Tag Archives: Sammamish Comment

A big win for citizens, transparency: Sammamish to live stream its retreat

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City_of_Sammamish

  • Update: Here’s the City’s email announcement:

Although there may be some technical obstacles to overcome, the city is planning to livestream the City Council retreat this weekend. If everything works, residents will be able to watch the proceedings from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20, and from 7:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Jan. 21.

To watch the livestream, go to www.sammamish.us, click on the “news and events” tab, and then select “TV 21.” The retreat is being held at the Murano Hotel, 1320 Broadway Plaza, in Tacoma.

Sammamish will live stream its retreat in Tacoma this weekend.

Details have yet to be announced, including hours and days. The link will be https://www.sammamish.us, click on the “news and events” tab, and then select “TV 21.”

Malchow

Christie Malchow

The retreat begins Thursday night at 6pm with a Council dinner–it’s unclear if this informal session will be part of the live streaming, although Council business will inevitably be discussed.

The meat of the retreat is all day Friday and Saturday morning.

“I think this is a huge win,” said Council Member Christie Malchow, who proposed live streaming.

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Mullet lead narrows again, but too few votes remain for Magendanz to overtake

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Votes counted by King County Elections over the weekend and today continued to narrow the lead of incumbent State Sen. Mark Mullet, a Democrat, against a strong challenge from Republican Chad Magendanz, but there are too few remaining votes outstanding for the latter to overcome a deficit and unseat the former, according to a Sammamish Comment analysis.

Mullet holds the 5th Legislative District seat. The 5th encompasses the greater Klahanie area of Sammamish.

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Election Update Nov. 10: Projected winner in 5th LD: Paul Graves; Rodne trending toward win; detailed figures

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Updated results from King County Elections today are sufficient for Sammamish Comment to project that Paul Graves will win the open seat for the State House of Representatives in the 5th Legislative District, Position 2.

He will defeat Democrat Darcy Burner. Graves is a Republican, and his win keeps this seat in GOP hands. This change from too close to call is highlighted in green in the chart below.

Incumbent Republican Jay Rodne, seeking reelection in the 5th for Position 1, is trending toward a victory but his race remains too close to call today.

The 5th LD encompasses the greater Klahanie area in Sammamish.

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Breaking News: Graves now projected winner in 5th LD; Rodne trending toward win; Mullet’s lead in jeopardy

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Sammamish Comment now projects Paul Graves will win the open seat for the 5th Legislative District for the House Position 2.

Republican Graves will defeat Democrat Darcy Burner for the seat, based on trends in the results from election night through today.

Incumbent Republican Jay Rodne, who ended election night slightly behind Democrat Jason Ritchie, is now trending toward a win, based on today’s returns from King County Elections. Rodne holds Position 1 in the 5th LD House seats.

In the 5th’s State Senate race, Mark Mullet’s lead is now in jeopardy. He ended election night with 53.33% of the vote. With today’s results, this has been shaved to 51.98%. If this trend continues, he may lose to his GOP challenger Chad Magendanz.

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Sound Transit 3: Vote No

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Sammamish voters should Vote No on the $54 billion plan for Sound Transit 3. This is a $27 billion tax plan over 25 years.

For this, Sammamish gets degraded bus service and prospectively a new park-and-ride on the North End. The average Sammamish household will pay an estimated $1,100 a year in Sound Transit taxes. With about 20,000 households, this is $550 million over the 25 years. For a park-and-ride. And worse service.

Even more notable–and alarming: no project outlined in ST3 is guaranteed. Not a single one. Voters could approve the $27bn in new taxes and none of these projects is a sure bet. This is why The Comment says the park-and-ride for Sammamish is only “prospective.”

One thing that is not prospective but which is guaranteed: if ST3 passes, citizens in its taxing district, including Sammamish, will have no say at all in future tax packages. ST3 takes away voter approval for future taxes and puts it squarely in an unelected board appointed by elected politicians. Unlike the tax packages for ST1 and ST2, there is no sunset for ST3 taxes.

This is a bad deal in so many ways.

The Comment’s position on ST3 is well known to long-time readers of this column, so this recommendation comes as no surprise.

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