Tag Archives: Sammamish City Staff

City Staff Secretly Meets With King County On Growth

Posted on by
18

By Miki Mullor
Editor

Sammamish staff took deliberate steps to keep a meeting with county officials secret in order to avoid public records requests, Sammamish Comment discovered.

The meeting involved discussion to set growth targets for Sammamish. 

Staff-to-staff meetings aren’t typically public. They aren’t announced on government websites, meeting notices aren’t issued and the public isn’t invited to attend. But it’s highly unusual that a government takes steps to keep the meeting secret from public records.

Sammamish did just that over a meeting last month. Calendar entries for Sammamish staffers didn’t list the purpose of the meeting. A voice mail specifically detailed the motive to avoid public records requests.

Ironically, The Comment obtained the entries and voice mail under a public records request and was nevertheless able to piece together the purpose of the meeting and the motive for hiding it.

Continue reading →

Council considers Sahalee improvements tonight, completing 22nd St., to pass concurrency

Posted on by
Reply

By Miki Mullor
Editor

  • Sahalee way is failing concurrency due to large car volumes.
  • Staff suggest adding a median and left turn pockets to pass concurrency.
  • Town Center’s first building application currently cannot pass concurrency.
Continue reading →

“Sammamish Watch” launched on Facebook

Posted on by
4

Miki Mullor

A new watchdog group to follow Sammamish government has been formed by controversial Miki Mullor.

Sammamish Watch is a “closed” group for Sammamish residents only (although Sammamish Comment, written from Bainbridge Island, was invited to join). The Watch’s tag line is “Fighting for our city.”

“All my new materials will go there,” Mullor wrote The Comment.  “We will use it to support the City Council with real time research. No more overwhelming these guys with tons of complex stuff.”

Continue reading →

House said to be historic at risk of tear down

Posted on by
5

440 218th Ave SE - House West (primary) elevation 1999frame

The Eddy House at 440 218th Ave. SE in Sammamish is said to have historical value as a residence for members of three Indian tribes. It’s at risk of demolition for a development, say the Harry Shedds.

A quiet effort to save a house that is called historical in nature faces an uphill fight with the City of Sammamish.

Harry and Claradell Shedd want to prevent the demolition of the Eddy House at 440 218th Ave. SE, just north of Big Rock Park and South of SE 4th.

The boarded-up house is “a singular landmark-eligible residence of Indian tribal members’ importance,” they say. Members of the Duwamish, Yakima and Snoqualmie tribes have lived here, they said.

Sammamish is processing a development application from Quadrant Corp. that would result in tearing down the home, the Shedds say.

The Sammamish Heritage Society and the City have reached an impasse, they said.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by
1

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.

Continue reading →

Greenwashing, Part 2: Sammamish never demanded EIS from developers

Posted on by
4
  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.

Continue reading →

Variances-R-Us, Part 2: City engineers admitted staff routinely ignored code, relied on unwritten policies

Posted on by
1

The City Council adopted the [Public Works Standards] by ordinance…. Thus, the PWS has the force of regulation.

When it adopted the PWS, the City Council gave to the Public Works director the authority to administratively amend them…. The record of this hearing does not contain any evidence that the Public Works Director has ever formally exercised that authority: the PWS read today just as when they were adopted in 2000, except for changes that were brought about by the Council’s 2005 adoption…changes which the City Engineer testified are routinely ignored by Public Works and which do not to this day appear in the publicly available version of the PWS. Public Works’ unwritten policies are also not publicly available. (Emphasis added.)

This remarkable section is part of the Sammamish Hearing Examiner report of an appeal of the Kampp Property project by the Pine Hills Homeowners Association.

A City official testified Staff routinely ignores city code, and relies on an unwritten policy. (Memo to lawyers: “arbitrary and capricious” rings a bell here.)

This damning admission underscores the cavalier approach to approving developments that citizens have been complaining about for years.

Continue reading →