Tag Archives: Don Gerend

Fourth candidate appears ready to announce for City Council

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A fourth candidate for Sammamish City Council has emerged, although no formal announcement has been made.

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Ritjua Indapure, left, in a photo from her Facebook page, was introduced at the Save Sammamish meeting last night as a candidate. She has not issued a formal announcement or press release.

Indapure lives in Klahanie, making her the second candidate from here. Jason Ritchie, also a Klahanie resident, was revealed by Sammamish Comment in February to be planning to run. He announced a short time later.

Four seats are up for election in November. Three incumbents announced they won’t run for reelection: Mayor Don Gerend, Deputy Mayor Bob Keller and Kathy Huckabay. The fourth, Tom Odell, hasn’t announced his intentions.

In addition to Ritchie and Indapure, John Robinson and Minal Kode Ghassemieh previously announced candidacies.

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Husband of former Arts Commissioner to run for Council

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John Robinson

John Robinson, 68, the husband of former Sammamish Arts Commission chair Daphne Robinson, declared his candidacy for Sammamish City Council.

The Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter story is here.

Robinson is the third person to declare for City Council. Jason Ritchie, 45, was the first; Minal Kode Ghassemieh, 36, was the second.

Four seats are up for election. Mayor Don Gerend and Deputy Mayor Bob Keller said they won’t run again. Tom Odell and Kathy Huckabay haven’t declared their intentions.

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Issaquah-Fall City Road cost jumps 36% over pre-annexation estimate

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The construction cost of Issaquah-Fall City Road (IFC) improvements quietly has gone up by 36%.

Or has it?

The Sammamish City Newsletter says the improvements to Issaquah-Fall City Road will now cost $36m. In 2015, the figure was $23m.

The March Sammamish City Newsletter’s page 1 article updating the plans to widen Issaquah-Fall City Road is the following, opening paragraph:

“When 10,000 Klahanie-area residents came into Sammamish last year, the city knew that a big responsibility was going to follow them through the door – a $36 million item known as Issaquah-Fall City Road.”

This figure is not what the City told Klahanie residents and the taxpayers of legacy Sammamish when promoting annexation to Sammamish.

Instead, then-City Manager Ben Yazici and then-Mayor Tom Vance said IFC Road would cost $23m, a reduction from the $38.8m King County priced the road improvements, cited by Issaquah.

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Second candidate announces for Sammamish City Council

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A second candidate announced a run for Sammamish City Council and already has run

Minal Ghassemieh, candidate for Sammamish City Council. Photo via Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter.

head-long into controversy.

The Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter has this story about the candidacy of Minal Kode Ghassemieh.

Ghassemieh, who was born in Washington State, is the sister of another local resident who made the news after a road rage incident which she claimed had racial overtones.

The connection caused Jason Krantz of KIRO Radio to question whether the allegations by Ghassemieh’s sister are nothing more than a publicity stunt to bolster the City Council candidacy.

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First candidates emerge for City Council, 45th State Senate seats

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City_of_SammamishWe’re only two months into 2017 and already some names are emerging for the November 7 off-year election.

City and County council races occur this year. A special election for the 45th State Senate seat, which includes the north end of Sammamish roughly along a line of SE 8th St., will also be on the ballot.

Sammamish Comment gave a full rundown of the local elections in January. In Sammamish, two City Council Members upended the dynamics of the election when they announced at the Council retreat in January that they would not run for reelection. First-term Council Member Bob Keller and Mayor Don Gerend, who has been on the Council since the first election in 1999, said they will retire at the end of this year.

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