Ask the City Manager

Hi Sherry, thanks for the question. The 2025 City Manager Performance Survey received a total of 44 responses. Of those, 21 were submitted by the same individual, leaving 24 unique individual responses in total.

West Linn's population as of the 2025 census was 27,601. Please let us know if you need any further information!

Thanks for this question! Section 44 of the City Charter titled, “Voter Approval of Utility Rates” applies only to a “utility rate increase.”  A “utility rate increase” is defined in the Charter as “the cost increase paid to the City by a user of the sanitary sewer, storm sewer and water systems above the rate paid on June 18, 1999, excluding the component of a sewer rate increase that is a pass through of an increase in charges paid by the City for sewage treatment.”  You are correct that this section of the Charter does not apply to increases to the Parks Maintenance Fee (PMF) and/or Streets Maintenance Fee (SMF).

Glad to hear it, Gretchen!

Hi Fred, thanks for your question. This ATCM video focuses on taxes, which are a little different from fees.

Property taxes are unrestricted revenue. Once the city collects them, the money goes into the general fund and can be spent on any lawful city purpose: police, fire, parks, administration, street maintenance, etc. There’s no requirement to tie those dollars to a specific service.

Utility fees (like water, sewer, or storm) are restricted revenue. By law and policy, they can only be used to pay for the costs of running that specific utility—operations, maintenance, repairs, debt, and infrastructure related to it. They cannot be diverted to unrelated general city expenses.

To learn more about how our utility fees stack up with other cities', check out chart below, found on page 7 of the "Master Fees & Charges" document: https://westlinnoregon.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/finance/page/7989/mfc_-_fy_2026_effective_july_1_2025_clean_version_-_09.12.2025_-_final.pdf

Hi Karen, thanks for this question! A few things to note:

• The Parker Rd. property, while larger and more spacious than our existing Public Works Facility, is still located within a primarily residential area. The new property along Salamo also borders a residential area, but its buildings will not be able to be seen by those residents. The new Salamo property is also 30 acres which will allow for adequate storage, staging, and more.  
• The estimated cost range that was published is very broad. It's based on less than 50% design and incorporated large contingency budgets to account for the unknowns present at that point of the process.
• Value engineering and design refinement are underway, and it is the intent of the City to build an operations center that is comparable in cost to public works facilities recently constructed in nearby jurisdictions such as Wilsonville and/or Oregon City.

Let us know if you have follow up questions, and thanks for watching ATCM!