Tag Archives: Ramiro Valderrama

City may discuss Transportation TIP funding–after the election

Posted on by
2

The Sammamish City Council may discuss the controversial Six Year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), but not until after the November election, Sammamish Comment has learned.

City Manager Ben Yacizi wrote Council Member Nancy Whitten on Aug. 5 that a budget review meeting in November, which will “authorize the funding of various TIP projects” “might be a good meeting to further discuss this topic.”

Whitten had written Yacizi supporting Council Member Ramiro Valderrama’s concern that the August City Newsletter and its articles about the TIP were political in nature.

Sammamish Comment detailed the politicalization of the Newsletter in an August 12 post. The Newsletter had a front page article defending the funding of the TIP, along with a Mayor’s Message doing the same thing.

“I join in Councilmember Valderrama’s request that we have further council discussion about these road projects…and how we might pay for them and the potential bonding before such an article goes into our newsletter,” Whitten wrote, noting that “inconsistency with prior statements made about bonding are very convenient timewise during an election year.”

Continue reading →

Transparency (or the lack of it), the evolving Sammamish City Newsletter and taxpayer dollars

Posted on by
5

The August Sammamish City Newsletter contained a front page article about the state of the City’s finances and the Six Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

This was followed on the next page by the Mayor’s Message, in this case from Tom Vance, who is in his second year as mayor.

The articles are clearly responses to public questions about the TIP funding and proposed City expenditures in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the next six years for a variety of projects, notably from Council Member Ramiro Valderrama. He’s repeatedly questioned the financial viability of the road projects and how these will be funded.

This column also questioned the TIP and its ending fund balance as adopted, showing a near-depletion by 2020.

The article is a clear response to Valderrama and to The Sammamish Comment. The Mayor’s Message is a clear puff piece, transparently touting policies and promotions as Vance heads into a reelection campaign that will get underway after Labor Day.

The City Newsletter has transformed from a means to inform citizens to a propaganda piece to refute questions raised by members of the City Council and the Public and, in the case of the Mayor, to defend his own practices from criticism.

Continue reading →

“Go slow, do it right” on Klahanie annexation, but “go fast and go on vacation” to approve revised Comp Plan

Posted on by
2

Sammamish City Council members were adamant they wanted to “go slow and do it right” on the annexation of the Klahanie area, but Mayor Tom Vance and a majority of the Council have been pushing to adopt a complete revision to the Comprehensive Plan before the August recess.

Council Member Nancy Whitten  believes flaws remain in the new Comp Plan, which has been a virtual complete rewrite of the detailed plan adopted in 2001 after 18 months of work by the Planning Advisory Board. The new Comp Plan is far more general, she says, reducing environmental protections, particularly potentially for Pine Lake. Pine Lake is one of six “303(d)” lakes in King County. Beaver Lake and Laughing Jacobs Lake or Lake Sammamish (I forget which), also in Sammamish, are two others.

Continue reading →

“We need King County,” Sammamish says; now we know why

Posted on by
1
  • Variety of public works projects need King County cooperation and support.
  • Klahanie annexation a factor.
  • East Lake Sammamish Trail development a factor.
  • City doesn’t know the value of its Staff time devoted to the East Lake Sammamish Trail-King County issues.

During the disputes early this year over King County’s development of the East Lake Sammamish Trail North End (Section 1) and proposed design of the far South End (Section 2A), many urged the City to take a firm hand with the County.

Some, including at one point City Council Member Tom Odell, urged the City to issue a Stop Work Order on the North End while the City reviewed problems that developed as the County destroyed “significant” trees (ie, good quality, mature trees), young trees and scrub trees; damaged sewage lines, while denying responsibility; building a trail that effectively denied access by some homeowners to their own garages; and other issues that came up.

Sammamish Comment detailed these problems last January in an 18-page investigative report.

At the same time, the County was designing Section 2A, that part of the trail from the 7-11 south to the Issaquah City Limits. Residents along the trail, interested parties and the City submitted comments to the County. When the 60% design was issued, these parties were enraged to see that the County had largely ignored the comments. The City was particularly unhappy that none of its comments were addressed.

As the permitting agency, the City held power over the County. Officials threatened to withhold permits for the Southern sections 2A and 2B (which is still to come). Holding up permits would threaten the loss of federal funding.

But the City was reluctant to issue a Stop Work Order on the North End, terminate an interlocal agreement with the County governing the Trail, or take other measures, because “We need King County.”

Officials at the time wouldn’t detail what this meant.

What was meant became clear with the July 7 City Council meeting and subsequent events. Officials were reluctant to take a firmer hand over the Trail because:

Continue reading →

Sahalee Road proposal draws criticism from public, heat between Council Members

Posted on by
2
Six Yr TIP Sammamish

Sammamish’s Six Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) includes a proposal to widen Sahalee Way to three lanes from NE 25th north to the City Limits and beyond to SR202, outside the City Limits. This is the red line at the top of the City map. Click on image to enlarge. Source: City of Sammamish.

A plan to widen Sahalee Way from NE 25th north to the Sammamish City limits drew criticism from the public and prompted a heated exchange between council members at the July 7 City Council meeting.

The City Staff presented the proposed Six Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) to the Council for approval (which it did), including plans to widen Issaquah-Fall City Road along the eastern border of the Klahanie Annexation Area, a promise made by the City Council in advance of the April 28 annexation vote.

This expensive project–some $23m–drew little comment from the Council, outside of how it will be funded. But the proposed widening of Sahalee Way to three lanes, sidewalks and bike lanes, caused Council Members Ramiro Valderrama and Tom Odell, normally reasonably closely aligned on budget issues, to figuratively come to blows.

Members of the public also criticized the plan.

Continue reading →