Local Blogger Provides More Insight Into New Group

To All COLA LO Members,

Today a local blogger provided more perspective on the new group forming in LO and their position on issues.   

In Twist Those Rules the blogger is stating that its no longer an issue of political perspective but partisanship according to the founding members.    

Both of the former city councilors have accepted campaign funds from a partisan organization in their campaigns over the years but its now becoming evident that the effort behind the new political group may be clearly partisan.

So only after the election do we learn the real intent of former councilors and their efforts?   

Some of the online comments from citizens include: 

"This claim is as dishonest as the rest of their anti-voter agenda that got their majority tossed.
The fact is the new council majority was brought about by a healthy bipartisan uprising.
There is nothing "right wing" about the new mayor or council. If these losers think the way to recovering their power is by telling more tall tales they are even bigger fools than the election demonstrated. Their streetcar/urban renewal/ big debt agenda was soundly  beaten on it's lack of merit. "

"More fiction from the transit oriented development/urban renewal crowd that was booted out last November. Remember that Bill Tierney was the only incumbent running in the last election and that he flipped on the streetcar a year ago because he knew he couldn't get re-elected as a streetcar proponent. Voters gave him the boot anyway. Now he just sounds like a sore loser. Tierney is also part of the Keep Lake Oswego Great (KLOG) PAC that are reconstituting themselves as the Coalition for Lake Oswego and putting out the same phony story line about the right wing takeover. As one of the many, many self respecting Lake Oswego Democrats who worked so hard last election to get the arrogant Regional Vision cabal out of power I say "Keep Tyranny Out Of Politics"

"If I don’t want a street car, high rise condos subsidized by the city or Metro telling us what we can do in our own backyards, I guess that make me a right wing zealot. "


Its pretty clear that many residents and members don't buy the "hard right wing" statements made by founding members of the new political group because of their history in the community. 

 Please notify all members, contacts, and friends...





  

New Political Group Receives More Coverage

To All COLA LO Members,

The new political group being formed in LO is receiving more media coverage as its roll out date nears.    This week the Oregonian published a story on the new group and its founding members.  

Details can be found at New Political Group.    It turns out that the group is being formed by former city councilors Moncrieff and Tierney who always voted together as a block to form the 4-3 votes that brought so much citizen ire over four years of the Hoffman administration.  

Ironically it seems that even the announcement of this new political group is generating more citizen reaction online.   

Here are some of the responses online:

Sally Moncrieff’s and Bill Tierney’s assessment that “ -- our city took a hard right turn –“ is wrong. The fact is the city’s tax payers realized that they do not want to spend their hard earned money so that only profiteers can make money. City took correcting turn.  Now, the profiteers can fund Sally Moncrieff’s and Bill Tierney’s organization so that Sally and Bill can try for reelection or find candidates for next city election who will pay back profiteers.  
or
"citizens who promote thoughtful investment..." 
Translation: Other Peoples Money .  These hardcore leftists wouldn't know fiscal responsibility and REAL "thoughtful investment" if it came up to them, introduced itself and bit them on the @$$.  
They exist to spend YOUR money because in their world view, you are too stupid to "do the right thing" with your money.
and
actually Sally and Bill the turn was towards the wishes of the voters that you ignored for many years.
It is sad to see that you still do not get why the election turned out the way it did.

It will be interesting to see how much additional citizen reaction this announcement will bring as the group forms and takes positions on issues.    Its clear the November 2012 election produced substantial change after citizens rejected the direction of past administrations.  

Will the new group and its supporters be enough to change the tide and reverse course to the previous direction which brought LO the streetcar, foothills, costly utility bills, and wasteful spending?   Only Time will tell.  

Please notify all members, contacts, and friends.

Portland Blogger Tells Us About the New Political Group in LO?

To All COAL LO Members,

Last week a liberal blogger provided more insight and details on the new LO political group forming in town.   Some of the details and perspective are interesting.   In the blog post Dead giveaway we learn more details on the new group.  

What may be more interesting is the public response to the blog post and comments by people in it.   here are just some of the online comments:

I don't think "their word" of vibrancy fits too well when it replaces natural green with grey! Unless they may be referring to vibrancy as in green dollars.
But then when plans actually deaden the original vibrancy of a city character, what better choice of words to call the destruction/redo than Vibrant!!

and.....

The Prague comparison is resible - I think that was about casting off the chains of the communard. This is the opposite having the few speak for the many.  Risible? Yes. And the irony of it all is completely lost on them.

and.......

Moncrieff and Tierney are no longer on city council. He lost his bid for re-election in Nov. and is a bitter sore loser. She is moving to Seattle, but still wants to control our town. This is just the same group of players who were formerly known as KLOG (Keep L.O. Great), trying to reinvent themselves. They lost long held power in Nov. and are desperate to get it back.   Prague Spring? Arab Spring? Really?

and......

And of course these spendthrifts and egotistical peacocks miss the irony of holding their kick-off meeting in the building that was once Lake Oswego's largest property tax payer (Safeco). It was inbred corruption of the devoted 'public servant' class and phoney 'survey' they used to buy up that bargain property at the height of the market for over $20 million. Had LO government under Hammerstat and Hoffman been run like a private company the board would have removed them and their shifty allies for novice land speculation. We'll be paying off their lunacy for decades.

Its clear the public has strong opinions and the outcome of the November election in LO was a strong statement by the public in terms of direction.     We encourage members to read the entire blog post and the response to it in the link above.   

