Volunteers call bank for KGW candidates

To all COLA LO members,

Volunteers and candidates continued to call bank this weekend for all COLA LO endorsed candidates. Please continue to support Kehoe - Gudman -Williams for city council.  

Voter turnout is extremely high based upon ballots submitted through 10/30/10. All indications are that support for Mike Kehoe, Jeff Gudman, and Dan Williams is extremely high across all areas and groups.

Notify all your friends and contacts of the importance of this election.

COLA LO posts City Council election results link

To all COLA LO Members,

We have updated our links section with the official elections result site for Clackamas County. The link is:

http://www.clackamas.us/elections/results.htm#21

This site can be monitored for election results on Tuesday after 8pm. Feel free to forward this link to members and contacts.

Candidates calling voters with volunteer COLA LO members

To all COLA LO members & friends,

Don't be surprised if you receive a personal call from Mike Kehoe, Jeff Gudman, or Dan Williams.    Why? All of the candidates are now making calls using the COLA LO call banking system/resources.    COLA LO volunteer members and the candidates made calls throughout Lake Oswego last weekend and will continue to do so this week. Candidates and volunteers talked directly with voters to express the need for fiscal responsibility in Lake Oswego.

Our thanks to the many of you that expressed unconditional support to the candidates and are helping in the effort. All of the candidates are walking the community and personally expressing their views and commitments to the voters.  

Please remember to vote K-G-W (Kehoe Gudman and Williams) and turn in your ballots right away.

Portland's Runaway Debt Train

To all COLA LO Members,

A new article in New Geography.com exposes the myths behind the financial impact of Portland's rail investments.   It shows the actual long term costs of light rail in Portland.

http://www.newgeography.com/content/001826-portlands-runaway-debt-train

Keep this in mind when voting for candidates that support the street car to Lake Oswego.  Please forward this to friends and contacts.  

Oregonian publishes a full page private party endorsement of Kehoe, Gudman & Williams

To all COLA LO members.

The Oregonian Southwest Section published a full page endorsement of Kehoe, Gudman, and Williams this weekend. The endorsement was paid for by a private party group of citizens and exhibits COLA LO's endorsement along with several other independent groups.

This endorsement comes just after the taxpayers association of Oregon endorsed Mike Kehoe, Jeff Gudman, and Dan Williams this week for their fiscally responsible positions on the issues facing Lake Oswego.

Please notify all members and contacts.

Lake Oswego Review publishes a full page private party endorsement of Kehoe, Gudman & Williams

To all COLA LO members.

The print edition of the Lake Oswego Review includes a full page endorsement of Kehoe, Gudman, and Williams. The endorsement was paid for by a private party group of citizens and is on the second page of the print edition of the review.

This endorsement comes just after the taxpayers association of Oregon endorsed Mike Kehoe, Jeff Gudman, and Dan Williams this week for their fiscally responsible positions on the issues facing Lake Oswego.

Please notify all members and contacts.

Taxpayers Association of Oregon PAC endorses Kehoe,Gudman,Williams

To all COLA LO members.

The taxpayers association of Oregon endorsed Mike Kehoe, Jeff Gudman, and Dan Williams this week for their fiscally responsible positions on the issues facing Lake Oswego.  

Their Voters guide link is:

http://www.oregonwatchdog.com/stage/voter-guide-2010.htm

Please forward to all members and contacts.  

COLA LO delivers another 1000 flyers - program continues

To All COLA LO Members,

COLA LO representatives distributed flyers to 1,000 households on Sunday. The flyer outreach program will continue this week through the efforts of our volunteer team to ensure we achieve the outreach objective.  

This flyer clearly identifies the issues and values of our Kehoe-Gudman-Williams endorsement decision. The flyer distribution program is an extensive effort to reach out to the city and to ensure we preserve the values of Lake Oswego.

Electronic copies of the flyer will be sent out to all members for forwarding to contacts and friends.

COLA LO delivers 2,000 flyers in a single day!

To All COLA LO Members,

COLA LO representatives distributed flyers to 2,000 house holds in a single day Saturday. We nearly ran out of flyers due to requests from different neighborhoods. Several volunteers were sent electronic copies of the flyer to distribute individually in the community.

