Thirteen candidates filed for four positions on the Sammamish City Council, the most since 1999 when 40 people filed for seven positions for the first Council.
This means there will be primary races in the August election for each seat up this year. The top two of each race will advance to the November general election.
Each of the four Sammamish City Council races will have primaries in August.
Final filings occurred by 5pm today.
The candidates are:
Bob Keller
With Don Gerend planning to step down in July as Sammamish mayor, due to personal business reasons, the City Council must select a new mayor the next meeting.
Gerend will remain on the Council as a member retaining a vote for his successor.
Bob Keller is deputy mayor, but under Council rules, he does not automatically succeed Gerend. A Council vote makes this decision.
(The mayor is selected by the Council, not the public, under the state laws governing Sammamish’s council-manager form of government., unlike Redmond and Issaquah in which the public directly votes for the mayor.)
Sammamish Comment supports elevating Keller to mayor for the rest of this year, the unexpired mayoral term for Gerend. Gerend and Keller decided not to seek reelection in November and each goes off the Council Dec. 31.
Miki Mullor
A ninth candidate filed for Sammamish City Council today.
Miki Mullor filed for Position 1, and will oppose Jason Ritchie. Until now, Ritchie was the only candidate for one of four positions up for election this year who remained unopposed.
Position 7 so far has three candidates seeking this seat, ensuring a primary in August if nobody withdraws. Positions 3 and 5 each have two candidates.
The eighth candidate for Sammamish City Council filed today.
Melanie L. Curtright, 57, of the Hampton Woods neighborhood in the North end of the city, filed for Position 7. John Robinson and Pamela Stuart previously filed for this position. If none drops out or changes slots, this sets up a primary in August at which the top two advance to the November election.
Sammamish Comment 