New PAC launches in Lake Oswego

By Lee van der Voo

The Lake Oswego Review, Sep 25, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

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To ask a group of civic-minded volunteers, Lake Oswego has a lot to be proud of. Great schools. Top notch cops and firefighters. One of the nation’s best libraries.

But with political discourse feisty over rising costs and the future of the hastily-acquired West End Building, some worry nay-saying has overshadowed the community’s strengths.

So a dozen of the city’s most ardent champions of schools, libraries and businesses formed a political action committee recently. Called Keep Lake Oswego Great, it’s designed to steer the local conversation about politics, and politics only, in another direction.

Organizers include Linda Brown, a member of the Lake Oswego School Board; Linda Kerl, a past member of the Lake Oswego Corporation Board of Directors; George Benson, a former superintendent of the Centennial School District in Southeast Portland and Gresham, now a leadership services consultant; and Colleen Beneett, president of the Friends of the Library and past chair of the Lake Oswego Library Advisory Board.

They also include Jerry Wheeler, chief executive officer of the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce, and neighborhood and business organizers Chuck O’Leary, Kay Rhoney, Chris Schetky, Karen Jacobson, John Hanan II and Linda Adlard.

In the short term, their political action committee has set its sights on the general election Nov. 4. Organizers of the political action committee are currently interviewing candidates in the race for Lake Oswego City Council and mayor. They plan election endorsements in mid-October and say their support will go to candidates who share their core set of values.

Those values include achieving a healthy local lifestyle, citizen engagement in politics, healthy businesses, a clean environment, smart public investments and improved community institutions.

After November, organizers say their aim will be to bolster civic programs that also underscore those goals.

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