Meet Rory Bialostosky

Rory Bialostosky is a 15-year resident of the Willamette neighborhood in West Linn. He attended West Linn schools throughout his childhood, beginning at Willamette Primary School, continuing his education at Athey Creek Middle School, and graduating from West Linn High School in 2018. Simply put, Rory is West Linn through and through. That’s why his campaign colors are green and gold.

Rory’s civic advocacy began while he was a student in high school. He wanted to solve a problem that faced fellow high school students at the time–a shortage of parking spots that caused students to have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to get to school to learn. As a result of his advocacy  in bringing the issue to the forefront of the policy discussion, hundreds of spots have been or will be opened up for student and visitor use. A new parking lot is being built pursuant to the 2019 School Bond, and the bridges on West A Street and Broadway Street have been opened up for parking. His push to help students was a success, and negative impacts on the neighborhood were minimized.

In 2019, Rory, along with another citizen, submitted a public records request, exercising his civic right to know what his elected official was doing on the job. The request, submitted to a currently-elected West Linn City Councilor, was willfully ignored. Left with no other choice, he filed a lawsuit against Councilor Teri Cummings in Clackamas County Circuit Court and represented himself at the trial court. The City Councilor, using a taxpayer-funded City Attorney, argued that she was not subject to public records requests and essentially was above the transparency law. Hearing this argument from an elected official pushed Rory to seek accountability from his representative, and he fought hard to upold the principles of open governance and transparency that he believes in. This experience ultimately inspired him to run for office himself

After coming up short at the circuit court, many officials and entities, including Oregon’s Public Records Advocate Ginger McCall and The Oregonian’s Editorial Board, backed Rory in the case and urged an appeal. Because of the importance of the issue, Rory was approached by several law firms offering pro bono legal representation for an appeal of the circuit court’s ruling, and he is now represented by Perkins Coie LLP in an appeal of the case. The argument put forth by Councilor Cummings is the reason for Rory’s “Transparency Pledge” as detailed in his platform on the Priorities page, and the case itself underscores Rory’s steadfast commitment to transparency in government.

Now, Rory is running to effectuate real, positive change for West Linn residents with many pressing issues on the horizon that need attention. The history of West Linn governance is bleak. Years of governmental inefficiency and a reputation of dysfunction have plagued our city government for well over a decade. It’s time for new leadership to bring our City into the future and move West Linn forward. Rory believes that fresh, community-based faces are needed on the City Council to achieve progress and make the City Council work for all West Linn residents. You can view his Priorities page to view his platform that he is running on.

A well-rounded individual, Rory attends Lewis & Clark College and is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Affairs with a 3.97 GPA.  He is currently enrolled there as a junior after a brief stint at American University in Washington, D.C., where he also interned at the National District Attorneys Association. After serving a term on the City Council, Rory intends to go to law school.

Outside of city advocacy, Rory enjoys golfing, traveling, reading about the law, reading the news, walking his golden doodle, and spending time with friends and family.

If you have any questions or concerns to share with Rory, he wants to listen. Use the Contact page or message him on his Facebook to set up a time to talk with him.