Category Archives: Police & Fire

Eastside Firefighters offer to pay for Mediator in Issaquah-Sammamish dispute

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The Eastside Firefighters association made an offer today to Issaquah and Sammamish to pay for a professional mediator to resolve the differences between the two cities over the entire Eastside Fire & Rescue dispute.

I suggested use of a mediator or arbitration when I appeared before the Sammamish City Council Tuesday.

The association’s letter to the Councils is here.

Meantime, Sammamish told Save Our Fire Department that its signs erected along streets in the city are illegal and need to be taken down or moved to private locations. Sammamish claims they don’t qualify as political signs under the city’s sign ordinance. Save Our Fire Department takes the position that the signs are political and qualify for their public right of way locations. I agree with the Save Our Fire Department group on this one.

Sammamish council gets an earful from public over EF&R

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The Sammamish City Council got an earful from a standing-room only crowd at the City Council meeting October 29 over the prospect of the City Council deciding to leave the Eastside Fire and Rescue consortium and start its own department.

The Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter has this story.

The Sammamish Review has this story about a dust-up between Mayor Tom Odell and a principal of a school, who commented on the EF&R issue at the previous meeting.

The Review also has this story about the status of a funding model change proposed to Issaquah.

Save Our Fire Department, a new group, urged the Sammamish City Council Tuesday to stay with EF&R. Acknowledging the City Council’s legitimate concerns over the funding model, spokesman Jonathan Wiseman, president of the Eastside Professional Fire Fighters, noted that EF&R is attempting to persuade other EF&R members to reach an accommodation with Sammamish over the funding dispute. Wiseman told me before the meeting that firefighters seek a one year extension of the current agreement to allow more time for a resolution.

Odell told the crowd after public comment that Sammamish tried for 18 months to alter the funding model which results in Sammamish paying roughly 10 times per call than Issaquah for Station 83 responses.

Station 83 is the one on Issaquah-Pine Lake Road at the roundabout.

Sammamish City Manager Ben Yacizi is to give his recommendation to the City Council on November 5, likely to leave EF&R and form the City’s own fire department. The Council plans a decision on November 12.

Many speakers questioned the validity of the financial analysis and projections of the studies on which the recommendation and decision will be based.

The futile negotiations with other EF&R members is spearheaded by Issaquah, which refuses to budge on funding.

I spoke during the public comment period and suggested all parties move to professional mediation or binding arbitration, entering a stand-still agreement of 6, 9 or 12 months as mutually agreed.

Although Sammamish has publicly made this entirely about funding and finances, there are other issues that also should be part of any mediation or arbitration process.

As is its practice, none of the City Council responded to either my suggestion or those comments of others, except for closing comments by Odell at the conclusion of the public comment period.

Save Our Fire Dept website launched; how about advocating fair and balanced financial contributions, too?

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Update, 4pm Oct. 28: The Eastside Firefighters issued a press release today accusing the City of Sammamish of violating the Open Meetings Act, holding meetings outside of the public process on the EFR issue. The press release is below the jump.

Original Post:

A new website called SaveOurFireDept.org has been launched to take on the City of Sammamish and its plan to leave the Eastside Fire and Rescue service.

A decision is supposed to be made Nov. 12. Another City Council meeting is tomorrow night.

This is an enormously controversial subject, with plenty written in the Sammamish Review and Issaquah/Sammmamish Reporter, as well as on this blog. Typically, the City of Sammamish has muffed its messaging on why, in detail, it’s considering leaving.

It comes down to a couple of simple issues:

  • Sammamish taxpayers are and have been paying a disproportionate share to fund EFR since incorporation. In recent years, this amounts to about $500,000 per year. Do the math: $2.5 million in over-payments in the last five years. This ain’t chicken feed.
  • Station 83, also known as the Klahanie Station, is at the heart of the matter. This station is on Issaquah-Pine Lake Road by the round-about. It was built by the developer of Klahanie (hence its unofficial name) when King County approved the project. Station 83 also serves Providence Point and several other areas in nearby Issaquah and areas adjacent Klahanie that are in the Issaquah Potential Annexation Area. A majority of the calls from the Station go to Issaquah and the Klahanie PAA, but Issaquah only contributes 6% of the funding toward Station 83’s operation.
  • Sammamish has been trying for several years to get the funding adjusted on a more equitable basis. EFR members, led by Issaquah, have consistently refused.
  • It’s after years of effort and constant rebuffs that Sammamish has reached this point of preparing to leave EFR.
  • There are other issues as well. At one point the EFR members pondered extending EFR to Snoqualmie Pass. Sammamish would wind up subsidizing part of this. There is also a plan to build buildings and a new fire training tower (despite use of the one off I-90 east of North Bend), at a great cost.

I appreciate the obviously organized effort, largely backed by firefighters, it appears, to lobby the Sammamish City Council to stop them from leaving EFR. The service is good and there are obvious synergies by being a member of EFR that would be absent should Sammamish withdraw.

But why aren’t these same people showing up at the Issaquah City Council, and those of other EFR members, to lobby them for a more equitable split of funding? This, fundamentally, is what’s at stake–and Sammamish has tried for years without success to adjust the funding. Issaquah is the principal roadblock.

The SaveOurFireDept crowd doesn’t have any contact or meeting information, or a call to arms to descend on other city councils, whose obstinance is a key issue that has driven Sammamish to this point.

If SaveOurFireDept wants to truly do so, it needs to lobby more than Sammamish. It needs to lobby the EFR members and show up at the EFR Board and lobby it, too.

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Sammamish City opposes Issaquah’s annexation of Klahanie in letter to Boundary Review Board; hearing tonight

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The City of Sammamish  opposed the annexation of Klahanie by Issaquah in a formal letter to the Boundary Review Board.

The BRB is holding a formal public hearing tonight (Sept. 18) at 7pm at the Issaquah Holiday Inn.

The full letter is here and speaks for itself: BRB Letter – Klahanie Annexation 9-4-2013

Why Klahanie annexation, water fight matter to Sammamish

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This is the “Sammamish Comment.” So why am I spending so much time on a water fight between Issaquah and the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District and the proposed annexation by Issaquah of Klahanie?

Because of the impacts on Sammamish, which could be profound.

The water fight and the annexation are the crescendo of long-running disputes between Sammamish and Issaquah, in which Issaquah has basically stiff-armed Sammamish at nearly every turn–most notably years-long efforts to adjust the financial contributions of the many partners in the Eastside Fire and Rescue (EFR) service.

Sammamish, by assessed value of the homes and land, pays the largest share into EFR. But Issaquah generates more calls. By Sammamish’s analysis, Issaquah should be paying about $500,000 a year more than it is based on the actual calls.

Issaquah refuses to adjust. Relations between Sammamish and Issaquah have reached a breaking point. Sammamish will decide soon whether to withdraw from EFR and form its own fire department or possibly even an alliance with Redmond.

Sammamish might close “Klahanie” fire station

Sammamish has warned that if Klahanie annexes to Issaquah, Station 83, more commonly known as the Klahanie fire station–which is owned by Sammamish and located at SE 32nd and Issaquah-Pine Lake Road–may be closed. Issaquah, according to our information from Sammamish, has already told our leaders it won’t buy the station.

This didn’t stop the Issaquah police chief from telling Klahanie residents that he could co-locate a police sub-station at the Klahanie fire station, a comment that came as a surprise to Sammamish officials.

Issaquah’s arrogance over EFR matters–and the continued unfair financial burden Sammamish taxpayers have because of Issaquah–is an issue unto itself but it’s also tied to the Klahanie annexation.

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