Please notify all members, contacts, and friends. 

COLA Board Member Article on "Tough Decisions"

To All COLA LO members,

This week board member Dave Berg published an article describing some of the history surrounding the LO Tigard Water Partnership and decisions made by previous city councils.   

In the article he describes the limitations and the accountability for the project.

In the article Tough Decisions he provides an overview of the concerns of many members and the need for the city council to evaluate decisions by engaging the community.  

Please notify all members, contacts, and friends.  

New Political Group Forming in LO?

To All COLA LO Members,

Rumor has it that a new political group is forming in Lake Oswego.   

The "new" group to be called the "Coalition"  is having their first meeting next month and its spear headed by many familiar names in the community.    Two of which are former councilor Tierney who was ousted by the voters last fall and Councilor Moncrieff who decided not to run given the opposition lining up against her.   

Ironically it seems the formation of the new group is in direct response to the "hard right" direction of the council following the election.   At least that's what the forming members are claiming in public. 

Many members may wonder how anyone could ever believe in returning to the excessive spending and utility rate increases of the council under councilors Tierney and Moncrieff but clearly they believe they have some support.  

The LOCAL pac which was dominant in fundraising during the 2012 election has often seemed at odds with the KLOG pac on community issues.    It will be interesting to see how engaged both of these pacs will be given the formation of a new group.   

Details on the new group can be found at http://coalitionlo.org/

Will the new group gain traction or will the battle continue between LOCAL and KLOG as it was in the fall election?  Only time will tell but it will be interesting.  

Please notify all members, contacts, and friends.  

Clackamas County City Considers Privatization of Library

To all COLA LO Members,

The Oregonian is reporting an interesting direction for library services.    It seems the City of Gladstone is now looking at privatization of library services after the residents voted down a bond measure to build a new library.  

Details can be found at Library Privatization.

As most members know LO voted down a $17 million bond measure for a new library last fall with the measure losing across nearly all areas of the city and by 16%    With Gladstone looking at this option could a similar option be reviewed for LO?  

The details provide some interesting insights into the changing nature of Library services, especially since the west side of LO generally feels very under served by a library located in downtown LO.  

There has been some debate for many years regarding the need for a larger library or additional library locations throughout the city to service growing areas outside the downtown location. 

However one area that is clear is that the citizens do not want any more new taxes to support the library.   That's a change form the past and may reflect that citizens have been "squeezed" by increasing property taxes, fees, and utility bills.  

Please notify all members, contacts, and friends.   

Council Priorities for 2013 Established

To All COLA LO Members,

Ever since the election this fall our community has been very curious about the agenda of the new council in their first year.   This past week the council established its priorities and published them for the public.  

This followed the Town Hall meeting of which many COLA members and friends attended.   The new council priorities can be found at Priorities for 2013.

Its no surprise that the majority of items focus on long term concerns of the community including the WEB and sensitive lands ordinance.   


Please notify all members, contacts, and friends.   

Did Tigard & Schedule "Pressure" Council to Approve Water Partnership Contracts?

To All COLA LO Members,

Several articles are strongly suggesting that the project schedule and concerns from the City of Tigard strongly pressured the city council to approve construction contracts this week.    The Oregonian published an article Pressure confirming this according to the author.   A history of articles can be found at LOTWP.

The LO Review published an article on the decision  to approve the contracts this week in Slogs On.  IN any case its pretty obvious that the issue of the cost of the project and its impact on water rates in Lake Oswego will continue to be a major news item for some time to come.  

Many of the issues surrounding the project were outlined in an article nearly three years ago and can be found at How much is enough?  Tigard's perspective can be found at Gains Approval.

Please notify all members, contacts, and friends.

LO Council Votes LOTWP To Move Ahead

To All COLA LO Members,

In a stunning vote that surprised many the LO City Council voted 5-2 last night to award a major contract on the LOTWP project.    Smaller contracts received 4-3 votes with Mayor Studebaker voting against the awards for the smaller items.  

The council voted after listening to a forensic analysis which concluded that existing rates would not pay the cost of the project and that financial statements on the project should be revised to show the rates that would actually be required to service the debt.  

Tigard's Mayor John Cook attended the council meeting and provided testimony indicating Tigard would do their best to review and vote on taking more of the project's costs and water volume.   

Many citizens testified against the project and several testified for it indicating that the existing system needed to be replaced for public safety.    Details can be found at the following Council Moves Forward.  

The council also voted to approve issuing an RFP to have regular oversight/audits on the project by an independent consultant. 

Please notify all members, contacts, and friends.  

LO Tigard Water Project Continues to Draw Public Concern

To all COLA LO Members,


The public continues to scrutinize the LOTWP project with ever increasing concern over its costs and the impact it may have on utility rates.    To say the city and its residents are up in arms is an under statement at this point.

Last week several articles were published including Citizen Funded Review and Afford the Debt?  Another article asks What will we pay for water?  

It seems that citizens are finally waking up to the fact that the largest capital project in the city's history was approved by the city council TWO ADMINISTRATIONS AGO.   Several articles have been written on the project since 2010 but they did not draw much attention until recently.  

The regional press is also taking up the issue with an article West Linn's Big Dig.  It will be interesting to see how the council votes on the project given the formal agreement between Lake Oswego and Tigard.  

The actual legal agreement can be found at LOTWP Agreement  While a basic fact sheet can be found at LOTWP Flyer.


Please notify all members, contacts and friends.