An outraged executive made a shocking outburst at a city council meeting as he pushed to appeal an Oregon judge’s decision to open its once-private lake to the public.

Aaron Rapf was one of only two City of Lake Oswego councilmembers who voted in favor of joining the Lake Oswego Corporation’s appeal of a March 3 ruling that ordered the city to open up the lake for everybody, according to the Oregonian. 

Ahead of the vote on Monday, Rapf – who identified himself as a shareholder at the Lake Oswego Corporation, which has previously owned and maintained the lake –  argued that proponents of public access ‘weaponized racial guilt’ in arguing that it should be open to all.

But he also took ‘great offense’ to those who were trying to make lake access an issue of race or class, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

‘This is not a war against those who are wealthy,’ Rapf, the founder of Advantage Sports Marketing Group, argued. ‘This decision is going to impact our city for decades.

‘I will not be one of the councilors that destroys this city,’ Rapf said of the ritzy town as he argued the city would be on a slippery slope toward public property redistribution if it failed to appeal – something his colleagues dismissed.

‘Today it’s about the lake. Tomorrow it could be your backyard,’ the sports marketing manager said. 

Aaron Rapf, one of only two Lake Oswego City Council members to vote in favor of joining an appeal of a judge’s decision, made a shocking outburst at a meeting on Monday

The city council had met to determine whether it should join the Lake Oswego Corporation’s appeal of a March 3 ruling that ordered the city to open up its lake for everybody

His remarks seemed to infuriate Councilor Massene Mboup, the first black person elected to the city council.

‘I will never weaponize race,’ he retorted as he voted against joining the appeal. 

‘What government should do is face the truth,’ Mboup said after the city attorney told the councilmembers that any appeal had a ‘very low’ chance of success.

Still, members of the Lake Oswego Corporation – a housing association representing rich homeowners whose mansions line the lake – are trying to fight back against Clackamas County Circuit Court Judge Kathie Steele’s early March ruling that ended a 12-year-long court battle. 

The case was originally brought in 2013 by local residents, including open water swimming enthusiast Todd Prager and attorney Mark Kramer, who wanted access to the lake’s 12-mile shoreline. 

They sued the Lake Oswego Corporation and the City of Lake Oswego, arguing that under Oregon law, all navigable waterways are public and must be accessible from private land.

Steele ultimately agreed, and ordered that the city ‘take steps necessary to provide for reasonably safe public access from the Millennium Park Plaza property within 120 days.’

She also ordered the city to remove barriers to access, like boulders and artwork blocking the lake, and remove any exclusionary signs like those saying ‘Private Lake’ and ‘No Trespassing’ within 30 days of her March 3 ruling, KOIN reports.

City officials had said they would seek public comment and the advice of an attorney before making any decisions about joining the appeal

Members of the Lake Oswego Corporation quickly hit back in a notice of appeal, raging that opening the waterfront would bring a down-market vibe to the ritzy area and ‘ultimately spoil the lake.’

They have now been slapped with a total tab of almost $1.6 million, covering their attorney fees and other expenses. 

But city officials said they would seek public comment and the advice of an attorney before making any decisions about joining the appeal.

When they finally held their meeting Monday night, several of the area’s millionaires cited safety, water quality and lakefront property value concerns as they pushed for the city government to appeal the judge’s decision.

They have made similar arguments in the past, with Harvey Liu, a senior portfolio manager at half-trillion-dollar investment fund Columbia Threadneedle telling Oregon Live in an email that using the lake should be a ‘privilege’.

‘I believe it should be a privilege not a right to use the lake; a privilege that comes with conditions such as respect for a lake and adjoining private properties we spend money to maintain,’ he wrote. 

Mark Dunham, a 30-year resident who works as an airline pilot, also told the paper that widening access to the lake would ‘ultimately spoil’ it and ‘strain the city’s resources’. 

‘The fountain area below Millennium Park, which is now a serene area to view the lake, will become nothing short of a carnival act on a hot summer day, with paddleboards and inner tubes prepping to go in the water,’ Dunham wrote.

Mayor Joe Buck called for unity and for collaborating on new rules to safely guide public access

Some members of the public have already flocked to the newly-opened lake

But when the city council voted against appealing the ruling on Monday night, several councilmembers and Mayor Joe Buck called for unity and for collaborating on new rules to safely guide public access.

‘The cat is out of the bag,’ Buck said at the meeting. ‘Folks can enter the lake, they are entering the lake. And it’s really imperative that we put guidelines and practices in place so that can be done safely.’ 

‘We all sink or swim together,’ Councilor Trudy Corrigan added. 

Her remarks came weeks after Mark Kramer, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, went kayaking in the lake following Steele’s ruling – only to find his car had been keyed,  allegedly by a wealthy local woman.

Lake Oswego Police have said an ‘unknown suspect’ damaged the vehicle in a public parking lot on Foothills Road, south Portland, on March 8. 

Kramer said a tipster left a note saying they had seen an older woman keying the vehicle before driving away in a black Range Rover between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.

The witness did not provide their contact information, but disclosed the suspect’s license plate number, which Kramer said he has given to police. 

Lake Oswego Police have called for the ‘anonymous witness’ to come forward, along with anyone else who may have observed the vandalism.