Category Archives: City Politics

Valderrama declares for State Representative from the 45th

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45th LD

The 45th Legislative District for the Washington State House of Representatives. Click on image to enlarge.

March 24, 2016: Ramiro Valderrama, deputy mayor of Sammamish, today announced his candidacy for State Representative from the 45th District. He’s seeking the seat held by Democrat Roger Goodman since 2007.

Valderrama will run as a Republican.

Charlie Sheffer of Redmond declared for this seat last year. At this writing, it’s unclear if Sheffer will stay in the race or withdraw in favor of Valderrama. Valderrama was reelected to his second term on the Sammamish City Council in November, effective Jan. 1. He received 83% of the vote against Parks Commissioner Hank Klein, who withdrew from the race too late to remove his name from the ballot.

Valderrama was selected by his peers to be Deputy Mayor for one year.

Valderrama intends to retain his seat on the City Council if elected to the State House, he told Sammamish Comment.

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Mars Hill Church, ELST appeal thoughts

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  • Sammamish Comment has been silent since Feb. 8 because of travels. We’re back in town now for a while and are back with coverage of Sammamish.

Mars Hill Church

The former Mars Hill Church on 228th Ave. in Sammamish. Photo via Google.

The former Mars Hills Church on 228th appears to be on the verge of becoming the proverbial white elephant.

Purchased in a hasty manner for nearly $7m when the church organization collapsed, with the expectation that colleges were interested in opening a campus here, this dream went up in smoke due to circumstances beyond the City’s control.

At the March 1 meeting, Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama moved to lease the building for five years while the Administration sought to find a long-term solution. Members Christie Malchow and Tom Hornish supported the motion. Members Tom Odell, Kathy Huckabay and Bob Keller opposed it as premature and suggesting too long a period. Mayor Don Gerend, who would be the swing vote, instead moved to put the issue over to the March 15 Council meeting. This passed unanimously.

Here is some background information.

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Hearing Examiner OKs Conner-Jarvis project, says Kempton Downs failed to meet burden

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City_of_SammamishJan. 20, 2016: The Sammamish Hearing Examiner Tuesday rejected the appeal by the Kempton Downs Homeowners Assn. of the Conner-Jarvis project. Approval was given with minor modifications to conditions.

The approval, by Examiner John Gault, was a sweeping victory for Conner-Jarvis and the City’s Development and Public Works departments. Gault ruled that Kempton Downs failed in issue after issue to meet the burden required under state law to overturn the professional judgment of the City’s staff.

State law says that deference to the professionals takes preference. This means that in appeals, the burden of proof that the staff erred is on the appellants.

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Sammamish Retreat analysis

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The Sammamish City Council’s 2016 Retreat wrapped up Saturday. Here are thoughts and analysis:

  •  Retreat location: This was the first time in about 10 years Sammamish held its Retreat on this side of the Cascade Mountains. Given how often Snoqualmie Pass closed this season (including City_of_Sammamishtwice on Saturday alone), holding it in Tacoma was good from this perspective alone. Council members and the Administration liked the remote location because it discouraged public participation and afforded total candor–sometimes to the point of open warfare (as occurred last year, despite presence by Sammamish Comment and others). In Tacoma, The Comment and others were present all three days, with the public attendance of almost a dozen on Saturday. The sky didn’t fall in. The atmosphere was far more civil this year as well (see below).

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Sammamish Council Retreat, Day 3: More on barricades; Community Outreach; and more

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City_of_SammamishJan. 16, 2016: The third and last day of the Sammamish City Council Retreat saw yet a third run at the 42nd St. barricade issue.

(Our post yesterday has also been updated.)

Greg Reynolds, the leading proponent for removing the barricade, said City officials admitted the roadway on the west side of the barricade is unsafe, requiring action to fix the situation and remove the barricade, or it faces liabilities if it takes no action.

This is the other side of the same coin argued by a leading opponent who has since moved out of state, Rick Kuprewicz, who argued Sammamish would be opening itself to liabilities if it removed the barricade because of the unsafe road.

Sammamish inherited the problems, including the barricade and road design, from King County, which approved both before incorporation.

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