City sued for censoring residents on its Facebook page 

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By Miki Mullor
Editor

The City of Sammamish and its communications manager, Celia Wu, have been named defendants in a lawsuit in federal court alleging infringement of the First Amendment for ongoing censorship of protected speech on the city’s Facebook page.  

The plaintiffs in the case, Sarah Hawes Kimesy, Tarul Kode Tripathi and Catherine Freudenberg, are asking the court for an injunction preventing the city from continuing to violate the Constitution and an award of damages, including punitive damages. 

A hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for October 22  in front of Federal Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle.  (update: the hearing has been rescheduled to November 5)

The Sammamish Comment will provide a special coverage for this development story.

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The Sammamish Comment celebrates the publication of Scott Hamilton’s first book

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By Miki Mullor
Editor

The Sammamish Comment celebrates the publication of “Air Wars: The Global Combat Between Airbus and Boeing ” by Scott Hamilton, the Comment’s founder. In his professional life, Hamilton is a recognized expert in the commercial aviation industry, covering the industry as journalist since 1985.

Air Wars is a story about the intense and often bitter rivalry between Airbus and Boeing. It’s also about John Leahy, the legendary head of commercial sales at Airbus, whose team booked 15,000 net orders worth $2 trillion in 23 years, and the strategies by Airbus and Boeing that changed aviation as we know it.

Congratulations Scott!

The book is available at Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.

Moving on

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Dear Readers, 

It was May 2018 when I joined the Sammamish Comment as a deputy editor. This came almost a year after I  uncovered the City’s wrongdoing on traffic concurrency and independently went public with it.  Later that year, in December 2018, I took the reins from Scott Hamilton, who founded The Comment and made it the only media outlet covering city hall and city politics. The Comment informed and it was a watchdog of the city government.

Hamilton is a professional journalist and a phenomenal writer.  He also had years of experience in city hall politics as a former member of the Planning Commission, Planning Advisory Board and a highly involved volunteer in our city’s history. 

The shoes were big to fill. 

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Sewer connection moratorium enacted on part of Sammamish; current development unimpacted

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By Miki Mullor
Editor

The Sammamish Plateau Water District board voted unanimously enact a moratorium on new sewer connection certificates in the northern part of Sammamish. Current development in the permitting process, including Town Center Phase I 400 homes project, are not impacted by this decision. Future development in the Town Center and elsewhere within the affected area will be blocked while the moratorium is in place.

In January, we reported the Sewer District’s warned King County a moratorium is coming, yet apparently no progress has been made.

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Amato announces candidacy for Sammamish City Council

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By Miki Mullor
Editor

Josh Amato

Sammamish planning commissioner Josh Amato yesterday announced his candidacy for City Council for the November election. Amato is also seeking the city council’s appointment for Jason Ritchie’s vacant seat, to be decided by mid-March. Ritchie resigned Jan. 20.

Amato, a newcomer to Sammamish, moved here in 2018, according to his website joshforsammamish.com.   Under his priorities, he lists transportation, development code, youth mental health, police and senior services. 

Amato is a political consultant with affiliation to the Republican Party and a former spokesman for the Washington Republican Party.  In a blog post, he says his affinity with the Republican party is now close to zero.

The candidate also shares his personal journey of family hardship and his own past issue with the law as a window to who he is today. 

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