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.
Shortly after the Nov. 3 election, Sammamish Comment identified issues that face the City Council this year. These include:
The full post, with details on these, may be found here.
Christie Malchow will be sworn in as Sammamish City Council Member tomorrow.
Update, 6pm: The Sahalee Way contract has been from the new business agenda to the Consent Agenda.
Original Post:
The Sammamish City Council, with two new members, will be asked to award a contract to design the Sahalee Way road project and to award the refuse/recycling/yard waste contract to Republic Services at the first meeting of the New Year tomorrow.
The two contracts became mired in controversy under the previous Council, which had approved the “Final” Design of Sahalee Way and which was poised to approve the Republic contract when stopped after rival Waste Management obtained a temporary injunction blocking action. This injunction was lifted Dec. 22.
Tom Hornish will be sworn in as a Sammamish City Council Member tomorrow.
The Sahalee Way green light suddenly turned red when objections by Council Members Ramiro Valderrama and Nancy Whitten (who retired Dec. 31) and The Sammamish Comment revealed a fast track approach that eliminated public participation.
The two new Council Members, Tom Hornish and Christie Malchow, will have been sworn into office only a matter of minutes when they will be asked to approve these two controversial contracts.
Christie Malchow
Ramiro Valderrama
Tom Hornish
Don Gerend
The mayor and deputy mayor for the Sammamish City Council will be named tomorrow night at the first City Council meeting of the New Year.
Two new Council members will be sworn in.
The leadership roles have come down to Don Gerend, who has been on the Council since the first one was elected in 1999, and Ramiro Valderrama, who was reelected to his second term in November. It’s unclear who will be selected for a two year term as mayor and a one-year term as deputy mayor. The positions are selected by a vote of the seven member council, and not the public in a general election. This is due to Sammamish being a City Manager form of government with what’s called a weak mayor system.
The newcomers to the Council are Christie Malchow and Tom Hornish.
Harry Shedd, chairman of Citizens for Sammamish.
Citizens for Sammamish holds its first meeting of the year tonight at a new location due to construction at its usual meeting place. CSF will meet at the Bellwood Center.
From the website:
We will meet at Bellewood (Residential Living), 3710 Providence Point Dr. SE, Issaquah, WA. at 7 PM. The Fire Station is not available (construction). You will be guided from the front entrance.
Sammamish Comment 