It’s done: the concessions have been given. Tom Vance, Ramiro Valderrama and Nancy Whitten are the winners (though there has been no doubt since Election Night). The Sammamish Patch has now weighed in and declared them winners.

So how does the voting bloc line up on the Council now?

Left-leaning

Nancy Whitten

Tom Vance

Right Leaning

John Curley

John James

Center-Left

Tom Odell

Ramiro Valderrama

Center-Right

Don Gerend

As with any label, however, it’s pretty tough to accurately portray someone. For example, none of the council members can be described as entirely property rights or environmentalists. Gerend is the most pro-development Council Member but he also has an environmental streak.

Curley, a Libertarian at heart, wants to increase tree retention requirements.

Whitten, perceived as the staunchest environmentalist on the Council before this election, has a contrarian property rights streak in her.

James, a solid Republican, surprised me with his pragmatic view from his real estate profession that the pave-it-over plans for the Town Center espoused by Gerend and others are feasible. In other words, he is no knee-jerk pro-development Council Member that many expected when he was elected.

Vance and Whitten will form the left wing of the Council.

Valderrama, whose base of support is the lakefront–a conservative wing–also drew solid support from environmentalists–the conservationists wing. He and Odell are fiscal conservatives but favor environmental issues.

In fact, the entire Council, except for Gerend, favor fiscal conservatism. (Gerend still favors doubling the real estate excise tax, or REET).

With that, we are done with our election coverage.

Watch this space periodically for updates on other issues affecting Sammamish.