Tag Archives: Sammamish Comment

City sponsors, skips Sammamish Disaster Preparedness Fair in City Hall

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  • October 15’s Great Washington ShakeOut drill reveals City’s Emergency Operations Center radio system was boxed up and inoperable since the remodeling more than a year ago.
  • City claimed regular drills with activated EOC.
  • State law requires annual emergency plan drills.
  • City skipped signing up last year to participate in four-day Cascadia Rising drill next year, joining after Sammamish Comment revealed the inaction.
  • Ten days later inoperative radio system discovered in EOC.
  • 12 days later City skips its own Preparedness Fair.
  • State law requires plan update every two years; last plan dated 2012, being updated now.

The City of Sammamish was a sponsor of the Sammamish Disaster Preparedness Fair held Saturday in City Hall, but it skipped the event. There was no City table or personnel to provide information to citizens of what to do or how to prepare for a major disaster, or to explain just what the City’s role would be in such an event.

Eastside Fire and Rescue and Sammamish Police had tables. So did the Sammamish Citizens Corp, Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District, the Red Cross and several private enterprises displaying (and selling) survival kits. There was even a hot dog stand selling refreshments.

But no table from City Hall.

Sammamish’s own five year old Emergency Management Plan says “City and County governments will take the lead in managing public health, safety and welfare services.”

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Sammamish gave Mark Cross 5 days to correct campaign sign violation, Malchow and Valderrama 48 hrs

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Cross Safety Issue sign

Sammamish gave City Council candidate Mark Cross one week to remove this sign at Inglewood Hill Road one block east of the roundabout despite being in the public right of way and blocking the line of sight for cars entering Inglewood. This photo is taken from the driver’s seat of a car aligned with the stop sign’s white road stripe. To see westbound traffic on Inglewood, it is necessary to pull well forward of the stop sign’s white stripe. Cross’s opponent was given 48 hours to move a similarly sized sign out of the right of way on Sahalee Way. No safety issue was involved. Click on image to enlarge.

Sammamish gave former City Council Member and former Mayor Mark Cross five days to correct a code violation for two large billboard style campaign signs erected in a public right of way (ROW), but opponent Christie Malchow and Council Member Ramiro Valderrama, running in a different race, were given 48 hours to correct similar violations, Sammamish Comment has learned.

Cross’ signs blocked the line of sight from the cross street looking east on Inglewood Hill Road, requiring the driver to pull well forward of the painted white line aligned with the stop sign in order to see westbound traffic on Inglewood Hill Road.

Signs erected in different locations by Malchow and Valderrama did not have line-of-sight issues. Malchow and Valderrama said they were given 48 hours to remove their large signs in a public ROW.

Chris Hankins, the City’s code enforcement officer who handled the three cases, said that when Cross’ signs came to his attention Monday, Cross was notified that the signs had to be moved “immediately, but no later than Friday,” five days after the violation was recorded. He said “there’s absolutely no preferential treatment” that was afforded Cross despite the disconnect between the deadlines given Malchow and Valderrama of 48 hours to comply with City code.

“I would disagree with that” characterization of a disconnect, he said. He could not explain why Valderrama and Malchow were given a 48 hour deadline. “That’s a good question. It’s decided on a case-by-case basis,” he told Sammamish Comment.

“Just to be clear, there is absolutely no preferential treatment,” he said again.

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League of Women Voters Sammamish Council Candidate Profile

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  • Ballots will soon be the in the hands of Sammamish voters for the City Council election Nov. 3 (and other races). The ballots are being mailed this week by King County Elections. Sammamish Comment has been posting throughout October about issues, candidate profiles and candidate endorsements. Be sure to mark your ballots and postmark them by Nov. 3.

The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan organization, published candidate responses and profiles for the Sammamish City Council races, Positions 2, 4 and 6, on Vote411.org. The site is difficult to navigate and to find races in which the viewer is interested.

Sammamish Comment extracted the City Council races for ease of viewing in put them into a PDF file which you may download here: LWV Sammamish Candidate Profiles. This is current as of last week.

The LWV did not note that Hank Klein, who filed for Position 4 against Ramiro Valderrama, subsequently withdrew from the race, but too late to remove his name from the ballot. Sammamish Comment made this notation in his slot. Other than this notation and adding some spacing for readability, the LWV document is unaltered by The Comment.

The LWV noted that Mark Cross, candidate for Position 2 vs Christie Malchow, did not respond to any of the questions. The Comment finds this remarkable, and not in a good way. As with Cross’ own campaign website, which is notable in its lack of information, failing to respond to the LWV is a disservice to the voters of Sammamish.

 

 

 

 

City inaction to earthquake preparedness is of shocking magnitude; Yazici mounts defense, decries political “silly season”

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  • There will be a candidates forum tonight, Wednesday, October 7, at 7pm at the Boys and Girls Club, Inglewood Hill Road and 228th Ave. NE. It is sponsored by the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce and the Sammamish Rotary. It will not be videotaped or broadcast on Sammamish TV Channel 21, so this is your only chance to see the candidates and ask questions in a forum.
  • Here’s how the story evolved.

When Sammamish Comment learned last month that Sammamish wasn’t going to

Cascadia Rising is a regional earthquake preparedness drill next June. Sammamish wasn’t going to participate–until questions arose.

participate next June in Cascadia Rising, a massive earthquake preparedness drill from British Columbia to Northern California, it was shocking. It was unbelievable. It was a dereliction of duty to public safety of massive proportions.

Issaquah, Redmond, Kirkland, the county, the state, the Sammamish Plateau Water & Sewer District, the University of Washington Medical Centers, fire and police, and on and on signed up last year to participate–but not Sammamish. Training for these agencies was well underway. But not Sammamish.

The issue came to light at the Sept. 1 City Council meeting when Member Ramiro Valderrama asked why wasn’t the City participating in the drill. City Manager Ben Yazici brushed aside the question, a stunning reaction in its own right considering Yazici is a native of Turkey where devastating earthquakes occur, with huge losses to life and property. He of all people should know the importance of being prepared.

Equally stunning was that Valderrama didn’t get one word of support from any other Council Member. Not one. Mayor Tom Vance, who’s the City’s titular leader, sat mute through the entire exchange.

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“Greenwashing” in Sammamish: A Special Report

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  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.

Since the 2003 Sammamish City Council election, in which environmental-leaning candidates swept the election, the Council prided itself on pursuing “green” policies and ordinances.

The City Manager was far less gun-ho, often lagging his own staff, especially when it came to a concept called Low Impact Development, or LID (not to be confused with Local Improvement Districts, also LID, a special tax option–so context of “LID” is always important to understand).

The current Council is comprised of what would ordinarily considered to be environmentalists. Of the seven, only Member Don Gerend leans “development” over the environment–or so its appears. Tom Odell and Bob Keller proved to have strong environmental credentials. Ramiro Valderrama evolved into a strong backing of the environment. Deputy Mayor Kathy Huckabay and Mayor Tom Vance not only consider themselves environmentalists but have an historical track record supporting this.

Image via Google Images. Click on image to enlarge.

Without question the leading environmentalist on the Council is three-term incumbent Nancy Whitten, who decided to retire at the end of this year. And Whitten has been increasingly critical of the collective Council’s direction on a number of environmental issues over the past four years.

While “greenwashing” isn’t the term that comes to the top of the conversation with Whitten, she didn’t disagree with its use when it comes to how Sammamish approaches the environment now. And she’s especially critical of Vance’s evolution away from his historical green leanings.

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