Emails reveal secret meetings involving Fehr & Peers, the city’s traffic concurrency consultant

Kendra Breiland
Kendra Breiland, Fehr & Peers

Recent emails discovered on Fehr & Peers servers, obtained through a public records request, reveal separate, secret meetings between Kendra Breiland from Fehr & Peers, former City Manager Lyman Howard and Town Center developer STCA.

“This is confidential correspondence from the City Manager’s office,” wrote former Deputy City Manager Jessi Bon to Breiland in an email dated July 22, 2017. “We would like to meet with you on Thursday at on off-site location. At this time it will just be myself and the City Manager. The other staff are not aware of this meeting, so again, please keep this confidential.”

Meetings between developers and government officials are common. What is uncommon–and suspicious–are meetings that are labeled confidential and specifically excluding staff under a request for confidentiality.

A contractor’s emails are subject to the State Public Records Act under certain circumstances, which applied in this case. The complete email exchange is here. 

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Comp Plan changes may be proposed; Oct. 1 deadline

Parties interested in proposing changes to the Sammamish Comprehensive Plan have until Oct. 1 to submit what’s called a Docket Request to the city.

Changes sought may be for anything in the Comp Plan: zoning, environmental, housing, transportation or any other policies; .

Zoning changes may be for up-zoning and down-zoning.

Anyone may propose a Comp Plan amendment.

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City council appoints Larry Patterson as Interim City Manager

Mayor Christie Malchow announced Thursday night on her Facebook page the appointment of Larry Patterson as the new Interim City Manager.

No additional details are available at this time.

Ramiro’s law: Council member Valderrama distorts reality to gain legal support for his pro-development policies

By Miki Mullor
Deputy Editor

Sammamish Council Member Ramiro Valderrama distorted advice from an organization

Valderrama
Ramiro Valderrama

before the City Council August recess that misled fellow council members about key laws governing growth, traffic and development in Sammamish.

Emails obtained from Municipal Resource Service Center (MRSC), a non-profit legal advice organization, reveal Valderrama’s selective citing of laws and legal advice from MRSC painted a picture that support his strategy to continue over development in Sammamish.

In fact, the emails, when read in their entirety, paint a different picture.

Continue reading “Ramiro’s law: Council member Valderrama distorts reality to gain legal support for his pro-development policies”

Mayor Malchow: “the law doesn’t say grow at all costs”

Sammamish Mayor Christie Malchow took a public stand on

Mayor Malchow

Tuesday against a years old mantra by former councils and former administrations that the “GMA mandates growth.”

In a comment made on a Facebook post on Tueday, Malchow referenced an interview she had with KIRO radio, in which she came out against the years old “head in sand:”

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City pays former City Manager $300,000 to separate

The Sammamish City Council approved a $300,000 payment to

Lyman Howard

former city manager Lyman Howard, to separate from the city, according to a Separation and Release Agreement obtained through a public records request.

Howard’s employment with the city terminated as of August 1, 2018.

The payment includes:

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All or nothing

Commentary

By Scott Hamilton

By Scott Hamilton

At yet another meeting, the Sammamish City Council was consumed by the traffic concurrency-driven building moratorium.

In a surprise move, Deputy Mayor Karen Moran moved to lift the moratorium for the Town Center and for short plats. (Short plats are small developments of only a few homes, those projects typically sought by the “moms and pops.)

The meeting ended without taking a vote.

This action would be unfair to other developers and provide preferential treatment to STCA, the developer of the Town Center.

Continue reading “All or nothing”