By now, you’ve likely heard that City Manager Rick Rudometkin was fired by the City Council at the November 19 meeting. After a long Executive Session, the Council approved what is politely called a “separation agreement.” Although only recently hired to the position of Deputy City Manager – a promotion from his last job – Chip Corder was elevated to be “Acting City Manager.”
By my count, this makes seven (7) people who have sat in the City Manager’s chair in less than two years. That breaks the previous record, held by Sammamish of course, of six (6) in less than two years.
This had been rumored and whispered about for several weeks, well before the election. The final process started and continued with Executive Sessions at the November 4th and 12th council meetings.
So why was Mr. Rudometkin fired after only about six months on the job?
In truth, Rudometkin landed in a very difficult and some would say impossible situation when he took the job, moving from a rural New Mexico county to Sammamish City Hall.
In Sammamish, he found a City Council that was split and dysfunctional, and a city staff that was feeling abused by the Council and city management – and on the verge of an effort to unionize.
By the time Mr. Rudometkin left, things weren’t much better. Much of the professional staff had been hired away by neighboring cities. And key management positions remained unfilled, including Public Works Director, Community Development Director, and Human Resources Director.
But with all the turmoil in City Hall, here is what got Mr. Rudometkin fired: He had the gall to allow his professional staff to do their duty and follow legal procedure with regard to the application for a traffic concurrency test by Town Center developer STCA.
Here is a key section from the Agenda Packet for the “emergency” meeting, called by Mayor Malchow in mid-August, after the Town Center project passed concurrency:
“What role does the Council, City Manager, and staff have in authorizing and performing the concurrency test?
“The Council authorizes the concurrency policies, procedures and standards which are documented in the City’s Comprehensive Plan, Sammamish Municipal Code 14A.10, and the Sammamish Public Works Standards. The City Manager ensures that these are adhered to through the staff who oversee the process. Once staff determines that a concurrency application is complete, the determination of whether a project passes or fails concurrency is a result of following a prescriptive, non-discretionary procedure consistent with SMC 14A.10.040 and the Comprehensive Plan Transportation Element. The Council is not involved in the review, approval or denial of individual concurrency applications.”
That was it. The City Manager did his job, according to regulations. And the City Council majority could not forgive him for that.
Now the permit application for the Town Center project has been submitted to City Hall, and is ready for processing. Who knows what will happen to it now. What seems likely is that the City Council will intervene in the process and possibly push the city into litigation.
In the meantime, don’t feel too bad for Mr. Rudometkin. He gets to walk away from the mess in Sammamish after a difficult six months, and get well paid for it: 9 months salary and benefits per contract, and 3 more months for a promise not to sue the city. Not bad.
Along with the settlement with Lyman Howard in July 2018, this City Council Majority has paid nearly two years of salary and benefits to City Managers who don’t work here: Good job.
In his place, at least temporarily, is the aforementioned Chip Corder.
According to our sources, Mr. Corder did not want the job, but was amenable to being a temporary fill-in: he wants a new interim appointed quickly.
And things continue to be difficult for city staff. Sarah Kimsey relates a conversation, during the turmoil this past week, with a current city employee:
Current Employee: “Today was a really tense day at City hall, even my boss was tense, and that’s unusual.”
Sarah Kimsey: “What specifically do you think people are stressed about?”
Current Employee: “That we have no leadership. The top leadership positions are all empty. And it feels very much like employees against the Council. The general feeling is many of us work our asses off, only to be put down by council. It’s sad that so many of us are trying to work hard at improving the city, and this is where we are. I’ve never seen anything like it. Most of us like our jobs and our peers, and it’s hard to watch everyone stress out like this”
And sources from inside City Hall and from around the region agree: Nobody wants to work in Sammamish anymore.
Why is this happening? We’ll get into that as part of my post-election look to the future next week.
Sammamish Front-Page 
The voters have spoken. I don’t agree, but apparently I was in the minority. That’s the American way – sometimes you win, and sometmes
you don’t. . To the council, the people have put their trust in you. Whatever the outcome, you own it.
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