Tag Archives: Nancy Whitten

Power play over Sammamish Deputy Mayor’s position

Posted on by
4

It’s nothing more than a power play to keep the leadership reins tightly held by the voting majority on the Sammamish City Council.

In a break with tradition during most of the past 16 years, the Sammamish City Council voted to give the incumbent deputy mayor a second consecutive one-year term. Since the first city council was seated in 1999, tradition has been to rotate the deputy mayor’s position every year. Until it was discovered that state law required a minimum of two year terms for the mayor, this position was rotated every year as well.

Mayor Tom Vance ignored Council Member Nancy Whitten’s raised hand to be recognized first and went directly to Council Member Tom Odell, whose hand wasn’t raised and who said nothing that was audible over the microphones. Odell placed Member Kathy Huckabay’s name in nomination first. Council member Ramiro Valderrama nominated Council member Don Gerend.

This power play is important because procedurally, the first nominated is the first voted upon without seeking a Nay vote. If the first nominated gets a majority vote, the voting stops.

Vance’s sleight-of-hand prevented any vote on Gerend’s nomination.

Continue reading →

Sammamish official asks how Issaquah-Pine Lake Road project can be funded while city plans spending spree

Posted on by
Reply

It’s a very odd statement, reported by The Sammamish Review this week: the City doesn’t have the funds to complete improvements for Issaquah-Pine Lake Road.

The Review wrote, in part:

Councilwoman Nancy Whitten wanted the city to reprioritize a plan to improve Issaquah-Pine Lake Road between Klahanie Boulevard and Southeast 32nd Street. The project is on the improvement plan with an estimated cost of $16.5 million. However, it has no start date assigned, and Whitten hoped it would begin sooner.

.
Whitten noted that the road needs to be fixed, even if the city does not end up annexing Klahanie.

.
City Manager Ben Yazici agreed the road needs work, but said the city does not have funds to complete the project.

This strikes us as a very odd statement, since the City has a nine-figure spending spree that seems to be rising at every opportunity.

It’s also odd since the City boasts of no debt, more than $400m in bonding power and a cash balance in the tens of millions of dollars.

Continue reading →

Should Sammamish have city council “districts”?

Posted on by
Reply

Seattle has gone to City Council Districts, plus two at-large seats, in its most recent election. The theory is to provide greater representation for the areas of the city.

The concept was floated early in Sammamish’s history, though it didn’t go anywhere. When Sammamish was incorporated, all seven City Council seats were at large and this remains so to this day.

Throughout the history of the City, the council seats have pretty much been concentrated along the center of the City. Councilman Phil Dyer, who served one term from 1999-2001, lived by the lake and so does today’s Ramiro Valderrama. But the rest of the council members are from the Plateau.

I’ve put together this map showing the approximate locations where the new City Council members reside. As you can see, the concentration is still on the Plateau.The locations aren’t precise because the map from the Internet was poor quality and I couldn’t see the street names, so pardon if some of the residences are a little off–but they are close enough for to illustrate the point.

I’ve drawn in possible district lines, based solely on geography and not on population proportions (which is how they have to be drawn). Click on the map to enlarge.

CityCouncilLocations

I’m taking no position on whether continuing the at-large elections or creating districts is the preferred choice. It’s just food for thought. Maybe this is something for Citizens for Sammamish to study.

Looking ahead to 2013 for the City of Sammamish

Posted on by
Reply

Here are some of the big issues I see facing Sammamish and our citizens for 2013, in no particular order except for….

  • The future of Ace Hardware. Time is running out. Ace needs a building permit by March (February would be better) if it is to have a new building ready by August, when its lease expires. Staff was directed by the City Council in December to expedite a review of issues facing development of some of the most environmentally constrained land in the city, next to the Washington Federal Bank and the Mars Hill Church on 228th. A land swap with the City is a crucial component. Procedurally, an “emergency” probably would have to be declared to speed up processes required by state and local laws, but there are still certain requirements that suggest to me that even on an expedited basis, I don’t see how it can all come together by February or March. I hope I’m wrong. The City Staff is to report back to the City Council at the first meeting in January (the 8th, I think). Let’s hope. What happens could play into the 2013 City Council race. If a positive solution isn’t found, the issue is certainly going to become a major campaign event. Four seats are up for election: Mayor Tom Odell, Deputy Mayor John James, and Members Don Gerend and John Curley. Failure to find a solution will be used against these guys, and the issue will become a major one. Success will be used by these guys.

After Ace, here are some of the other key issues I see:

  • Staying with or defecting from the Eastside Fire and Rescue (EF&R): This is going to be a Big Deal. A decision will be controversial. The outcome has the possibility of becoming a major election issue for the 2013 City Council race. There is some significant sentiment to leave EF&R because of the costs (it, along with police service, is the highest single item in our budget and it’s going up) and long-running disputes over Sammamish’s fair share of the EF&R budget. Ambitions to expand the district by other EF&R members would have the effect of neutralizing our influence on the EF&R board and place our two representatives at a disadvantage to protect our taxpayers. But, according to several City Council members and others we’ve talked to, our City Manager Ben Yacizi is adamantly opposed to the City forming its own fire department because he doesn’t want to deal with unions. The City Council, which in my long-held view, is too subservient to the City Manager, may well be out-maneuvered by him in his opposition. A committee of former City Council members appointed by the current City Council to study the issue recommended leaving EF&R. The committee included Ron Haworth, a former fire chief himself, Kathy Huckabay and Lee Fellinge. Our City Council so far has ignored this recommendation. A decision comes before the election in November. It will be interesting to see if the four Council Members whose seats are up will have the political courage to withdraw from EF&R; the time, I believe, has come to do so.

Read more: Continue reading →

Polls slam City Council, Staff, Manager

Posted on by
2

Opinion polls gave failing grades to six of seven City Council Members, the work of the City Council as a whole, the City Staff and the City Manager.

The polls, conducted on this blog, are, to be sure, unscientific. But an unscientific poll conducted to gauge support for the Community Center proved to come within 2.5 percentage points of the final result.

Graphs of the Opinion polling about the City appear below the jump.

Except for Council Member Ramiro Valderrama, whose Favorable score was 78%, each council member’s favorables-unfavorables fell below any passing grade metric anywhere in any school.

Approve-disapprove polling for the City Council as a while, the City Staff and the City Manager also were failing scores.

And Don Gerend, who has been a council member since the formation of the City in 1999 and who has told people he intends to run for another term next year (after 14 years in office), should retire, respondents voted. Gerend, Mayor Tom Odell, Deputy Mayor John James and John Curley are up for election next year. Curley said when he was campaigning in 2009 he planned to serve only one term. If he follows through, this guarantees one open seat in the 2013 election.

My analysis of each poll results follows the graphs.

Continue reading →