Tag Archives: Tom Vance

Should Sammamish have city council “districts”?

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Seattle has gone to City Council Districts, plus two at-large seats, in its most recent election. The theory is to provide greater representation for the areas of the city.

The concept was floated early in Sammamish’s history, though it didn’t go anywhere. When Sammamish was incorporated, all seven City Council seats were at large and this remains so to this day.

Throughout the history of the City, the council seats have pretty much been concentrated along the center of the City. Councilman Phil Dyer, who served one term from 1999-2001, lived by the lake and so does today’s Ramiro Valderrama. But the rest of the council members are from the Plateau.

I’ve put together this map showing the approximate locations where the new City Council members reside. As you can see, the concentration is still on the Plateau.The locations aren’t precise because the map from the Internet was poor quality and I couldn’t see the street names, so pardon if some of the residences are a little off–but they are close enough for to illustrate the point.

I’ve drawn in possible district lines, based solely on geography and not on population proportions (which is how they have to be drawn). Click on the map to enlarge.

CityCouncilLocations

I’m taking no position on whether continuing the at-large elections or creating districts is the preferred choice. It’s just food for thought. Maybe this is something for Citizens for Sammamish to study.

Valderrama elected Deputy Mayor for 2013

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Ramiro Valderrama was elected Deputy Mayor for Sammamish by his fellow council members at the January 8 council meeting. This is a one year term.

Councilman Tom Vance had lobbied members for the position, but didn’t have four votes pledged. Vance was not nominated for the position and Valderrama was elected unanimously.

Polls slam City Council, Staff, Manager

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Opinion polls gave failing grades to six of seven City Council Members, the work of the City Council as a whole, the City Staff and the City Manager.

The polls, conducted on this blog, are, to be sure, unscientific. But an unscientific poll conducted to gauge support for the Community Center proved to come within 2.5 percentage points of the final result.

Graphs of the Opinion polling about the City appear below the jump.

Except for Council Member Ramiro Valderrama, whose Favorable score was 78%, each council member’s favorables-unfavorables fell below any passing grade metric anywhere in any school.

Approve-disapprove polling for the City Council as a while, the City Staff and the City Manager also were failing scores.

And Don Gerend, who has been a council member since the formation of the City in 1999 and who has told people he intends to run for another term next year (after 14 years in office), should retire, respondents voted. Gerend, Mayor Tom Odell, Deputy Mayor John James and John Curley are up for election next year. Curley said when he was campaigning in 2009 he planned to serve only one term. If he follows through, this guarantees one open seat in the 2013 election.

My analysis of each poll results follows the graphs.

Continue reading →

Poll: Do you approve or disapprove of the Sammamish City Council?

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This is a long post: be sure to scroll down.

Following the election and the controversial advisory vote for the Community Center, I thought a poll about the job the City Council is doing might be worthwhile.

Although unscientific, my Go Daddy poll about the advisory center is turning out to be pretty close to the mark: 55.7% of the respondents favored the Community Center and through Nov. 13, actually ballot results give the Yes vote 53%, well within standard margins of error of scientific polls. (The Sammamish Review’s unscientific poll wasn’t so good; it gave the Center a 62% Yes vote.)

A recent Citizens for Sammamish meeting turned into a massive venting session about frustrations with the City. The Council, the staff and the manager all came under fire. So I’m polling on this, too, as well as the Favorables-Unfavorables of each Council Member.

Feel free to comment in the Comment section. BUT: keep it clean, no swearing, no insults. Concisely state your opinions and the reasons for it in a clean and respectful way. I’ll delete comments that resort to name-calling and obscenities.

Question #1

Question #2

Question #3

I know this election is barely over but in 2013, four City Council seats are up for election. Mayor Tom Odell, Deputy Mayor John James, and Council Members John Curley and Don Gerend are up for election. Let’s get some favorable-unfavorable ratings.

Question #4

Question #5

Question #6

Question #7

Council Member Don Gerend has been on the council since the city elected its first council in 1999-13 years. I’m told he plans to run for another term next November, his 14th year on the Council. If elected, he would serve 17 years by the end of his term.

Question #8

The other three Councl Members, Nancy Whitten, Tom Vance and Ramiro Valderrama, were elected in 2011 and won’t be up for reelection until 2015. What is your opinion about them?

Question #9

Question #10

Question #11

That’s not tobacco they’re smoking at the City Council

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I was known as a tree-hugging environmentalist (among other things) during my 8 1/2 years of service on Sammamish committees and commissions but that doesn’t prevent me from saying the City Council is smoking something other than tobacco with the proposal to ban smoking in City Parks.

Despite some snide comments toward John Curley by one City Councilman and some Sammamish Review readers, I agree with him: the idea that second-hand smoke in an open-air park is hazardous (at least in the levels we’re talking about here) strikes me as pretty ludicrous.

I don’t like cigarette smoke; it’s obnoxious and has an odor that is particularly offensive to my sensitivities. But any time I go to the Sammamish Commons (for example) for the Fourth of July or Farmer’s Markets, if someone is smoking nearby, I can easily move upwind. In this case, I have to say smokers have their rights, too.

I think Washington’s smoking ban in buildings went too far. I am all for banning smoking in open areas within buildings (offices, restaurants, bars, etc.) or places like Safeco Field or the Clink (Century Link stadium), but I also believe that exceptions should have been allowed: a fully enclosed smoking area or provisions for “smoking clubs” would have been acceptable.

Sammamish has better things to do than pursuing this nanny state ordinance.