Tag Archives: Mark Cross

Malchow, Valderrama, Hornish for City Council; ballot returns now

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Sammamish voters are beginning to mail their ballots for the November 3 City Council election. It’s a good time to review endorsements.

Position 2

Christie Malchow is the recommended choice over Mark Cross.

Christie Malchow, Position 2

Malchow is an energetic professional who got her baptism under fire in Sammamish as an appellant of a proposed project, Chestnut Estates West, that would have a material adverse impact on salmon-bearing Ebright Creek, traffic and a proposal to build on what had been designated as open space when the developer built Chestnut Estates (East). The City Hearing Examiner threw out the City Staff approval of West as improperly approved.

As with many who enter public service because of a passionate issue, Malchow came to understand there are bigger issues at stake than just a NIMBY issue. She learned that the City staff routinely waivers, ignores or grants variances to code to approve projects. City transparency and responsiveness is lacking. Malchow pledges to hold the staff’s feet to the fire, pry open the doors to transparency and to restore responsive government to Sammamish.

Malchow, if elected, will be the youngest member on the Council and the only one not eligible for membership to AARP. She’s 42 and has two small children, representative of the demographics of Sammamish.

Cross is a career government employee who served eight years on the Council, from 2004-2012. He seeks to return to Council after a four year break.

Cross, 65, served admirably on Council and is a faithful public servant. But his principal objective is to add staff to manage future road projects and to pave over the rest of the East Lake Sammamish Trail, though from his public statements, there is no evidence that environmental protection and property rights along the trail figure into his agenda. Cross will be a reliable member of the ruling majority, the so-called Gang of 4, all of whom have endorsed Cross for election. He also endorse Mayor Tom Vance, a member of the Gang, for reelection.

We need independent voices to challenge the Gang, not a reliable member to make it the Gang of 5.

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Greenwashing, Part 2: Sammamish never demanded EIS from developers

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  1. Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on “whitewash”), or “green sheen,” is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly.–Wikipedia.

Sammamish staff has never required an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) from a developer when reviewing a project, it was revealed October 7 at the only candidates’ forum held for the City Council election November 3.

Nor, as far as Sammamish Comment can determine, has staff ever issued a Mitigated Determination of Non-Significance (MDNS) for a project until the current Conner-Jarvis project, which is under citizen appeal; it’s only otherwise issued a Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) in 15 years of projects.

For those not versed in land use regulations and reviews, this alphabet soup of letters is confusing and, on its face, meaningless.

Here’s what these mean, why they are important to development in Sammamish, why the staff practices lie at the root of what citizens are seeing today as trees come down and controversies emerge over protection of wetlands, streams, lakes and Kokanee salmon and why the responsibility ultimately flows back to the City Council.

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Sammamish City Council average age: 66; median age of Sammamish: 38

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Concert in Park

The median age in Sammamish is 38. The City has more young adults and children (18 and under) than any other city in the state. Our City Council’s average age is 66. Image: Sammamish Concert in the Park. Photo via Google images.

The Sammamish City Council is highly representative of senior citizens and grandparents.

It’s not at all representative of the demographics of the City: median age of 38 with children of high school age or less.

Three seats are up for election Nov. 3: Positions 2, 4 and 6, held by Nancy Whitten, 69, Ramiro Valderrama, 55, and Tom Vance, 63, respectively. Whitten is retiring after three terms. Valderrama and Vance are seeking reelection, each to a second term.

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Sammamish gave Mark Cross 5 days to correct campaign sign violation, Malchow and Valderrama 48 hrs

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Cross Safety Issue sign

Sammamish gave City Council candidate Mark Cross one week to remove this sign at Inglewood Hill Road one block east of the roundabout despite being in the public right of way and blocking the line of sight for cars entering Inglewood. This photo is taken from the driver’s seat of a car aligned with the stop sign’s white road stripe. To see westbound traffic on Inglewood, it is necessary to pull well forward of the stop sign’s white stripe. Cross’s opponent was given 48 hours to move a similarly sized sign out of the right of way on Sahalee Way. No safety issue was involved. Click on image to enlarge.

Sammamish gave former City Council Member and former Mayor Mark Cross five days to correct a code violation for two large billboard style campaign signs erected in a public right of way (ROW), but opponent Christie Malchow and Council Member Ramiro Valderrama, running in a different race, were given 48 hours to correct similar violations, Sammamish Comment has learned.

Cross’ signs blocked the line of sight from the cross street looking east on Inglewood Hill Road, requiring the driver to pull well forward of the painted white line aligned with the stop sign in order to see westbound traffic on Inglewood Hill Road.

Signs erected in different locations by Malchow and Valderrama did not have line-of-sight issues. Malchow and Valderrama said they were given 48 hours to remove their large signs in a public ROW.

Chris Hankins, the City’s code enforcement officer who handled the three cases, said that when Cross’ signs came to his attention Monday, Cross was notified that the signs had to be moved “immediately, but no later than Friday,” five days after the violation was recorded. He said “there’s absolutely no preferential treatment” that was afforded Cross despite the disconnect between the deadlines given Malchow and Valderrama of 48 hours to comply with City code.

“I would disagree with that” characterization of a disconnect, he said. He could not explain why Valderrama and Malchow were given a 48 hour deadline. “That’s a good question. It’s decided on a case-by-case basis,” he told Sammamish Comment.

“Just to be clear, there is absolutely no preferential treatment,” he said again.

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Forgetting who you’re serving at the Sammamish City Council

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All too often, elected officials forget who they were elected to serve. This unfortunately is the case with some on the Sammamish City Council.

Artwork via Google images.

During the course of this year, Sammamish Comment chronicled a number of important issues in which the Council and the City Administration practiced benign neglect. In many cases, individual Council Members have pursued personal agenda, played follow the leader or blamed citizens for being whiners or misunderstanding what they are supposed to understand.

These attitudes are why Washington D.C. and Olympia (WA) are so dysfunctional and failing to serve the peoples’ interest in pursuit of their own. It’s why Sammamish citizens voted to incorporate in 1998: to get out from under an unresponsive King County government that ignored our wishes and needs.

Certainly being our own City proved far more beneficial than being under the King County Council. We have roads and parks we weren’t going to get under the County rule. We have community events, notably our Fourth of July, Sammamish Nights and similar activities we’d never get under King County.

But the City is letting citizens down in a number of areas due to the benign neglect and personal agendas referenced above. For example:

Skipping the Cascadia Rising earthquake drill

There are a lot of things in government that fall within the category of “What were you thinking?”

Skipping the Cascadia Rising earthquake drill tops the list.

The Sammamish Comment revealed October 5 that the City skipped the sign-up deadline last year to participate in a regional Cascadia Rising earthquake preparedness drill that outlines a scenario of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hitting Sammamish. (The scenario’s epicenter is the Cascadia Subduction Fault off the Washington coastline, with a 9.0 epicenter magnitude.)

Sammamish had no plans to participate. Until after The Comment began making inquiries.

This is a huge public safety issue. This is the worst example of benign neglect yet by our City and City Council. Read the details here.

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