March 14, 2022: Another complaint to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office over Sammamish’s delays in responding to Public Records Request (PRRs) has surfaced.
The complaint, filed February 4, asked for help from the AG’s office to spur Sammamish to respond to PRRs in a timely manner. When contacted by Sammamish Comment, the complainant asked for anonymity out of fear of adverse social media response from “the peanut gallery.” Responses to PRRs fall under the City Clerk’s office, who reports to City Manager Dave Rudat.
Dec. 15, 2021: The Sammamish City Council last night tabled until Jan. 4 action on whether to suspend city manager Dave Rudat.
Last night was the last meeting of the year for the current council. The next council, seated Jan. 4, includes three new members elected Nov. 3. A fourth member elected then, Amy Lam, was sworn on Nov. 24, filling a seat once held by Jason Ritchie. Ritchie resigned in January after moving to California. Former council member and mayor Tom Odell was appointed to Richie’s seat until the November election and certification on Nov. 23.
Rudat, the subject of a lengthy investigation, gave his first public response to the investigation. His response also included the first specific details released publicly of the probe. Council members previously discussed the investigation in general terms in open sessions, but details remained sealed in executive session deliberations.
It was May 2018 when I joinedthe Sammamish Comment as a deputy editor. This came almost a year after I uncovered the City’s wrongdoing on traffic concurrency and independently went public with it. Later that year, in December 2018, I took the reins from Scott Hamilton, who founded The Comment and made it the only media outlet covering city hall and city politics. The Comment informed and it was a watchdog of the city government.
Hamilton is a professional journalist and a phenomenal writer. He also had years of experience in city hall politics as a former member of the Planning Commission, Planning Advisory Board and a highly involved volunteer in our city’s history.
Sammamish yesterday refuted allegations by former city employee Sarah Hawes Kimsey that Sammamish Comment reporting about concurrency traffic modeling was inaccurate.
Jeff Elekes, the public works director, wrote Kimsey asking for a correction to her blog in which she used an email from Transportation Planner Doug McIntyre to assert Sammamish Comment and Miki Mullor lied about how the city’s transportation model had been manipulated up to 2017 and beyond.
“…[Y]ou re-printed an email from a Transportation Planner on my team, Doug McIntyre,” Elekes wrote. “Both Doug and I are were very surprised to learn how his email to you was used and promoted in your blog.”
Miki Mullor
Elekes said, essentially, that Kimsey mischaracterized the traffic audit as a traffic modeling analysis to conclude there had been no manipulation in the past.
“However, I can confirm that Sammamish’s traffic modeling data under previous administrations has been manipulated in the past in favor of development,” Elekes wrote. “This has all been clearly documented through discovery and analysis. I am writing you now to set the record straight and give you the facts, which I expect you will use to correct your blog post.”
As 2019 prepares to arrive, it’s time for a fresh approach to how this city is governed.
The city council, administration and staff has been consumed by traffic concurrency, the resulting building moratorium and related development regulations all year—really, since October 2017, when the moratorium was adopted to give the government time to sort out the concurrency issues.
These issues consumed the city nearly to the exclusion of all else.
Sammamish Comment 