This flyer clearly identifies the issues and values of our Kehoe-Gudman-Williams endorsement decision. Members can request the PDF version of the flyer by sending an email to the group email address.

The flyer distribution program is an extensive effort to reach out to the city and to ensure we preserve the values of Lake Oswego. We are receiving near universal support from citizens that we contact when delivering the flyers. There are several flyer initiatives but the COLA LO approved flyer has the logo and site clearly positioned at the bottom.

COLA LO Endorsement Flyer Available

To All COLA LO Members,

COLA LO representatives have begun distributing flyers to 3,000+ households in the LO community of 15,500 households. This flyer clearly identifies the issues and values of our endorsement decision.     

Please check your emails and feel free to distribute the flyers to friends and contacts in the community.   Members can request the PDF version of the flyer by sending an email to the group email address.

 

The flyer distribution program is an extensive effort to reach out to the city and to ensure we preserve the values of Lake Oswego.

COLA - LO Begins Calls to 5,000-7,000 residents.

To All COLA LO Members,

COLA LO representatives have begun calls to 5,000 - 7,000 households in the LO community of 15,500 households. This program is to identify issues in the community and to communicate our endorsement decision and process to the citizens.  

These are not automated calls but personal calls and visits from COLA LO representatives to neighbors in the community. It is an extensive effort to reach out to the city and to ensure we preserve the values of Lake Oswego.

Please make sure you notify all members and contacts of the efforts.

NEW COLA LO POLL ON IMPORTANT CAPITAL INVESTMENTS (What can we the taxpayers really afford?)

All COLA LO Members,

Friday we introduced a new poll on the most important capital investments.   Which projects are the most important to fund in this difficult economic environment?  Can we truly afford $400-900 million in capital improvements in a city with only 15,500 households?    The poll is designed to provide additional feedback from group members and the community.

The issue of which projects are "core"  is an ongoing discussion in our candidate interviews.   The cost of those projects continues to be either ignored or not discussed by many of the candidates.  

Please ensure that as a member you participate in the poll and inform others.

COLA-LO poll on city issues shows citizens' chief concerns

To all members,

The city issues poll has closed. Citizens provided a clear direction for the council and the candidates on those issues of greatest concern. The results were very definitive and included:

1. Schools (59%)
2. Cost of city Services  (43%)
3. Streetcar (49% - impacted by double voting) 

The results show a clear mandate that the city refocus on costs, fees, and the impact of major projects for the community and re-direct the efforts from expensive studies and non core areas. Tax Increment Financing (TIF)  for development projects is of concern to the community because it reduces funding to schools.  

Please ensure that all members and contacts review the poll results.

COLA-LO poll on city services shows us what citizens value the most

To all members,

The city services poll has closed. Citizens provided a clear direction for the council and the candidates on those city services they value the most. The results were very definitive and included:

1. Police & Fire Protection (85%)
2. Water & Sewer  (61%)
3. Streets & Library (50/49%)

The results show a clear mandate that the city refocus on core services for the community and re-direct the efforts from expensive studies and non-core areas.  

Please ensure that all members and contacts review the poll results.

COLA LO Endorses Three Council Candidates

Core Values have made this community great. These values include fiscal responsibility, a focus on core city services, and a respect for personal property rights. There is widespread concern that the existing City Council refuses to recognize the burden increasing fees and taxes place on our community, and that they continue to leave critical issues unresolved while spending hard earned taxpayer funds on non-core projects.

Their focus today is on bigger government, more taxes, more fees, more regulation, and less transparency. This includes large visionary projects that will add to the debt load and fees citizens will pay in the future while other projects such as the WEB continue to linger unresolved and will also increase our fees/taxes.

COLA-LO interviewed City Council candidates individually to determine how their beliefs and values aligned with the Core Values. We made these interviews available to the entire community on TVCTV and on our blog. This was done to allow everyone in the community the time to view the candidates at their leisure. We hope this will provide for a more informed decision in November.

The interviews showed two distinct positions on local government and the need to grow local government (and your taxes and fees). The positions represented two radically different visions of our future:

• One position is to spend current resources, add to our debt load, and to significantly increase density to support larger local government with more fees-taxes.
• The other position is to restore the community to fiscal responsibility by listening to the needs of citizens, completing projects, advocating for lower fees-taxes, and accepting that Lake Oswego is a mature community.

