Tom Odell yesterday announced his bid for re-election to a second term on the Sammamish City Council. He’s currently Mayor, which is selected by council members. The Mayor serves a two year term (the Deputy Mayor, also selected by peers, is a one-year term).
That leaves Don Gerend yet to announce, though his fellow council members says Gerend plans to seek another term. He was first elected in 1999 and is the only remaining original city council member.
John James, who is completing his first term as a Sammamish City Councilman, quietly filed his C1 form with the Public Disclosure Commission on April 17 for re-election.
James was deputy mayor in 2012. The position is rotated annually among council members. James hasn’t made any announcement concerning his re-election that I’m aware of.
Bob Keller, a 17 year resident of the Sammamish Plateau, declared his candidacy for the Sammamish City Council in the fall election. He will run for the seat being vacated by John Curley, Position 3.
Keller, who lives in the Tree Farm area, was active in civic affairs prior to the incorporation and was one of about two dozen candidates seeking a City Council seat in the 1999 primary. He did not survive the primary.
Since then, Keller was on the Planning Advisory Board, which wrote the City’s Comprehensive Plan, and the Planning Commission. His last year on the Commission was as chairman.
Since then he’s been president of the Sammamish Kiwanis chapter, arranging monthly speakers, engaging in various civic projects.
Four Council seats are up for election: Curley’s; Don Gerend, Tom Odell and John James. Gerend and Odell are expected to seek reelection. Gerend has served since the first City Council was elected in 1999. Odell and James are completing their first terms. Odell is currently Mayor and James was Deputy Mayor in 2012.
James quietly filed his C1 Candidacy report with the Public Disclosure Commission on April 17.
The Sammamish City Council is poised to approve the management agreement with the YMCA on Feb. 19.
The lengthy agreement is here: ComCtrOpAgreement21413
In a last-ditch effort to alter the path toward the Community Center size and YMCA element, Arthur Goldman, an opponent, commissioned a public opinion survey that concluded an opposite result to the November advisory vote in which citizens approved the Center and the Y deal. Goldman’s letter to the Council is below the jump.
The Citizens for Sammamish this month held a meeting about the Community Center. I attended, as did Councilmen Don Gerend and Ramiro Valderrama; several employees for Columbia Athletic Center/Pine Lake Club and officials of the YMCA.
Frankly (and I more or less said so) I found the meeting to be perplexing since the die was cast. With the advisory vote a clear winner–by nearly 7 percentage points (Obama won by four and Inslee by three)–the City Council fairly could conclude it had a mandate to proceed with the $30m building, the YMCA management agreement and the $1/yr lease of the Y’s property next to Pine Lake Middle School for eventual development of another recreational facility.
The owner of the Pine Lake Club accused the City of double-dealing and dishonesty. But in the end, nothing was going to change and nothing did.
See below the jump for written exchanges and the public opinion survey.
Sammamish Comment 