Since inception, the Sammamish City Council has selected its mayor and deputy mayor for one-year terms. Now it appears that the city has been out of compliance with state law the entire time. Law calls for two year mayoral terms.

Here is a story from The Sammamish Review that after 10 years, the City is finally going to comply with the law.

Here is a story from The Sammamish Reporter about the politicking that went on.

Talk about politicking. Newly elected John Curley and John James indicated they wanted to be mayor, according to members of the Council who have been lobbied. (Both have since lowered their ambitions to deputy mayor when it became clear that none of the newbies would get the four votes needed to become mayor, according to those council members I talked to.) Neither spent any time attending council meetings until they began running for election last year and Curley never attended other city meetings; James–who touts his time served on the Parks Bond Committee but neglects to say he resigned after six weeks–attended, however briefly, a few planning commission meetings. Neither, however, followed the example of Tom Odell, who spent more than a year going to planning commission and city council meetings to educate himself on city issues. If any of the newbies deserve consideration for mayor, it’s Odell. Curley, a fast learner, and James, who is gone most of the time for his job, should follow Odell’s example.

Don Gerend has been politicking mightily to get another term as mayor in this two-year stint. According to those close to the situation, Gerend offered to support Nancy Whitten and John Curley for deputy mayor in exchange for their vote–and to resign his own slot as mayor after one year so the position could open up for Whitten or Curley.

One has to wonder where the City Attorney was during this whole time and why it has only now been discovered? According to this story in The Sammamish Review, it wasn’t the City Attorney who brought the matter up but the City Manager.