Tag Archives: Kathy Huckabay

Four council members declare support for Initiative

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Four of Sammamish’s seven city council members said they will support giving the right of Initiative and Referendum to voters following approval in the Advisory Ballot last Tuesday. The council has to adopt an ordinance before citizens obtain the right.

Members Valderrama and Whitten previously declared support for the I&R. Don Gerend and Bob Keller told Sammamish Comment Friday they will support the I&R now. The measure passed with about 55.4% of the vote. Ballots are still being counted and the election won’t be certified until May 12. Ballots continue to trickle in and the outcome won’t change materially from the election night on April 28.

Council Member Tom Odell could not be reached over the weekend. Mayor Tom Vance and Deputy Mayor Kathy Huckabay did not respond to an email asking their position. Continue reading →

Huckabay professed neutrality on Initiative while working against it, emails show; misrepresents City Attorney opinion, too

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Sammamish Deputy Mayor Kathy Huckabay wrote a planning commission on February 4 that she felt an obligation to remain neutral on the Initiative and Referendum once the City Council approved placing the April 28 ballot as an Advisory Vote. The Council approved doing so February 3.

Within days, Huckabay was surreptitiously  engaged in a campaign to defeat the measure and to deny the Citizens for Sammamish (CFS), the sponsoring organization, places to meet.

New emails released by the Sammamish City Clerk’s office reveal the extent of Huckabay’s activities, which I first revealed April 20 in an investigative report. Continue reading →

Favorables/Unfavorables of incumbents going into November Sammamish City Council election

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Council Time

Click in image to enlarge.

Three Sammamish City Council Members are up for election this November: Tom Vance, Ramiro Valderrama and Nancy Whitten. Whitten has been on the Council since 2003. Vance served on the Planning Commission and other council-appointed committees before being elected four years ago. Valderrama is completing his first term.

None has announced if he/she will seek reelection. Whitten has alternately indicated she may not seek reelection or she may switch seats and challenge Vance. It’s expected Vance will seek reelection, according to City Council Members I’ve talked to.

Only one candidate, Christie Malchow, a newcomer to the local political scene, has announced. She hasn’t announced which seat she will be running for.

So how do the favorables/unfavorables stack up for the three incumbents? The last time I polled the entire City Council ratings was in November 2012. I’ve run a new poll during April. Here are the results and the comparisons: Continue reading →

The City’s stealth campaign against Citizens for Sammamish, leader Shedd

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Hary Shedd 2

Harry Shedd, chairman of Citizens for Sammamish and the driver behind the vote to give Sammamish citizens the right of Initiative and Referendum.

  • Vote in our poll on whether Sammamish residents should have the right to Initiative and Referendum. Click here to go to the post.
  • Vote in our first pre-general election poll on the Favorability/Unfavorability ratings of the incumbents, Tom Vance, Ramiro Valderrama and Nancy Whitten. Click here to go to the post.

This investigative report is more than 4,400 words and is best read when printed out.

The City of Sammamish is quietly engaged in a stealth campaign against the Citizens of Sammamish (CFS), attempting to deny the group locations for meetings, persuade groups to oppose the Initiative, stifle discussions at community groups, and limit information about the Initiative in the City’s newsletter, an investigation reveals.

Long considered an irritant and a “complainers” group, which was nonetheless tolerated and largely ignored by the City, the stealth campaign to deny CFS a meeting place began this year after its chairman Harry Shedd, was successful in backing the City Council into a corner to put an Advisory Vote on the April 28 ballot for City voters to tell the City Council if the right to Initiative and Referendum should be adopted for the City.

Deputy Mayor Kathy Huckabay is quietly driving the effort. Huckabay has been trying to deny CFS use of the Boys & Girls Club (B&GC)   from future meetings. The B&GC building is at Ingelwood Hill Road and 228th Ave. Northeast, is owned by the City, leased to B&GC. Huckabay met with the firefighters union to evict CFS from the Eastside Fire & Rescue Station #82 at 1851 228th Ave. NE, Sammamish, WA 98075. CFS typically meets at Station 82 on the first Monday of the month. It rented a room at the B&GC in February to kick off its campaign for a Yes vote for the Advisory ballot. It was shortly after this meeting that efforts began its efforts to bar CFS at B&GC and Station 82.

Council Member Tom Odell filed a complaint against Shedd and CFS with the State and the County over required filings and financial disclosures and raised the prospect of removing a planning commissioner for participating in a Girl Scout event that discussed the Initiative.

Summary

  • Council members faces off against each other.
  • Boys & Girls Club, Eastside Firefighters, Presbyterian Church, the Rotary Club and even the Girl Scouts caught up in the disputes.
  • Silencing critics.
  • Using City resources to work against the Initiative.
  • Freedom Foundation becomes a target used against the Initiative. Continue reading →

Barricades: Promises made, promises broken over 10 years; kicking the can down the road another two years

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Perhaps the highest profile issue after the East Lake Sammamish Trail to consistently vex the City Council is “barricades.” And most specifically, the “42nd St. barricade” in the Northeast corner of the City that separates the Hidden Ridge and Timberline neighborhoods.

At the March 17 Council meeting, residents from the neighborhoods appeared during the public comment session to support or oppose removing the barricade on 42nd. The public comments sessions begins at the start the meeting, and the testimony is interspersed with comment on other topics.

The Council had some extended discussion toward the end of the meeting, beginning at 1:59 hours into the meeting. Continue reading →