A (too long) Update and How I’ll Keep You in the Loop (with shorter posts) in the Future
30 Days In: What’s been happening at City Hall, what I’ve been pressing on, and how I’ll give you a real behind-the-scenes look at the decisions that affect Sammamish.
One Month In
In my first month as mayor, a lot happened. Writing this made that obvious. If I wait too long between updates, it turns into one long post and you still feel behind. So I’m going to write these more often.
At the first council meeting of the year, my colleagues selected me as mayor in a 5-2 vote.
Building a Working Council
The Sammamish Independent covered the mayor selection and quoted me saying: “As mayor, my focus will be on bringing the council together to serve residents and helping each council member achieve wins that are important to them.”
Hold me to that.
Briefings and the Work in Front of Us
A big part of this first month (really, shortly after the election results were settled) has been briefings with staff on transportation projects, Town Center code, the budget, site visits. Also onboarding with HR, like any job. Just today, Deputy Mayor Treen and I had a site visit with city staff to SE 6th Street in the Town Center to see what work was ahead.
I also started pressing on where I think we’re taking too long and spending too much to reach a perfect answer when residents need progress sooner.
Pavement Management Program. At the January 21 council meeting, I questioned the way we’re handling this. I think we’re spending too much time (we have limited staff capacity) and money (the biennial budget overspent revenues by millions) coming up with strategic plans when we have critical work we can identify now. I encouraged us to start aiming for “good enough” on the planning front.
The 120 Building evaluation. I voted to approve the 120 Building evaluation project, even though I disagreed with the scope of the project. Otherwise, we would further delay a decision by months, if not a year or more. I support turning that building into a community center – one that is “good enough” to start with. Improvements later. We have huge community demand; we need to meet it.
Reconnecting Sammamish with Our Regional Partners
Something else I heard early, including from other local and partner governments, is that Sammamish can come across as siloed. They do not hear from us enough.
So I asked the council to create liaison positions, two councilmembers per partner government, with the expectation of regular meetings with their peers. The goal is better coordination, fewer surprises, and stronger working relationships so we can deliver more for residents. Here’s the list.
ICE, Speed, and How Authority Works Here
One of the most challenging issues this month was the council response to ICE.
I partnered with Councilmember Stuart to bring a proposal forward, then worked with Councilmembers Stuart and Lam to draft a council statement for approval. The Council approved the plan and a resource page was in place three days later. But, some residents wanted an official statement faster. I understand that. And it took longer to get out than I wanted.
Before the council can release a statement, all councilmembers need to sign off or we need to hold a vote. To hold a vote, we need to have a council meeting and the timing of this issue put the next council meeting two weeks away. In this instance, staff had to collect approval from seven councilmembers.
There is also a common assumption that the mayor can speak for the city the way a “strong mayor” can. In Sammamish, the mayor does not have “strong mayor” authority. That can be frustrating when you want the city to move quickly, especially on issues people care deeply about.
The Retreat Recording Vote
A controversial topic this month was the council retreat and whether to record or livestream it. The facilitator recommended we hold the retreat offsite and not record or livestream it. I agreed. And we started down that direction.
From my experience running retreats as a business owner and being a participant through my service on nonprofit boards, people need a change of scenery to spark new ways of thinking and they need to feel comfortable to speak their mind.
I felt recording team building exercises would make it much more difficult for the council to open up. Ultimately, I thought we’d have a better chance of bringing a divided council together if no one was concerned a poorly phrased, difficult to articulate thought would be used against them later.
Councilmember Lam and Start raised concerns that discussions around our goals and work plan would not be available to the public. I understood where they were coming from because transparency matters. They made a good case for recording the goals and work plan parts of the meeting.
I still felt that early discussion of goals and work plan items, in the context of team building, can be an emotionally challenging exercise with tough conversation. And, no decisions would be made at the retreat. That staff would just be synthesizing our thoughts to bring back proposals to work through at multiple council meetings before they were adopted.
Ultimately, the council voted 5-2 to audio record the goals and work plan section. While I voted against the motion, I spoke with Councilmember Stuart after the meeting. We shook hands, and I told her I thought it was a fair compromise. I also emailed Councilmember Lam that evening with a similar message.
Why I’m Writing This Blog
I’m starting this blog for a simple reason. You deserve a clearer view of what’s happening, what I’m focused on, and how decisions are made (from my perspective, at least).
The Sammamish Independent also quoted me saying: “I’d like people to look back at my time as mayor as drama free. Where our council pushed projects forward that made the lives of our residents a little better and a little easier.”
That is still the standard I’m holding myself to. The Council Retreat is tomorrow. I am hopeful for a good meeting that results in a council culture that serves residents.
Sources & Links
Sammamish Independent: “Sammamish City Council chooses Amato as mayor, Debbie Treen as deputy” (January 30, 2026).
City of Sammamish: “New Mayor, Deputy Mayor” (January 7, 2026).
City of Sammamish: Immigrant and Refugee Resources page. (link)