Tonight is the next to last meeting for four Sammamish City Council members, who chose to retire rather than seek reelection.
Don Gerend is the dean of the Council. He has been on the body since the first Council was elected in 1999.
The Sammamish Town Center plan was about seven years in the making, controversial throughout. Then development was held up by the 2008 Great Recession. Ground was finally broken in 2015. The first store, Metropolitan Market, opened this year. And now the Town Center is again at the center of controversy over the building moratorium.
By Scott Hamilton
There has even been a call to revisit the plan.
Here’s why doing so is not a good idea and why the Town Center is needed.
By Scott Hamilton
Sammamish Comment will continue publishing past Dec. 31, but on a limited basis.
In August 2016, I announced that my wife and I moved to Bainbridge Island after 20 years in Sammamish and that I would continue publishing Sammamish Comment through 2017, at which time I intended to discontinue the effort.
Not being a resident of Sammamish any longer meant I was somewhat removed from events. Although I obviously remained in contact with established relationships, and created some new ones, being absent on a day-to-day basis made it challenging for what was already an endeavor that is pursued in my free time.
My work schedule, at a time when I should be retiring, has gone the other direction. I’m busier than ever and traveling more.
But events emerged that I just can’t give up serving the City I’ve been serving in one way or another since 1997, when I filed my first land use appeal, prior to incorporation.
King County Council District 3
King County Council Member Kathy Lambert was reelected to a fourth, four-year term on Nov. 7, snaring 57.21% of the vote across District 3, which stretches from Bellevue to Snoqualmie pass and from North Bend on the south to the Snohomish County line.
King County District 3
But in Sammamish, Lambert captured only 52.49% of the vote against John Murphy, a Democrat, from North Bend. Lambert is a Republican. The race is non-partisan, but parties lined up behind both candidates.
Lambert trailed all Sammamish City Council candidates and the winner in the Sammamish portion of the 45th Legislative District.
Lambert was unopposed four years ago.
Pam Stuart
Pam Stuart won a thumping victory for Sammamish City Council 
Position 7, sweeping all 61 precincts and adding almost 11 percentage points to her primary victory.
Stuart last August garnered 52.45% of the vote. She took 63.35% of the vote in last month’s general election.
Her opponent, John Robinson, recorded 30.46% of the vote in the primary. He picked up only 6.1 percentage points in the general election and under-performed his primary results in which he won four precincts. He didn’t win any in the general election.
Sammamish Comment 