More than 100 people packed into the Sammamish EX3 Teen & Recreation Center on Oct. 7 to hear council candidates speak.

The main topics of conversation revolved around communication, transportation and the environment.

Moderator and Publisher of the Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter William Shaw gave the five candidates an opportunity to answer each question.

Position 2

Christie Malchow and Mark Cross are seeking Councilmember Nancy Whitten’s seat. Whitten decided not to run for re-election after 12 years on the council.

Malchow, 41, is a small business partner and mother of two.

She has lived in Sammamish for the last four years and is campaigning on bringing a fresh perspective to city council.

If elected, she would represent a younger demographic, something currently not seen on the council, she said.

Cross, who sat on the council from 2004 to 2012, is looking to return after a four-year break. With a 35-year career in planning, he currently works for the city of Bellevue as an urban planner.

During the Oct. 7 forum, Malchow stressed the need to increase communication with citizens.

Specifically, she said the city newsletter is an outdated way to reach the community, saying most people don’t even read it.

“I don’t think snail mail is the way to pump out information,” she said.

When asked various questions, like ranking transportation projects or discussing the future of the city, she fell back on this, saying she wants to know what the citizens want.

Cross took a different approach, while not discounting the need for communication and citizen input. He discussed what needed to be done at the city, first acknowledging it takes an appropriately sized staff to handle the list of projects the city plans to tackle in future years.

“I’m not sure the city has staffed itself to be able to build the projects on the book,” Cross said. “We don’t have two years to find out we’re understaffed.”

In order to accomplish those projects, the city also will need to set a clear schedule, with costs laid out, he said. This information should also be more accessible to the public.

Malchow agreed but went a step further, stressing the importance of understandable documents, saying it doesn’t help to have the information and not know what it means.

She gave the example of her own inability to understand the 2016-2021 Transportation Improvement Program, even after having a meeting with a city engineer and council member.

Concerning development, Malchow said it’s a matter of upholding city code.

She sites her own experience in the Chestnut Estates case, where she and others opposed a development near Ebright Creek. She claims that had the city followed its own code, that development wouldn’t have been allowed to endanger the creek and citizens wouldn’t have had to use their time and money to defend it.

Cross approached development in more of a learn-as-you-go process. He advocated for the council to tour development, to see what went well and what didn’t. The council should then improve its code.

Prior to new development, he said the council would work with the Sammamish Planning Commission to talk about various issues and bring in citizen input.

Position 6

Tom Hornish is challenging Mayor Tom Vance’s seat on the council. This position is not for the mayorship. The city  has a council-city manager form of government. The council selects its mayor, which is largely a ceremonial role.

Hornish is a patent attorney and former CEO of the Outdoor Channel, a publicly traded company. He is the president of the Sammamish Home Owners Inc., a residential group that represents property owners along East Lake Sammamish Parkway.

Vance has been on the council for the last four years. Prior to that, he was on the planning commission.

The two agreed on the need and desire to create a more bike and pedestrian-friendly city.

Hornish, admittedly new to the Sammamish community, moved here for its character. He took issue with the amount of variances the city has issued, specfically within the last 4-8 years.

Hornish said this type of disregard for the city’s code in sensitive areas will lead to the death of the salmon.

“If we continue to allow those variances, the Ebright Creek and the kokanee are not going to come back,” Hornish said.

Vance said Sammamish is still a young city and one that’s come a long way from days of unincorporated King County “where there was little interest in the environment.”

Vance came back to the “landmark” tree ordinance the council passed Oct. 6, the comprehensive plan council passed Oct. 13 and other policies that protect the environment.

Vance did acknowledge there are areas to improve upon, like fixing culverts.

Onto the topic of communication, another area Vance admitted could be improved, Hornish called the current council deaf to citizen input.

He said the council has a “tin ear,” something he wants to change by increasing citizen outreach. He recommended frequent efforts, like holding a quarterly town hall meeting.

“Without communication you don’t know what the citizens want,” Hornish said.

The council needs a change in its mindset, Hornish said.

Effective, proper communication is an issue cities struggle with all the time, Vance said.

It’s a high issue for citizens, he said, something he’s heard out doorbelling.

Vance suggested that maybe the council members should be required to hit the pavement and knock on doors every few years.

Hornish also used the council’s process to hire soon-to-be City Manager Lyman Howard as an example of the council not being transparent.

This surprised Vance.

Vance said he was proud of how the council handled itself, saying it was a “by the books” demonstration of transparency.

Vance moved on to say the city could improve overall communication through the website and via social media.

Position 4

Ramiro Valderrama-Aramayo is essentially running unopposed. His opponent dropped out of the race in July due to personal reasons. However, Hank Klein’s name will still appear next to Valderrama-Aramayo’s on the ballot.

Valderrama-Aramayo has been on the council since 2011. He has lived in Sammamish since 2004 with his family.

Like the other candidates, he advocates for a mixed use of transportation systems, but hit hard on the need for a more walkable city.

He wants to see more emphasis on non-motorized transportation, like trails and bike paths.

He claims the city’s budget is not sufficient to fix projects on the city’s to-do list and calls for better planning to prioritize where the money will go.

For example, he would rather see the money spent on Big Rock Park construction, already underway and approved by council in September, to fund culverts to aid stream restoration and grow the kokanee population.

In mentioning the tree ordinance, he reminded the audience it was a reactive measure and something that should have been done sooner.

He hopes to see more community outreach and a council that better listens to its citizens.