Tag Archives: City Politics

Position 1 Questionnaire: Jason Ritchie

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Jason Ritchie

Questionnaire

Name:  Jason Ritchie

Position:  Sammamish City Council Position 1

 General

Why are you running for Sammamish City Council?

I believe in public service. I want to be a part of creating a future for our City that we can all be proud of. This means managing growth with significant investments into our infrastructure, protecting our environment, including heritage trees and wildlife and making sure we are creating a transparent, accountable and balanced budget process. I own and operate a small business here in Sammamish helping to create housing for people with physical challenges. I want to be a voice for the small business owner on the Council.

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Democrats, Unions lining up behind some City Council candidates

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Democratic elected officials and other known Democrats, plus several labor union organizations, are lining up behind several candidates in the Sammamish City Council primary.

The City Council is a non-partisan election, but it’s not at all unusual for the Democratic and Republican parties to endorse and even send mailers or undertake robocalls on behalf of candidates.

So far, the Republicans haven’t endorsed any of the candidates–at least none is listed on any of the candidate websites–except for King County Council Member Kathy Lambert.

Unlike the 2015 City Council election, the incumbents are largely staying out of this election. The exception: Kathy Huckabay, who is retiring at the end of her term in December. Huckabay publicly endorsed Jason Ritchie, who is running in Position 1. (Position 1 is not on the Aug. 1 primary ballot, however.)

Former Mayor Tom Vance, who was defeated in his bid for reelection in 2015, endorsed two candidates.

Behind the scenes, several Council Members are helping candidates.

A graphic of the elected officials and organization endorsements is below the jump.

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Keller is Mayor through the end of the year

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Bob Keller

Bob Keller has been selected mayor through the end of the year.

Don Gerend resigned as mayor, but remains on the City Council, due to personal commitments.

Council Member Tom Hornish nominated Ramiro Valderrama for mayor for the sake of leadership continuity with a new Council coming in come January.

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GMA nuanced in development control, says City staff

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  • The special study session on Sammamish transportation concurrency and traffic issues continues at the City Council meeting today. This begins at a special time, 4:30pm, to about 6:30pm. It will be televised by Comcast 21 and webcast on the City website.

The Growth Management Act doesn’t exactly mandate development, as Sammamish officials often said, a special study session last night on traffic and transportation concurrency revealed last night.

Instead, the GMA gives cities and countries some options to respond to growth.

The deep-dive into how Sammamish developed and uses its currency system continues tonight in a special time, 4:30pm, at a City Council meeting that will be webcast and televised on Comcast 21.

The special meetings were prompted by a study by a Sammamish citizen, Miki Mullor, who concluded Sammamish manipulated concurrency to approve development.

He claimed the GMA allows cities to stop development if concurrency fails.

Not entirely so, the City Council was told last night.

And, yes, through policy decisions from a succession of City Councils, the Staff crafted concurrency that approves development—but the rationale is far more complex than the black-and-white reasons claimed by Mullor.

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Candidate questionnaires for City Council begin July 12; ballots go into mail

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Candidate questionnaires for Sammamish City Council begin publishing tomorrow, July 12, in Sammamish Comment.

Tomorrow is also when King County Elections mails the ballots for the Aug. 1 primary.

Four Council seats are up for vote in the Nov. 8 general election: Positions 1, 3, 5 and 7. Three of the races, 3, 5 and 7, have three active candidates running, requiring a primary vote Aug. 1. The top two vote-getters will advance to the November election.

Position 1 has only two candidates running. This position won’t appear on the Aug. 1 ballot, with these two candidates going directly to the November election.

Sammamish Comment submitted a three-page questionnaire about City issues to the candidates last month. They were asked to return them by July 7, allowing for processing for publication beginning tomorrow.

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