Sammamish City Council member Ramiro Valderrama charged that Mayor Tom Vance played favorites in calling on Council Member Tom Odell to nominate Council Member Kathy Huckabay first for Deputy Mayor at the Jan. 6 city council meeting.

Valderrama claimed he hit the call button first and that he was watching down the line for other council members to do the same–and none did.

The call button is a process by which a council member signals to the mayor he or she wants to speak and the process calls for the mayor to call on the council member in order.

The issue here is that under the city process for selecting the mayor or deputy mayor, the person nominated gets voted on first. If this person gets a majority of votes, no more votes are taken.

Valderrama nominated Council Member Don Gerend, but because Odell’s nomination of Huckabay was recognized and voted upon first, and she received a majority of votes, Gerend’s nomination never was put to a vote.

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