[Letter by Brian Holloway – Snoqualmie Resident. Views expressed are those of the author, not the Living Snoqualmie website. You may submit letters of support for your candidate to info@livingsnoqualmie.com.]
As an active member of our City, I have had a chance to engage with and develop informed opinions about the candidates for Mayor, City Council, and County Council. For the reasons summarized below, I am writing to voice my support for Dan Murphy for City Council, Jim Mayhew for Mayor, and Sarah Perry for King County Council.
Mayoral race:
Snoqualmie is effectively a $40 million a year business, and it needs a Mayor who is up for the job of effectively being CEO of an entity of that size and complexity. The results of her first term clearly indicate that the incumbent Mayor Ross is not up for the job. The disastrous negotiations with North Bend over the police contract and the continued emphasis on a pool that the City cannot afford to build and would primarily benefit non-resident YMCA members are both key examples for me. The fact that a majority of the current Council has endorsed her opponent is a clear indication that I am not alone in my opinion.
City Council race:
I think of both candidates as personal friends — and I hope both will say the same of me after the election. Ethan Benson has not done a bad job in his first term. However, I think Dan Murphy will do a better job. Over the last four years, the Council has been too compliant with the secrecy and incompetence of the current administration. The Council needs someone who has experience using the mechanisms of governance and the bully pulpit of Council meetings to better influence the Mayor’s administration, create transparency, and encourage engagement with residents. I think Dan has the skillset and background to best deliver the constructive change I think is needed on our City Council.
King County Council race:
In her first term, Sarah Perry has done an outstanding job of representing her district and delivering meaningful results for residents in our area. Rob Wotton has a compelling background and a clear passion for serving our community. but he has not conveyed a compelling reason to replace one of the most effective public officials I have interacted with in a long time.
~Brian Holloway (not Council member Bryan Holloway)
Comments
I appreciate hearing these community testimonies/recommendation, and I hope people who can vote in this election will be mindful of the opinions of those who have direct experience with the candidates.
Brian Holloway (not councilmember) claims that Snoqualmie’s negotiations with North Bend were “disastrous” is simply false. The real problem was the 2019 Police Services Interlocal Agreement (ILA), the very contract that then Councilmember Mayhew, as Finance & Administration Chair, urged Council to approve, calling it “the best we’re going to get.” That agreement locked Snoqualmie into years of subsidizing North Bend’s police services.
The ILA’s termination clause requires Snoqualmie to continue providing police services for up to 18 months at 2024 rates + 5% (rates established in 2019), even though that means our taxpayers are subsidizing North Bend by more than $1 million per year (approximately $6 million in total).
It was North Bend that chose to end the contract and to continue benefiting financially at Snoqualmie’s expense. At the May 6, 2025 North Bend City Council meeting (timestamp 1:57:30), Councilmember Torguson described this as “the best financial model,” noting it would save them $2.5 million, savings taken directly from Snoqualmie residents while North Bend banked funds to pay future King County Sheriff’s costs.
Snoqualmie offered the best, lowest-cost proposal, shared data openly, and requested joint council meetings and public-safety meetings, but North Bend declined. Meanwhile, most of our City Council failed to build relationships with North Bend’s Council and met for the first time when they attended a North Bend council meeting on May 6 to speak during public comment, prior to council deliberations on the police services contract.
We negotiated a new agreement, which I signed on September 15, 2025, setting a fair rate that ends the subsidy and concludes on March 31, 2026, not 18 months later.
Ending the subsidy wasn’t “disastrous” it was fiscally responsible leadership that protects Snoqualmie taxpayers and keeps our police services local, professional, and accountable.
Mr. Holloway,
I assume you have had a chance to read Snoqualmie Mayor Ross’s rebuttal to your claims as relates to the policing contract between North Bend and Snoqualmie. If you are in possession of facts that conflict with those offered by Mayor Ross, as opposed to your “informed opinions”, the community would benefit greatly by you making them known. My reading of Mayor Ross’s detailed outline of how the negotiation unfolded suggests a Mayor very much up to the job of, among other things, protecting the monetary interests of the citizens of Snoqualmie.
PS: I am not related to Mayor Ross