Category Archives: City Politics

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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Sahalee Way design contract, award to Republic Services on agenda for first Council meeting of 2016

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Malchow

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.

hornish

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.

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City Council leadership to be named at Jan. 5 meeting

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Malchow

Christie Malchow

Valderrama

Ramiro Valderrama

hornish

Tom Hornish

Gerend 2

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.

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