Experience that counts

Deputy Metro President and Councilor, District 2

Carlotta visits the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium at Portland State. Husband Dave Mayfield, a transportation planner (far left), joins her.

Carlotta Collette was appointed to the Metro Council District 2 seat in November 2007 to fill the position vacated by Brian Newman. In 2008, Collette was elected by a wide margin (more than 70 percent of the votes) to complete Newman's term.

After only one year on the council, her colleagues voted unanimously to have Collette chair the powerful Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation, which oversees federal transportation funding in the Metro region. In 2010, Collette also will serve as Metro's Deputy President.

West Linn’s White Oak Savannah, purchased in part through Metro’s Capital Grant Program.

In 2009, Collette led the region's High Capacity Transit Plan, creating a strategy for the next 30 years of light rail, fast streetcar and bus rapid transit in the region. She is one of two council members who serve on the Oregon Zoo Foundation Board, where in 2008 she helped pass a $125 million bond measure to protect and enhance the well-being of animals at the Zoo. She also serves on the Oregon Zoo Bond Advisory Committee, co-chairs the Portland to Lake Oswego Streetcar Steering Committee, and is Council liaison to the Nature in Neighborhoods and Integrating Habitats programs.

Collette is co-chair of the Creative Advocacy Network, representing Metro and Clackamas County in a regionwide effort to seek stable funding for arts education and access to the arts. For more on Collette's experience at Metro visit Metro's web site: http://news.oregonmetro.gov/3/

At the Stringcreek Park ribbon cutting in Oak Grove.

Milwaukie City Council

Before her appointment to the Metro Council, Collette was a member of the Milwaukie City Council, where she helped guide revitalization efforts, including Light Rail planning, downtown and Riverfront Park redevelopment and innovative funding for street maintenance. She led efforts to create a Milwaukie Area Arts Committee and to enable the city to sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Co-Chair Clackamas County Coordinating Committee

Collette represented Milwaukie on the Clackamas County Coordinating Committee (C4), and co-chaired the committee in 2007. At C4 she worked across jurisdictional boundaries to build county-wide cooperation on transportation and land-use priorities, while promoting economic, community and environmental sustainability.

Member, Clackamas Community College Board of Education

Collette also is a member of the Clackamas Community College Board of Education. She was vice-chair of the board in 2008 and chair in 2009. One of her first priorities when she joined the school board was to call for neighborhood involvement in the college's planning for its new Harmony Allied Health Care Campus. Visit http://www.harmonyvision.org/ for the exciting results of that collaborative effort.

Collette Communications

In 1999, Carlotta formed the consulting firm Collette Communications. The firm develops public information materials and involvement strategies for government agencies, consulting firms and non-profit organizations. Areas of focus include energy policy, energy efficiency, renewable resources, fish and wildlife recovery, transportation planning and neighborhood involvement.

Northwest Power Planning Council

For 14 years, Collette was a public information and involvement strategist with the four-state Northwest Power Planning Council (now called the Northwest Power and Conservation Council). The Power Council's mandate is to protect Columbia River Basin fish and wildlife, while also providing adequate water for power generation, irrigation and navigation across an area roughly the size of France. Collette helped develop local strategies for Oregon, Montana, Washington and Idaho to adopt and implement energy efficient building codes, fish and wildlife protections, and renewable energy resource policies.

More than 30 years’ experience on sustainability and equity issues.

RAIN Magazine

From 1979 until 1983, she published RAIN Magazine.

In its November 6, 2007 endorsement of Collette for the Metro appointment, the Oregonian called RAIN "a visionary journal that pioneered discussion of a wide range of issues now regarded as the key to sustainable economies."

Utne Reader called Rain: "a vital resource for the growing movements interested in ecology and appropriate technology. From energy politics to family farms to community renewal to everyday art, RAIN was known for the topics it covered and its strong commitment to a better, more sustainable future."

Center for Local Self Reliance

Before moving to Oregon in 1979, Collette was special projects coordinator at the Center for Local Self Reliance, a non-profit community-based organization she helped create. The center offered energy efficiency training and weatherization materials to low income families in Southeast Minneapolis. Collette was a frequent speaker at national conferences, including the National Association of Farmworker Organizations annual conference where she spoke about career opportunities in the fields of energy conservation and renewable resources.

Writer and photographer

Collette has written extensively on all these topics. Credits include a special "Oregon Salmon Plan" issue of High Country News, and reports on industrial energy conservation, renewable energy resources and efficiencies in high tech industries for the Northwest Power Planning Council and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. She authored a chapter on Oregon's watershed planning efforts for the book: Across the Great Divide, Explorations in Collaborative Conservation and the American West (Island Press, 2001).

Collette lives in Milwaukie, Oregon, with her husband, David Mayfield, two dogs and two cats. She also is a published photographer and her gardens have been featured in numerous tours, including Metro's Gardens of Earthly Delight.