Invitations to Candidates for City Council

To all COLA LO Members,

Invitations were sent to all city council candidates to attend our panel review sessions on Monday.   As of Tuesday morning 4 of the 7 council candidates have confirmed they will participate in the open discussion on key issues of concern to our community.   The scheduled dates of 9/15-9/16 are set and we are awaiting responses from the remaining candidates.   

We will try to ensure that all council candidates participate in the process so  members of our community have the opportunity to evaluate the positions of each candidate and make informed decisions.  However the TV and location schedule may limit our options during the process. 

Please review your emails and voicemail for further details.    Thank you for your continued support of the organization.  

COLA-LO Board

COLA -LO Organization

COLA LO was founded in the spring of 2010 to address specific concerns within the community.    Lake Oswego's 2008 election showed a growing disparity of views within the community, primarily surrounding the purchase and use of the WEB building.  Unfortunately this issue continues to remain unresolved nearly two years after the election while the city council reviews additional development projects and restrictions.

The WEB is a symbol of larger issues within the public management of the community including the public process and its direction.    The efforts of the council in 2008-2010 have been focused on development restrictions within the city while not only proposing cuts to core services but also promoting costly consultant projects.  These projects are a tradeoff of resources in the budget during a period of significant economic uncertainty for citizens. 

After reviewing testimony at hearings we believe it is essential that elected officials in our city council be held accountable for their decisions and that a group of long term citizens provide oversight for the community.    The existing advisory boards seem to have little impact on final management decisions.

COLA -LO was developed with a Board of Directors to guide its efforts.   The board is supplemented with a focused advisory group that provides input on specific issues and a general membership group that participates in our meetings.

COLA -LO

Citizens for Local Accountability (COLA-LO) is a group representing a coalition of citizens in Lake Oswego that are concerned about our city and believe in common sense government in three areas:




 Fiscal Responsibility

 Focus on Core Services (Fire, Police, Sewer, Parks and Roads).

 Property Rights for the individual citizen.



We believe that not only have these values made Lake Oswego an exceptional place to live but also that as citizens we need to endorse city council candidates that represent these values. We are inviting council candidates for interviews and will make our recommendation to the citizens of Lake Oswego as a group.


We would like to invite you to be a member of our broader group in addition to our Board and advisory members and participate in our “straw poll” next month.