Lake Oswego council reviews first-quarter 2026 goals, stormwater schedule and new communications tools

The Lake Oswego City Council approved its agenda, minutes and consent agenda on April 21 and spent the meeting reviewing its first-quarter 2026 strategic goals, staff told the council.

The presentation reiterated findings from the city's recent annual report and framed the quarterly update as a running tally of progress. Staff said community engagement on a 180-acre site previously discussed on March 10 will begin soon and that a follow-up on stormwater issues is tentatively scheduled for May 5 if the city engineer is prepared to return.

Officials also reported a financial-software rollout in the first quarter. The presenter said the finance department 'implemented the new financial software in the first quarter' but that staff remain 'working out the bugs' as people learn the system. The council heard that communications staff migrated residents who had signed up for Constant Contact to a new platform on the city website, created short one-pagers for new policies (including the budget and franchise fees), and established a 'notify me' sign-up group for public hearing notices.

Public works staff implemented resident-driven work orders in the Beehive system during the quarter and added dashboards to display the number of open versus completed work orders in categories including streets, parks, water and stormwater. Council members were told the city also hired one additional public works operator this spring.

'I really appreciate how this is a priority to make sure that this is the focus of the team,' one council member said, thanking staff for sustaining the new communications practices.

The council did not take further formal action on the individual goals items at the April 21 meeting; items such as the stormwater follow-up were scheduled for future meetings or study.

The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.