Archive for City Leadership

Money Talks: Corvallis Economic Development Funding

We can safely assume we agree that we should be investing in economic development through the city. The big question is where do we invest and how much? Bill Ford expressed his perspective in a previous post, “The problem seems to be the allocation and struggle over who says who gets what! One person’s feast ...

The Chamber as Cheerleader?

What would it look like for the Chamber to be a cheerleader for its members? I mean that both figuratively and literally. One example of being a cheerleader is radically promoting “Buying Local”. I don’t just mean sending out a couple emails, having a badge on the website, creating stickers for people’s windows, or hosting a ...

Coming Together for Positive Change in Corvallis

One of the reasons that compelled us to create this forum was our desire for more engagements of  a higher quality between the community and city leaders. In a comment on a previous post, Corvallis City Counselor Mark O’Brien (Ward 1 Rules!) shared what I hopefully believe is a similar feeling. “Something I’ve noted during my Council ...

2009 State of the City Address by Mayor Charlie Tomlinson

The City of Corvallis did a great job of producing and making the Mayor’s State of the City address available by video. Many important topics are covered by Mayor Charlie Tomlinson. The video is shared here to allow and promote community discussion around these important topics. The video is 21:16 minutes long. Watch the 2009 State of ...

A Civil Divorce in Corvallis Leadership?

Earlier this month Corvallis Mayor Charlie Tomlinson (@mayortomlinson) received a membership renewal reminder from the Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition. He declined to renew his membership. Below are copies of the publicly archived email communications. Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2009 14:45:40 -0700 Greetings Mr. Mayor, Just a reminder that your Chamber Membership is set to expire in approx 18 days. I ...

Is Our Chamber of Commerce Obsolete?

Frankly, it’s worth asking this of any old-school civic group. If a group is no longer doing what they set out to do, why keep paying into it? Show me the value, and I’ll continue showing you the money. The first Chamber of commerce was organized in 1768 in New York city. Every chapter across ...

Focus Please. The Times Require It.