This week we welcomed Steve Powers, City of Salem, OR city manager back to Oregon. Previously, Steve was the manager in Jackson County, OR and the City of Ann Arbor, MI.
Thanks to Heather Gantz, Waldron and Jeanna Troha, City of Wilsonville, OR for assisting with the event. Here’s a summary of the restaurant options, vacation spots, Oregon local government challenges and Super Bowl 50 predictions that we discussed during the luncheon:
Restaurant Recommendations
- Oba
- Emily Leuning’s Kitchen
- Departure
- Zappinos
- Mirakutei
- Bollywood Theater
- Tasty & Sons
- Ringside
- Jakes
- Higgins
- Clark Lewis
- Syun Izakaya
Vacation Spots
- Pacific City
- Sunriver (four votes)
- Hood River
- Ecola State Park
- Bend (three votes)
- Cannon Beach
- High Cascades
- Harney County
- Highway 101
- Central Oregon
- Oregon Coast
- Camp Sherman
Challenges Facing OR Local Government
- HR recruitment for next generation
- Public sector pensions
- Credibility in governance, trust
- Relevance
- Property tax reform
- Succession planning
- Attracting newer professionals in all sectors
- Talented pipeline of professional in technical professions like inspections etc.
- Reinvestment in infrastructure systems, convincing Boomers to free up some income for reinvestment
- Telling our story, pushing back against national narratives against government
- Assault on representative government, degeneration of having everyone vote on everything
- Intense partisanship