Daily Archives: January 5, 2016

New, inclusive approach immediately apparent with new City Council

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Don Gerend, the new Mayor of Sammamish. He will serve a two year term.

A new, inclusive approach for citizens was immediately apparent following the swearing in of two new Sammamish City Council members and selection of a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Virtually since the forming of the City, public comment has been limited to three or five minutes. It was very rare that there would be interaction between the public and the Council, who usually sat mute while citizens often went away wondering whether anything they said sunk in.

That changed Jan. 5.

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Sammamish awards refuse contract to Republic

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Republic Services, Inc. logo. (PRNewsFoto/Republic Services, Inc.)

Jan. 5, 2016: The Sammamish City Council awarded the 7 1/2 refuse, recycling and yard waste contract to Republic Services.

The Council rejected a final plea by rival Waste Management (WM), which argued its bid is more than $6m lower over the life of the contract than the Republic bid.

The Council made the decision after an executive session, which discussed a lawsuit filed by WM over the staff recommendation to award the contract to Republic and to disqualify the WM bid as “non-responsive” on technical reasons. The staff analysis also concluded WM had undervalued its bid by a net of $183,000, resulting in a final price that was marginally higher than Republic.

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Gerend named Mayor, Valderrama named Deputy Mayor

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Don Gerend was selected Mayor for the next two years and Ramiro Valderrama Deputy Mayor for the next year at the first Sammamish City Council meeting today (Jan. 5).

The positions are selected by the City Council under the City Manager form of government, rather than voters.

The votes for both were unanimous.

Looking ahead to 2016 in Sammamish

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Sammamish Comment LogoShortly after the Nov. 3 election, Sammamish Comment identified issues that face the City Council this year. These include:

  • Fully assimilating the Klahanie annexation area into Sammamish.
  • The Sahalee Way road project. The City Staff hasn’t clearly made its case to many residents, or some on the Council, why this project is needed and what it should look like.
  • Appointments to the City commissions.
  • Setting priorities for the year. This should happen at the annual retreat, Jan. 14-16. The retreat begins at 5pm on the 14th and continues to noon on the 16th. It’s at the Murano Hotel in Tacoma.
  • Holding staff accountable to its own codes.
  • Resolution of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

The full post, with details on these, may be found here.

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