PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Chances are you were born before Rory Bialostosky, who was just appointed as West Linn’s newest and youngest mayor at the age of 23.
Bialostosky was announced as West Linn’s interim mayor at a city council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 3. He will be replacing former mayor Jules Walter, who resigned in December 2022 after being elected to District 37 of the Oregon House of Representatives.
The Generation-Z mayor grew up in the West Linn Willamette neighborhood, where he attended Willamette Primary School. Bialostosky went on to attend Athey Creek Middle School and West Linn High School, where he graduated from in 2018.
Following high school graduation, he interned at the National District Attorneys Association in Washington, D.C., before returning to work at a Portland-area law firm.
Bialostosky received his bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from Lewis & Clark in 2022.
This new position as interim mayor isn’t Bialostosky’s first stint in the West Linn government. In 2020 — when he was just 21 years old — he was elected to West Linn City Council. In January 2022, his fellow council members unanimously chose him as council president.
Now, Bialostosky is “deeply honored” to fulfill the mayor role in his hometown. The city of West Linn is slated to vote for a long-time mayor at a special mayoral election on Tuesday, May 16.
Until then, Bialostosky plans to spend his brief time in office, “balancing a budget during difficult financial times, finding funding to pay for the I-205 water line replacement project mandated by ODOT that is financially constraining our ability to do routine water maintenance, fighting to protect our livability as I-205 tolling diversion traffic becomes a reality, and continuing our work to make sure all residents feel safe and welcome in our city among many other priorities.”
Bialostosky is the youngest mayor in West Linn history. He ultimately plans on studying at law school.