Tag Archives: 2015 Sammamish Election

Politics kills plans to video Sammamish candidates forum for broadcast on City’s TV station

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  • Sammamish Chamber of Commerce, Rotary cite politics in banning videotaping for later broadcast of candidates forum.
  • Sammamish Kiwanis Club beset by political concerns.
  • Candidates object to videotaping, says Rotary official.
  • Discussions continue, says Chamber, cites Rotary opposition.
  • Four of five candidates favor taping and broadcasting.
  • Mayor/Candidate Tom Vance silent on the issue.

There will be a Sammamish City Council candidates forum the evening of October 7 at the Boys and Girls Club (Inglewood Hill Road at 228th Ave. NE), but it won’t be videotaped for later broadcast on the City’s government TV (Channel 21, Comcast).

Objections by a “couple” of candidates to videotaping and concerns to do so would politicize the event led the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce and the Sammamish Rotary to ban videotaping, CJ Kahler, treasurer of the Rotary, told Sammamish Comment.

The candidates are:

  • Christie Malchow vs Mark Cross of Position 2. Neither is an incumbent. They are running for the seat now held by the retiring Nancy Whitten.
  • Ramiro Valderrama vs. Hank Klein, Position 4. Valderrama is running for a second term. Klein filed to oppose him, but dropped out of the race two months later, too late to remove his name from the ballot. Klein reconfirmed to Sammamish Comment Wednesday he is not a candidate, won’t be at the forum and he won’t reenter the race at any time.
  • Tom Hornish vs Tom Vance, Position 6. Vance, currently the mayor, is running for a second term.

Kahler said he didn’t talk to the candidates and doesn’t know who objected. Malchow, Valderrama and Hornish say it wasn’t them. Cross reportedly favors taping. Vance’s position in unknown.

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City’s Newsletter on growth distorts the facts; Variances-R-Us

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Newsletter LogoThe September Sammamish City Newsletter–which has become an electioneering tool for the Nov. 3 ballot at taxpayers’ expense–has one and two-thirds pages devoted to growth issues.

Unfortunately, it just flat-out distorts and omits some important facts.

In a Q&A format, the Newsletter begins on Page 1 and jumps to Page 3, discussing a host of issues.

Here’s what’s distorted:

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Why the “plan” is more than a plan for TIP

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The Sammamish Review covered the Six Year Transportation Improvement Plan last Friday that included Sammamish’s repeated view that the TIP is nothing more than a “plan” and not a budget.

Technically this may be true, but the City Council raised the bar when it approved the TIP July 7.

Council Members, and the City Administration, used the moment to emphasize the plan was constructed and adopted without the assumption that bonded indebtedness would be required to fund the plan.

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Sammamish needs to open up with transparency on TIP; there’s a “now you see it, now you don’t” show happening

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Illustration via Google images.

Sammamish officials have a serious transparency and credibility problem.

The side-by-side comparison of the 2014 and 2016 Six Year Transportation Improvement Plans (TIPs) shows what appears to be creative “book keeping” to present a financial picture that is rosy when it’s really not. Sammamish Comment also reviewed prior TIPs to compare projects and projected costs.

Sammamish Comment spent this week dissecting the TIPs for the Readers. The issues are these:

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Hank Klein drops out of Council race against Valderrama (developing)

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Hank Klein has dropped out of the Position 4 race for Sammamish City Council, but too late to pull is name off the ballot.

“I have decided to drop out of the race for City Council because of personal reasons,” Klein wrote Sammamish Comment today after I left a voice mail for Klein seeking his website address. Through yesterday, no website had been created.

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