Category Archives: IT

IT

A Message from IT Director Weston Pay

Weston Pay is our Chief Technology Officer leading a team of highly skilled staff that keep the City’s information and technology functions running smoothly.

Wes and the team have been very busy during the coronavirus pandemic, assisting staff and council with setting up remote access, hosting virtual meetings, and maintaining our security protection to ensure we continue to deliver high-quality services to Lake Oswego.

When Wes is not working on ensuring our city technology system is running, he has been staying positive by enjoying his hobby of crafting and playing guitars! He has a unique talent!

Remember Lake Oswego, we are #LOtogether.

HR, IT

Thank You, IT, HR & Court Staff!

We are all familiar with the visible, essential services cities provide, but there are innovative and dedicated teams that work behind-the-scenes to support our community. These faces represent some of our Human Resources, Information Technology, and Municipal Court staff. From setting up video conferencing for council meetings, to establishing work from home protocols for employees, and managing Lake Oswego’s local court to operating our mail distribution center – they support our staff so we can provide essential services to Lake Oswego. We are here for you, #LakeOswego. We are all in this together – #LOtogether.

Engineering, Finance, IT, Public Works

Smart Water Meters – Year 1 Update

This year has been a big year for Water upgrades! We are currently underway updating our outdated, manually-read water meters to the new, wireless-read technology. The wireless reads will eliminate contracted meter reader services, provide accurate usage readings, and alert our crews when repairs are needed.

In total, we will be replacing nearly 12,000 residential meters over the next 3 years. This change out season, we focused on the Westlake area and completed 1,325 meters with the help of temporary staff. During the off-season, we will be focusing on the software integration with Utility Billing and large meter installs completed by our Water Crew. Overall, the feedback from residents has been very positive!

We will be keeping the community and Council up-to-date as we continue to make progress on the project. Thank again for your continued support!

Engineering, Finance, IT, Public Works

Public Works’ Work Management: One-year Anniversary

This last week marked the one-year anniversary of Public Works’ implementing a new work management system software. Our system is completely web-based and paperless.  It directly interfaces with our LOMap and existing GIS asset data — all with real-time data!

The online work management system provides our team the platform to submit service orders, plan routine maintenance, and assign team tasks. Our crews are able to use the program to open service orders, such as a request to patch a pothole or check for a water leak, perform the work needed, and clear the request all while being out in the field.

In the last year, Public Works has completed 9,276 “tasks”. This includes all work activities from Streets/Storm, Water, Wastewater, Electricians, Utility Locates, and City Beautification. These tasks were either assigned by crew leads or customer requests.

Thank you to all the Public Works Staff for embracing our new system. And thank you to GIS, Engineering, IT, and Finance for continuing to be great partners in this project!

IT, Public Works

Drone + Water Reservoirs = Success

Image

Last week, our Water Crew and newly formed Lake Oswego Aerial Imaging Team (AIT) inspected our water reservoirs using our new city drones!

As mandated by the State, we must inspect the condition of our reservoirs annually to keep our water safe. During the inspection, we are looking for any holes or damage to the reservoirs, that vent screens are in place, and that all the locks and security measures are working. However, it can be dangerous to climb and inspect our elevated reservoirs. Our tallest one is ­­­the ­­­10th Street reservoir at 65 feet!

Cue the drones! AIT allows us to safely and quickly inspect our reservoirs. It keeps our staff safe on the ground, while using advanced technology to maintain city infrastructure! This is just one of the many benefits of the AIT project!

HR, IT, Parks & Recreation, Planning & Building

Job Opportunities

The City is accepting applications for the following jobs:

  1. Associate Planner, Planning and Building Services – Closing February 1, 2019
  2. Building Official, Planning and Building Services – Initial Review February 1, 2019
  3. Client Services Coordinator (Memory Care Program), Adult Community Center – Closing February 15, 2019
  4. Computer Analyst (Internal), IT Department – Closing February 15, 2019
  5. Special Events Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator (on-call), Parks and Recreation – Closing February 15, 2019

For job announcements and to apply: https://agency.governmentjobs.com/lakeoswego/default.cfm

City Manager's Office, Engineering, Finance, IT, Library, Parks & Recreation, Public Works

City staff sewing to help those in need

Have you seen any of those beautiful hand-made pillowcases out the front of the Public Information Office at City Hall recently? Those were made with love by nine dedicated city staff, and one generous Lake Oswego citizen.

In late October, Maria Bigelow (ACC) and Diana Smith-Bower (Public Information Office) received notice that the Fill A Stocking, Fill A Heart Program that the City and the LO community have been a part of for well over 10 years, would not be operating this holiday season.

Diana and Maria decided to rally a team of city staff together, to try and backfill the program in a very short period and sew at least 150 pillowcases by mid-November. Thanks to the generosity of our community we received plenty of fabric, enough to create more than 200 fun, delightful and simply beautiful pillowcases!

Nine city staff members from almost every department volunteered to coordinate fabric, cut, pin, iron and sew after work to reach our goal of 150 pillowcases in time to make them available for the community to fill for the holidays. Grace Tuttle, a Lake Oswego citizen, also volunteered to join the team and make pillowcases.

