Pettiness from the Wasnick campaign

Update: Valderamma gave this interview Oct. 3 to the Sammamish Patch, saying he never meant to mislead voters. Wasnick denied giving the story to the Sammamish Review, in the Patch story.

But others say that Wasnick has been spreading the story by other means.

Original Post:

It’s validation of what I reported in an earlier post in which I identified the election between Jim Wasnick and Ramiro Valderamma as the bitterest campaign shaping up in this year’s city council election.

In comments from Wasnick’s co-worker (though he is not identified as such) on the Sammamish Review article about Valderamma’s past domestic violence incident, Leo McCloskey adds a ridiculous barb about a West Point yearbook saying Valderamma wants to be “dictator” of the world.

McCloskey and Wasnick are vice presidents at the same company and Valderamma is a graduate of West Point.

How petty can you get?

All of us who have had entries into yearbooks saw good comments, sarcastic ones and jokes entered. That’s what happens. For McCloskey to throw this into the mix is outing the whispering campaign that was going on from the start.

Other commenters criticize Valderamma for “lying” on a Sammamish Patch response. I don’t know whether Valderamma lied or had a different understanding of what the process and outcome of the report and investigation. But when his son, also a West Pointer, says the incident was his fault, I find this compelling.

But if Wasnick’s supporters are concerned about lying, then they ought to be concerned about Wasnick’s running mate, Jesse Bornfreund. On two occasions, Bornfreund looked me in the eye and said he was not running with Wasnick, when the opposite was and is clearly the case. They have been campaigning together and Bornfreund has been seen, distinctive pony tail and all, taking down Valderamma’s signs.

I met with five of the six candidates (Vance being the exception) and found positive attributes of each. What’s emerged in the last week–Wasnick’s hit on Valderamma, his co-worker’s pettiness over some year book entry and Bornfreund’s false denials–are all cause for concern.

Wasnick is showing pettiness and desperation. Bornfreund wasn’t truthful. They are both tied to John Galvin, whose history of abusing city staff, commissions and committees (and anyone else who doesn’t agree with him) this column has well documented. Galvin’s abusive behavior is such that city officials had police on hand on multiple occasions to be sure he didn’t get out of control.

Galvin and Wasnick, in a Sammamish Reporter article, were clear that they share the same “vision.” Here is the article: SammamishReporterPrimary.

It’s fair to say that this is the Wasnick/Bornfreund/Galvin ticket.

Sammamish City Council Campaign Contributions detailed

In my previous post, I gave a high-level recap of who’s supporting whom in the City Council race. I’ve now had the time to detail this based on campaign contributions reported to the Public Disclosure Commission.

The two page PDF may be downloaded here: Sammamish Campaign Contributions90811.

The listing of who’s supporting whom in this format allows the readers to draw their own conclusions across the spectrum of candidates. Most readers are unlikely to know just “who the players are;” old hands understand who’s who and what’s what by looking at this list, and I explained some of this in the previous post.

I’ve now had the opportunity to speak with five of the six candidates on the issues (since July). Future postings will discuss these impressions. The details of the conversations will remain confidential.

Who’s supporting whom in the Sammamish City Council Election

With Labor Day now past, electioneering will pick up in earnest for the City Council races.

A review of the Public Disclose Commission contribution filings gives a sense of the early support for the various candidates.

Position 2

Kathy Richardson vs Nancy Whitten

This is the seat currently held by Michele Petitti, who declined to run for another term. Whitten had held Position 4 but switched to 2.

Neither candidate as yet has reported much in the way of contributions. Whitten reports just $100, from herself. She largely self-funded her 2003 winning election but did bring in contributions from others then and in 2007. So far, there is nothing more to report.

Richardson hasn’t raised much money as yet: just $1,243, including $301 from in-kind contributions. The largest contribution is from Concentric 2 LLC, which according to state records is the business of David Collins of Lake Sammamish Parkway NE. Other contributors: David and Megan Gee, Ursula Geiger and Paul Oostmeyer.

Bob Brady of Sammamish, a commissioner on the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District, has publicly endorsed Whitten.

Position 4

Jim Wasnick v Ramiro Valderamma

This is shaping up already to be the bitterest race that the city will see, with a whispering campaign of innuendos underway against Valderamma. One of those whispers is that he is running as a slate with Whitten and Tom Vance (Position 6). However, a review of the campaign contributions so far couldn’t be more representative of opposite ends of the spectrum.

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Wasnick has solid lead, clearly winner in primary

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.

Now, on to the election and hopefully the issues

With the primary behind us, it’s now on to the general election and the issues facing Sammamish.

Here are the issues that are already apparent for the candidates to address in the general election, in no particular order:

  1. Kick-starting the Town Center. The capital markets still remain very tight for development. How can the city help kick-start the Town Center in the continued challenging economic climate?
  2. The Community Center. The city is proposing a concept that I’ve already labeled the Taj Mahal. I previously compared the proposal to city hall: 2 1/2 times the size at seven times the cost. I got some pushback on the price comparison from one of the council members, who questioned the figure I used for the cost of city hall. Even granting his figure–which I don’t–there is a mismatch. In the most recent newsletter, the city cleverly separated the infrastructure price (some $20 million) from the cost of the building ($44 million), saying the infrastructure (improvements to 228th and a parking garage) would also serve the Town Center. But don’t be fooled: the infrastructure isn’t triggered without the community center, and taxpayers will be asked to foot the bill in a bond vote. But is this the best solution? I’m not sure it is. The YMCA has tried for years to partner with the city to build a community center. This would shave millions of dollars off the cost (and the Y already owns the land, by the way) to taxpayers for a similar concept. I don’t think this option has received due consideration. This ought to be a big topic of debate for the candidates. Continue reading