replace city hall to, among other things, bring it to current seismic and energy standards. This will also allow the city hall and police station to be designed as an integrated two-building civic center. Urban renewal funds will be used for the project. Demolition of city hall won't begin until the police station is built, in approximately two years.

Stafford  Clackamas County and Metro have revived their efforts to designate the Stafford area as "Urban Reserve," meaning that it would be a priority for expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary some time in the next fifty years. The Cities of Lake Oswego, West Linn, and Tualatin have expressed concerns over infrastructure, especially traffic capacity, as well as urban form (i.e., wall-to-wall urbanization). The cities have been working with the county and Metro on an intergovernmental agreement that addresses these concerns, and gives the cities control over any future urban development in Stafford.

Budget  The proposed operating budget for 2017-19 is a "business as usual" financial plan. On the capital side, the proposed budget includes a continued focus on streets (pavement restoration), a couple big ticket park maintenance projects (reconstruction of Roehr Pathway and replacement of Hazelia turf), and installation of "all weather" turf at Waluga Park. Through accumulated savings, departments are also funding some major capital items, including a replacement fire engine and rescue boat, and replacement of the elevator and generator at the library.

Introducing New Staff Members

Brittany Carter has joined LOCOM as a communications operator trainee. Brittany was born in Hillsboro and graduated from Century High. She has previous ties to LO, too, through the Lake Oswego Academy of Dance. While attending Chapman University in California, she worked at Disneyland. Brittany lives in Beaverton, and outside of work, she likes to dance, hike, bike, and read.




Luis Milera is one of our new utility workers in the water
department. Luis was born in Texas and moved to Dayton, OR when he was seven; he graduated from St. Paul High. Luis lives on the Lee Family Farm in Stafford; he and his wife Teagan have two children ages 1 and 5. Luis enjoys sports, and has coached basketball and plays golf. And in his spare time he does volunteer work on the family farm.








Kenny Williams is also a utility worker in the water department. Kenny was born in California and raised in Portland, graduating from David Douglas High. He now lives in Oregon City. His past work experience has included welding, fabrication and pipe insulation. In his free time, he enjoys off-roading and downhill mountain biking. He and his wife Sarah have a four year old son.

Welcome all of you to the LO staff!