Candidate Profile: Amy Lam For Sammamish City Council, Pos. 1

SAMMAMISH, WA — General election ballots have made their way to mailboxes across King County, as the 2021 election season enters its final stretch heading into Nov. 2. Dozens of key races are in play this year, including contests for King County Executive, four positions on the Metropolitan King County Council and several local city council races.

As voters prepare to fill out their choices, Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles leading up to Election Day.

Amy Lam is running for Position 1 on the Sammamish City Council. She has lived in Sammamish for 26 years and names development as the city's most pressing issue. Lam's professional experience includes more than two decades in the graphic design field, and she currently works as the creative director at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry.

Candidate

Amy Lam

Age (as of Election Day)

57

Position Sought

Sammamish City Council Position 1

Party Affiliation

Democrat

Family

2 children, college-aged

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

Master's degree, Graphic Design, Yale University
Bachelor's degree, Fine Arts, Brandeis University

Occupation

I am the Creative Director at MOHAI (Seattle's Museum of History and Industry) with 25+ years of design experience

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

N/A

Campaign website

amyforsammamish.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

I have been a resident of Sammamish for 26 years and I'm running for City Council because I want to ensure the city continues on a path that is environmentally responsible and looks to the future.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Development is the most pressing issue facing Sammamish. In 2008, the city adopted, with broad public support, the Town Center Plan. Our current council has spent $4 million so far in attorney fees to prevent its development. The Town Center is actually very forward-thinking. Eighteen years ago, if you include the time gathering public feedback etc, the city had a vision to grow sustainability. The Town Center addresses the need to build effectively to impact climate change (you read that correctly!), build with environmentally sustainable materials, use low-impact green infrastructure, mitigate traffic impact, and improve stormwater. It calls for higher density multi-family units (apts, condos) and small cottage style units to preserve open space. It was very prescient to recognize the need for affordable housing for teachers, young people starting in their careers, and smaller units for empty-nesters.

Over the years, however, we lost our way. Our current council maintains that building massive single-family homes (Sammamish is 86% single family homes) on tiny lots randomly throughout our community is environmentally the best way forward. We cannot stop development because the Growth Management Act mandates that we accept population growth because we are in an Urban Growth Area. However, with the Town Center, we can mitigate environmental damage by requiring in the master plan that builders use solar panels, green roofs, permeable surfaces, provide charging stations for electric cars, etc. The current council wants to continue building more large single family homes that bring with it households with more children and 2+ cars. Contrast that with smaller Town Center units which have fewer children and cars.

The Town Center is also a mixed use development area that includes restaurants, shops, small businesses, and walking trails. This will encourage many residents to get out of their cars and increase the liveability of our city. Business development will also increase our city’s revenues. For these reasons, I support completing the Town Center.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My opponent is a Republican and I am not. I have also lived in Sammamish for 26 years while he has lived here a few years.

My opponent and I differ on many critical issues. I support affordable housing for our teachers and workforce and smaller units for housing diversity. It's paramount that we adopt a Climate Action Plan and actively work on reducing our GHG emissions.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, our traffic congestion has eased enormously. My opponent believes that traffic will return to “normal.” I believe that working from home or a hybrid in-person/home situation is the new normal. Major tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, that employ many of our residents, have no plans to return to the 5-day/in-person work model. There has been a fundamental shift in how companies view the workplace. This hybrid work model impacts our roads, environment, and future development. We should plan accordingly.

My opponent wants to “increase police presence.” I support additional deputies to allow for training and to minimize overtime. While crime incidents have increased, when taking into account that our population has doubled, our crime rate is actually decreasing and is one of the lowest in the state for a city our size (1.7 per 1000 residents). Without this context, saying we need to increase police presence instills fear among residents. I want to maintain our current police presence.

What would you do in office to strengthen preparedness and response efforts for extreme heat and wildfire smoke events?

Sammamish has a Hazard Mitigation Plan which summarizes the impact of certain disasters on our community. This includes earthquake, flood, severe weather, wildfire, cyberattack, among others. Regarding heatwaves, it addresses using cooling centers for our most vulnerable population. For wildfires, we are particularly vulnerable due to limited transportation corridors off the plateau in the event of an evacuation. The city has an Emergency Preparedness Guide which outlines general steps we can take individually and in our neighborhoods to prepare for a disaster.

However, as the recent heatwave and wildfire situation has shown, the city needs concrete plans. Catastrophe modeling can create predictive models but residents want to know, as in the event of a wildfire, where are the routes for egress, where will that information come from, who will notify us, etc. I would lean into experts to create the plans and our city to educate and inform the public.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

Our current board has failed our residents by being reactive rather than proactive. Our urban forest management plan wasn't adopted until 2019 so for decades, the city had no baseline understanding of our tree health, canopy, and maintenance, meanwhile development of massive single family homes continued. By fighting the Town Center, the current board does not understand that building higher density green housing is better than building traditional oversized single family homes on tiny lots. We do not enforce our tree retention codes after a developer has been issued a permit. We are the only Eastside city without a Climate Action plan. Our city has not built enough affordable housing. Leadership is about being courageous and accountable.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

I definitely want to bring municipal broadband (fiber optics network) to Sammamish. As the Covid-19 pandemic has shown, the internet is an essential utility just like electricity, water, and sewer. The benefits of fiber are many: greater bandwidth and faster speeds because it’s on a dedicated line, increased network security, it’s less likely to go down during a power outage, and fiber is less prone to damage than copper cables.

For Sammamish, the benefits of fiber include job creation by attracting businesses, competitive pricing, and increased internet speeds. It also improves productivity by allowing individuals to work or study from home more effectively, supports healthcare such as telemedicine, and saves taxpayer dollars by reducing connection fees in our public schools, government buildings, etc.

I have spoken with the developer, builder, and provider of the Issaquah Highlands fiber network, Gigabit Now, a Seattle firm. After public buy-in, a feasibility study, etc, the buildout of a network can be completed in 3 years. With the ever increasing demand for bandwidth, this is an investment in Sammamish’s future.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I have received numerous company awards and accolades during my time at Starbucks. These awards were given for projects that I supported or successfully led. The skills needed for these projects included visionary thinking, teamwork, and creative solutions.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Over the years, I have received so much good advice on parenting, career, home, health, etc, that it's hard to pick just one! Because I am future oriented, being advised in my early 20s to always take part in 401K plans has been a good one. Also, as an advocate for women and minorities in the workplace, I took to heart a piece of advice given to me by a woman at a high level government agency, that speaking out against inequities will benefit everyone.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am running a lean, entirely self-funded campaign, and have not asked for donations. My campaign will cost 2k. I chose this direction because I wish to remain independent with my viewpoints and without obligations. My opponent has raised 44K and spent 32K. It is appalling that local and national campaign expenditure during the 2020 elections was estimated at $14 billion. Imagine if that was spent on infrastructure, education, or human services. Thank you for reading about my candidacy.