Tag Archives: Sammamish

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 City Council average age: 66; median age of Sammamish: 38

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Concert in Park

The median age in Sammamish is 38. The City has more young adults and children (18 and under) than any other city in the state. Our City Council’s average age is 66. Image: Sammamish Concert in the Park. Photo via Google images.

The Sammamish City Council is highly representative of senior citizens and grandparents.

It’s not at all representative of the demographics of the City: median age of 38 with children of high school age or less.

Three seats are up for election Nov. 3: Positions 2, 4 and 6, held by Nancy Whitten, 69, Ramiro Valderrama, 55, and Tom Vance, 63, respectively. Whitten is retiring after three terms. Valderrama and Vance are seeking reelection, each to a second term.

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Forgetting who you’re serving at the Sammamish City Council

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All too often, elected officials forget who they were elected to serve. This unfortunately is the case with some on the Sammamish City Council.

Artwork via Google images.

During the course of this year, Sammamish Comment chronicled a number of important issues in which the Council and the City Administration practiced benign neglect. In many cases, individual Council Members have pursued personal agenda, played follow the leader or blamed citizens for being whiners or misunderstanding what they are supposed to understand.

These attitudes are why Washington D.C. and Olympia (WA) are so dysfunctional and failing to serve the peoples’ interest in pursuit of their own. It’s why Sammamish citizens voted to incorporate in 1998: to get out from under an unresponsive King County government that ignored our wishes and needs.

Certainly being our own City proved far more beneficial than being under the King County Council. We have roads and parks we weren’t going to get under the County rule. We have community events, notably our Fourth of July, Sammamish Nights and similar activities we’d never get under King County.

But the City is letting citizens down in a number of areas due to the benign neglect and personal agendas referenced above. For example:

Skipping the Cascadia Rising earthquake drill

There are a lot of things in government that fall within the category of “What were you thinking?”

Skipping the Cascadia Rising earthquake drill tops the list.

The Sammamish Comment revealed October 5 that the City skipped the sign-up deadline last year to participate in a regional Cascadia Rising earthquake preparedness drill that outlines a scenario of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hitting Sammamish. (The scenario’s epicenter is the Cascadia Subduction Fault off the Washington coastline, with a 9.0 epicenter magnitude.)

Sammamish had no plans to participate. Until after The Comment began making inquiries.

This is a huge public safety issue. This is the worst example of benign neglect yet by our City and City Council. Read the details here.

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Tom Hornish for Sammamish City Council Position 6

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Position 6: Tom Vance (Incumbent) vs Tom Hornish

Tom Hornish, candidate for Position 6 on City Council.

Tom Hornish, a newcomer to Sammamish politics, deserves your vote.

Hornish is a lawyer, entrepreneur, former chief executive officer in private enterprise and a veteran of the US Air Force and USAF reserve with 33 combat missions during the 1991 Gulf War, Desert Storm, in fighter aircraft.

He is president of the Sammamish Home Owners, a group that represents property owners who lives along Lake Sammamish.

Hornish is challenging Mayor Tom Vance, who is finishing his first term on the Sammamish City Council. Vance also ran for Council in 2009 but was defeated in his first attempt.

Here’s why Hornish deserves your vote:

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Ramiro Valderrama for Sammamish City Council Position 4

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Ramiro Valderrama, Sammamish City Council Position 4

Sammamish voters should re-elect Ramiro Valderrama-Aramayo to Sammamish City Council Position 4.

Valderrama has been a thorn in the side of the Gang of 4 and of the City Administration. He asks questions that need to be asked, often to the point of irritation. He challenges the leadership to the point where they actively sought people to run against him. He challenges the City Manager and the City Staff.

This is how it should be. We don’t need a Council of “yes men.”

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