Tag Archives: Pam Stuart

Doubled and Tainted: Sammamish Town Center 4000 Units Plan Mired in Secrecy and Subverted Growth Targets

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By Miki Mullor
Editor

The City of Sammamish is moving toward a plan that could more than double the size of its Town Center — from roughly 2,000 units to as many as 4,000 — but the path to that decision is raising questions of transparency and integrity.

Under Washington’s Growth Management Act, Sammamish is required to adopt growth targets for future housing. After initially setting a modest 700-unit target in 2021, the number was abruptly removed by the regional Growth Management Planning Council under disputed circumstances. The City Council later was forced to adopt a higher target of 2,007 units, of which only 560 were earmarked for the Town Center.

Despite this, city leaders are now advancing a proposal that would double the Town Center’s density, to 4,000 units.

Records obtained via Public Records Requests filed with Sammamish and King County show councilmembers held private meetings with the project’s developer, while a final vote was quietly scheduled for December 2025 — after local elections but before the new council takes office. Following public outcry, that vote date was quietly deleted from the city’s schedule without explanation. There is nothing to prevent the council from reestablishing a December vote, however.

The lack of transparency, coupled with inconsistent justifications, has left critics arguing that the Town Center expansion is less about meeting legal housing obligations and more about a tainted process.

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Breaking News: Malchow resigns from city council

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June 8, 2022: Mayor Christie Malchow tendered her resignation from the Sammamish City Council today, effective June 12.

Christie Malchow

Malchow cited missing too many family obligations for he young children and with her husband.

Malchow was midway through her second term.

The council must select a new mayor. The deputy mayor is Kali Clark, but her position doesn’t automatically elevate her to mayor. Both positions are ceremonial, selected by the council–not the voters.

Clark is only in her sixth month as deputy mayor in her first term in public office. It’s unlikely that Karen Moran, who served two years as mayor and who is six months into her second term on the council, will be selected to succeed Malchow. Moran has been a divisive force on the council. She also opposed the ethics investigation of former city manager David Rudat. She still opposes releasing the reports to the public.

Kent Treen is also unlikely to be named mayor. He’s in his final two years of his first term and like Moran, opposed the ethics probe and release of the reports to the Sammamish voters.

Pam Stuart served one full term but did not seek reelection. However, when Ken Gamblin resigned in January, Stuart was appointed to his seat by the King County Council when the Sammamish City Council deadlocked over the appointment.

Malchow’s resignation letter is below.

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BREAKING NEWS: King County Council appoints former Council Member Pam Stuart to Sammamish City Council

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By Miki Mullor
Editor

Pam Stuart

King County Council today unanimously voted to appoint former Council Member Pam Stuart to Ken Gamblin’s vacant city council seat. Gamblin resigned in January. The City Council had 90 days to appoint a Sammamish resident to fill his vacant seat. However, because the 6 members of the city council couldn’t agree on who to appoint, by state law, the responsibility became King County council’s.

Stuart will serve on the city council until December 2023.

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Rudat story won’t die until ethics report is released and examined

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Editorial

April 11, 2022: Sammamish Mayor Christie Malchow, who is the swing vote on whether to release the ethics investigation report about former City Manager David Rudat, is now firmly in the camp of keeping the report secret.

Malchow, whose first term in office heavily focused on transparency, is the key vote in covering up the details of the ethics probe that cost Sammamish more than $300,000 to Rudat in severance pay, a golden parachute, benefits and legal costs.

Christie Malchow

Why? Malchow says, “What I did not verbalize at the vote was I’m trying to look forward, not backward.  It is critical this Council be forward thinking for the benefit of our residents and the staff that serve them.  We have a new city manager position to fill, staff to provide some stability to, and if we are looking in the rear view mirror constantly, how will we assist ourselves in filling that city manager void and how can we possibly move forward to get city business accomplished for our residents?”

News Flash to the Sammamish City Council and to Mayor Malchow: Until the ethics report is released, this story won’t be relegated to the past.

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Overriding public interest for releasing Rudat ethics probe

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Editorial

March 15, 2022: The Sammamish City Council owes its citizens a full and transparent accounting of the Dave Rudat mess. In fact, there is an overriding public interest to do so.

There is a cover-up that is keeping all the sordid details out of public view. The Settlement Agreement approved on a 4-2 vote in which Rudat, the City Manager, receives an estimated $300,000 golden parachute raises questions whether the council entered into the agreement to cover up charges by Rudat’s supporters of malfeasance on the part of most of the previous council. Six of the seven members of the previous council—Christie Malchow, Chris Ross, Ken Gamblin, Kent Treen, Pam Stuart, and Tom Odell—deny the accusations. Karen Moran did not respond to Sammamish Comment’s inquiry.

Christire Malchow

Malchow, who was deputy mayor when the investigation of Rudat began and one of its chief supporters, is now mayor. She has mishandled this entire affair. The object of scathing criticism during the probe, fellow council members said she chickened out when it came to the first vote in November whether to fire Rudat or suspend him. Bowing to criticism, fellow council members said she counted the votes and realized she would not prevail—so rather than vote to fire Rudat, she supported suspension instead.

Malchow said the information presented to the council only supported the suspension.

But how is the public to know? The Sammamish taxpayers funded the hiring of two outside counsels to conduct the investigation and another to represent three minority council members who opposed the probe from the start. The total cost has not been tallied, but it is certainly in the tens of thousands of dollars, as the investigator alone charged the city more than $30,000, the agreement shows

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