Category Archives: General

Wasnick has solid lead, clearly winner in primary

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King County Elections updated results for Friday and Jim Wasnick now has a 202 vote lead over John Galvin. This makes Wasnick a clear winner, and he will face Ramiro Valderrama in November.

As we said in our earlier post in which we declared Wasnick the winner, results won’t be official until Aug. 31.

We now have two candidates for this council position who have a record of positive contribution to the City, and who should engage in civilized debate. Sammamish citizens chose wisely in selecting Wasnick and Valderrama to move to the general election.

More intimidation, hypocrisy from John Galvin

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Sammamish voters received their ballots Friday/Saturday for primary day on August 16 for City Council. Voters have a choice in one race between Ramiro Valderrama, Jim Wasnick and John Galvin.

Galvin, of course, is the person who lectures Sammamish on proper procedures, only to flout the law when it comes to his own candidacy. He is also the master of hypocrisy.

As recently as May, Galvin was decrying campaign contributions by yours truly to past campaigns. In 2009, he attacked people who contributed funds to candidates they support. He attacked my wife’s campaign contribution, among others. This past May he claimed I had “financed” several city council campaigns.

Setting aside the bloviating over-statement of the word “financed” in this context, what does Galvin do when it comes to his own candidacy? Galvin filed for what’s called “mini-reporting.” This means he doesn’t have to reveal who is contributing to his campaign, or the amounts they “financed.”

Sammamish voters have no idea who is financing Galvin’s campaign or who is supporting him. Given his persistent criticisms and lectures about who supported and contributed to candidates he opposed, the hypocrisy is noteworthy.

Then there is the matter of his continual pattern of intimidation. I’ve already documented just two examples in the preceding post. I have two years of emails with many more examples.

But Galvin doesn’t stop there. In what is particularly egregious, Galvin on two occasions verbally accosted the wives of two planning commissioners with whom he disagreed.

Galvin is well over six feet and a stout individual. One of the wives is 5’9″ and height-weight-proportionate and the other, well into her 60s, is shorter. On these two occasions, Galvin accosted them as they were leaving commission meetings (and while their husbands were on the podium, unaware of the events until afterward) and began to berate them for actions of their husbands.

After the second incident, police were on hand at the following meeting to be sure Galvin did not repeat his inappropriate actions.

This is not an individual who should be on the city council or in any advisory role. It is worth noting that he once applied to for a position on the planning commission, and no council member supported his appointment. Furthermore, he applied for appointment to various town center advisory committees and no council member supported any of his previous applications.

These universal rejections of Galvin have nothing to do with his so-called advocacy of “inconvenient truths.” They are entirely because Galvin has an anger management issue (odd for someone who has a PhD in psychology who is a grievance counselor) and because of his history of verbal abuse toward staff, commissions and committees, anyone he disagrees with and the requirement for a time that police be present in case he goes into one of his inappropriate actions.

 

Insulting the staff, by councilman-wannabe

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John Galvin wants to be a city councilman, with oversight of the city staff via the city manager. Yet for years, Galvin has regularly abused the staff with verbal and written insults and intimidation.

Two recent examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

In an email (March 31, 2011, 8:09 am), Galvin wrote Eric La France on the staff in which he said, in part:

“If you and Ms. Currey [another staff member] are prepared to put your so called professional judgement (sic) to a practical, real life test, then you will make an appearance. We will have video cameras to record your visit and comments.” He goes on to write, “so-called scientists like you” and “Personally, I have lost respect for your professional judgement (sic).”

In an email (June 15, 2011, 9:26am), to council member John Curley, titled “Pull the other leg,” Galvin wrote about the community center process:

“[Consultant] Herbet’s presentation on a 12 person focus group was a complete con job.” And: “The entire process is a con job. The Kellman property was the desired outcome….No talk about funding means this is a fake plan….”

Galvin likes to brag he has a PhD in psychology. Even a first-year psychology student knows that insulting, berating and intimidating people is poor psychology. Galvin deserves a refund of his degree.

Protecting neighborhoods and televising more meetings

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Sammamish has a major controversy over whether to remove barriers to increase traffic connectivity. Among the concerns neighborhoods have in removing barriers are speeding cars.

Here’s one solution.

  • Sammamish has decided to start televising planning commission and city council workshop meetings. This is long overdue and was urged by the Planning Commission a few years ago in a formal proposal, but kudos to the city for at long last proceeding down this road (the barricades were finally removed, apparently). This will improve communication between the city government and its citizens.

Time has come to form own fire department

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The front page story in the Sammamish Report January 28 that the Eastside Fire & Rescue is prepared to create a new taxing authority to expand EF&R is the final straw in long-running disagreements between Sammamish and EF&R over the direction and fiscal responsibilities of the district.

The disagreements have been well covered by the Sammamish Reporter, the Sammamish Review and the City’s own newsletter and won’t be recounted here. Suffice it to say that Sammamish believes EF&R hasn’t been as cost-conscious as it should be, particularly during the recent national economic crisis, and that ambitions to annex other fire districts (notably the area at Snoqualmie Pass) means more cost to Sammamish taxpayers with no additional benefit.

The City’s own studies about costs have been previously disputed by members of the EF&R board, who at one point labeled the Sammamish City Council a bunch of “rascals.” This characterization may or may not be true, but certainly not in this case. Our “rascals” are spot-on.

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