By Miki Mullor
Editor
Council member Karen Moran has resigned from the Sammamish City Council effective June 15. Moran was first elected to city council on November 2017, served as a mayor in 2020-2021 and was re-elected in November 2021 for a second term, with over 75% of the vote.
This is the second resignation this week and third this year, following Christie Malchow’s resignation yesterday and Ken Gamblin’s resignation in January.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
Editor
King County Council today unanimously voted to appoint former Council Member Pam Stuart to Ken Gamblin’s vacant city council seat. Gamblin resigned in January. The City Council had 90 days to appoint a Sammamish resident to fill his vacant seat. However, because the 6 members of the city council couldn’t agree on who to appoint, by state law, the responsibility became King County council’s.
Stuart will serve on the city council until December 2023.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
Editor
An investigation report of suspected malfeasance by Sammamish City Manager David Rudat has been kept from the public by his staff for over three months now.
Multiple public records requests (PRRs) submitted by media outlets and citizens have been delayed because of “legal review.” However, invoices from the law firm handling PRR reviews show a review has not been started in two and a half months.
The Sammamish Comment also learned that City Council members were only given a temporary, staff-supervised limited access to a shortened version of the full report.
Only an 11 page executive summary, prepared by the city staff’s request so as to not disclose confidential information, has been released to the public.
And while the investigation of the City Manager is still pending, the outside attorney in charge of his investigation was hired by the City Manager to represent the City on another case–raising concerns for the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Due to misinformation spread in the community and social media, The Comment is resuming limited coverage of city hall.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
Editor
** Special coverage **
After four years of battle, in which city council was able to temporarily put control on over development, a one-two punch by former mayor Don Gerend and city staff ended the fight.
As of July, development in Sammamish can continue uninterrupted, regardless of inadequate infrastructure.
The concurrency measure known as Volume over Capacity, or V/C, that gave City Council a tool to prohibit development that exceeds the ability of infrastructure to handle it, is gone and so was a development moratorium that has been in place in hopes of restoring it.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
Editor
A relative newcomer to the local social media scene, the Facebook group Sammamish Central, takes a different direction than other Facebook groups.
Kerry Boswoth, the group’s administrator, says it intends to keep it “open,” as opposed to other groups which require permission to join in order to see the content.
Originally named Sammamish Election Central, the group renamed itself to Sammamish Central after the November city council election. Anyone with a Facebook account can view the content, post or comment without having to join the group.
Continue reading
Sammamish Comment 