On Monday, April 8th during the Snoqualmie City Council meeting public comment period, former mayor and former city councilmember Fuzzy Fletcher announced his intention to run for city council.
Fletcher said he will run for council position 4 which is currently held by James Mayhew, who was appointed in October 2017 after Brad Toft resigned. Mayhew has yet to announce whether he will seek election to retain his appointed seat.
Fletcher served as a councilmember from 1996-1998 and as mayor from 1998 – 2005. In 2017 Fletcher also challenged Mayor Larson for his seat, but lost by 15 percentage points.
Fuzzy said he decided to run again because he wants to be involved in the way the city moves forward, including addressing traffic congestion and taxes.
He said he doesn’t agree with the council using a ‘slightly revamped 2001 traffic study’ when recently approving the Salish Lodge expansion master plan – and would like to see a complete, updated traffic study for new development projects going forward.
The council, though, was limited in the scope of what could be re-visited due to the decision being a quasi-judicial determination of compliance with the project’s amended developer agreement, not a legislative renegotiation or amendment of the agreement.
Fletcher said he recognized this – and that the developer agreement was originally signed by him – but feels the council still could have pushed harder on the issue since so much time had passed since it was first signed.
The city maintains that although the developer agreement was amended over the years, because no substantial change was made, it was required by state law to use the prior environmental review that included the earlier traffic study.
Fletcher said, “We as public servants should listen to the voices of our citizens, at act on upon their concerns, instead of setting priorities based on what the Administration feels is the most important.”
King County Election’s filing period for the November 2019 general election is May 13th – May 19th. Candidate names will become public during that timeframe. If more than two candidates run for any seat, a primary will be held on August 19th.
Comments
This is great news for our town.
Fuzzy has been here a long time and was the Mayor. Unfortunately, Mayhew has been busy serving/filling pockets out of town, for developers, instead of his neighbors, since he was appointed to City Council.
Mayhew has failed to address citizen concerns or conduct himself in manner that is inviting to the community during City Council meetings.
Fuzzy is a kind man, who truely cares about his neighbors.
He is approachable and sincere.
Although I am excited to see Fuzzy Fletcher run for a seat on our city council- I am disappointed who he has chosen to run against.