For three late evenings after work, Diana graciously hosted the Pillowcase Extravaganza Project Team, where they sewed more than 150 pillowcases! One night they made 63 pillowcases with a team of seven.

The team included the following cross-departmental staff:

  • ACC: Maria Bigelow
  • Engineering: Erica Rooney, Katy Kerklaan and Donna Broadhurst
  • Finance: Jennifer Waverly
  • IT: Karen Luby
  • Library: Collette Lewis
  • Public Affairs: Diana Smith-Bouwer
  • Public Works: Rachel Sykes

The team of ladies created such an amazing assortment of cases, any of which would make a delightful gift for someone, young or anyone of the many seniors who might need a thoughtful gift this holiday season.

Please feel free to stop by and pick up an empty pillowcase at City Hall (380 A Ave.) or the Adult Community Center (505 G Ave.), fill them with items and return them to those locations by Dec. 14!

Read more about this wonderful team effort in this week’s LO Review: https://pamplinmedia.com/lor/48-news/413371-314301-pillowcases-filled-with-hope

 

Engineering, IT, Police

Several City of Lake Oswego Employees Awarded at APCO

Recently our Communications Center, LOCOM, made a switch to a new Computer Aided Dispatch system (CAD). LOCOM joined with other Portland metropolitan centers looking to save money and integrate technology solutions to improve service, forming MAJCS ( Metro Area Joint Cad System) a group of four Public Safety Answering Points (911 centers): LOCOM, Columbia County 911, Washington County Consolidated Communications and Clackamas County Communications.  The group made a conscious decision to use the same CAD system for emergency service calls in Columbia, Washington and Clackamas Counties.  Working in conjunction with law and fire user agencies, across three counties, the MAJCS group worked on a collaborative approach to providing the fastest allocation of emergency resources to all priority police and fire calls.

Committees comprised of subject matter experts were formed to ensure adequate system functionality for communications officers (dispatchers), police and fire users, IT technical support and GIS table design and maintenance.  During implementation the project submitted significantly less help tickets, documentation of issues that arise when the project goes live, than most technology projects.  This achievement speaks to the dedication and skills these professionals brought to the project.

Because of the success of our project, the project manager submitted award nominations for the National Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Technology Leadership Award, Oregon APCO Commitment to Excellence Award and the Oregon APCO Technology Award.  The MAJCS project received all submitted awards and the City of Lake Oswego had a number of award winners. All did an excellent job and our IT and GIS departments were the talk of the group! Below are the individuals and their respective awards.

Jeff Harmon–GIS-Engineering

  •                National APCO Technology Leadership Award
  •                Oregon APCO-NENA Commitment to Excellence Award

Derrick Berg—Information Technology

  •                National APCO Technology Leadership Award
  •                Oregon APCO Commitment to Excellence Award
  •                Oregon APCO Technology Award

Wes Pay—Information Technology

  •                National APCO Technology Leadership Award
  •                Oregon APCO Commitment to Excellence Award
  •                Oregon APCO Technology Award

April Benedetti—LOCOM

  •                National APCO Technology Leadership Award
  •                Oregon APCO Commitment to Excellence Award

LeAnne Senger—LOCOM

  •                National APCO Technology Leadership Award
  •                Oregon APCO Commitment to Excellence Award

Clayton Simon—Police Department

  •                 National APCO Technology Leadership Award
  •                 Oregon APCO Commitment to Excellence Award

Sue Scobert—LOCOM

  •                National APCO Technology Leadership Award
  •                Oregon APCO Commitment to Excellence Award

Leslie Taylor—Retired LOCOM Manager

  •                National APCO Technology Leadership Award
  •                Oregon APCO-NENA Commitment to Excellence Award
HR, IT

Employment Opportunity

The HR Department has posted a job announcement for the position of Administrative Support II (Copy Center/Mail Courier). This position will perform multiple administrative duties. The position involves operating the City Mail and Copy Center providing copy and print services and mail deliveries to all City Departments. This position will close on Thursday, March 15, 2018. More information about this position can be found on the City’s Human Resources website.

IT

There’s a Whole Lot of Moving Going On in the Technology Department!

network

The City of Lake Oswego’s network connects 26 different facilities and parks. For the past several weeks, there have been a number of changes happening to that connectivity:

• The Water Treatment Admin Facility is moving to a new building on their campus
• The police evidence building moved from the Public Works campus to an off-site facility in order to facilitate the construction and renovation of that campus
• The network at Luscher Farm became unreliable when the bandwidth needs went up and the leafy trees in between the golf center and the farm started blocking the signal, so we repositioned and reconfigured the transmitter from golf to Hazalia Field.
• Were also moving out the LO Tigard Water Partnership team from the Yakima building to the new Water Treatment Admin building in July and also moving their network connection to the Parks Maintenance facility in Foothills which will save the City about $2000 a year in connection costs at the same time we improve their connectivity.

As we look to the future, plans for the new Police/LOCOM Community Center are in the works, and we’ll take advantage of that to consolidate the LOCOM server room with the Main City server room that will result in significant savings in energy costs and efficiencies.