We believe the latter position conforms to the core values of this community and will lead us into the future, which is why individually we endorse Jeff Gudman, Mike Kehoe, and Dan Williams. All are businessmen with private sector backgrounds and the overall experience, education, and knowledge to be excellent city councilors.

Please consider voting for all three.

COLA LO YouTube Channel

To all Members,

Cola LO now has a YouTube Channel for the community to review short videos.   There is a variety of videos on the channel from other sources regarding LO including the LONAC canddiate forum conducted last weekend.  

We could not use YouTube for the COLA LO candidate interviews as they were too long at 20-40 minutes.  http://www.youtube.com/user/commonsenselo?feature=mhum#p/f

What is the state of City Services in Lake Oswego?

In recent years, our City Council has pursued "their vision" of the core city services Lake Oswego Citizens should have to make their lives better. Many of these choices have been made and few citizens know the details.

They all require our hard-earned tax dollars but they also cost us in terms of the services we do not have because the council chose not to fund them in favor of these services. Here are some examples of questions every citizen needs to answer for themselves.

Redevelopment Expenditures

1. Was it responsible to spend $146,000 on Boones Ferry Refinement Plan for Lake Grove and spending $1,300,000 on Foothills Redevelopment Plan from General Fund Reserves?
2. Was it responsible not to complete the Lake Grove plan and then enter into a new project study on Foothills Redevelopment?
3. Is it responsible to promise Citizens that City Council will present a proposed solution for the WEB (now that we own it at a reduced market value of $8.5 million), but continue to pay for the building from general funds that can be used for other services? Note that the lowest estimate of additional required upgrades is on the order of $60 million!  This is in addition to the lost market value of $12 million and doesn't include the costs of all the consultants and staff time!

Parks & Recreation Expenditures

1. Was it responsible to reduce park maintenance funding by $55,000 while paying a new tennis facility consultant $60,000?
2. Was it responsible to spend $1,300,000 on Foothills Redevelopment Plan from General Fund Reserves when we can use these funds for enhanced parks and recreation services?
3. Was it responsible to provide no funding for removing ivy from trees while spending $250,000 on the Centennial celebration?
4. Was it responsible to not complete the bicycle/pathway system while budgeting $84,000 for Washington DC lobbyists and 4 public information staff positions
5. Was it responsible to not utilize city professional staff resources more efficiently instead of Contracting with consultants for $250,000 for a Parks Master Plan and $100,000 for assistance with the Comprehensive Plan Update?

Neighborhoods & Protection

1. Is it responsible to reduce neighborhood planning support while the City Council directed the City Manager to review the Development Code to enable housing options such as cottage, cluster housing and secondary dwelling units?
2. Is it responsible to eliminate traffic engineer and community service officer positions and reduce neighborhood planning program staff resources by 1.5 positions while hiring an Economic Development Manager and Administrative Assistant and creating a marketing program that has spent $30,000 for a consultant and $20,000 for the Summer 2010 "Say Hello to LO" promotion

LONG RANGE PLANNING FOR A CHANGING DEMOGRAPHIC

1. Is it responsible to continue spending increases in light of Lake Oswego’s slowing growth, decline in number of school age children, aging population and the likelihood of an extended slow growth national economy?
2. Is it appropriate to increase staff levels by 10 positions in the past two years and paying for leased office space for the economic development staff when they can use the WEB?
3. Are we focused on the right priorities or are we trading off non-core expenses for needed core services?

WHAT LAKE OSWEGO NEEDS FROM EACH OF US

• An inquisitive mind that examines the issues facing Lake Oswego.
• Provide input and Vote

COLA -LO Polls show a distinct opinion on Issues & Services

To all COLA LO Members, 

The issues and services polls continue to show consistent trends in concerns and values of the community.  They have been consistent since the beginning of each poll.  

Issues: Cost of City Services,  Schools, Sensitive Lands/Foothills.    The streetcar issue was impacted by the stacking campaign on 9/29.

Services:  Police/Fire, Water & Sewer, and Street Maintenance.   These 3 areas seem to be where citizens want the city to focus their efforts.  Although Library and Parks follow closely behind.   

Please ensure that all members and contacts participate in these polls.