October 6th, 2026 - City Council Meeting

The Sammamish City Council meeting, held October 6, 2026 (the meeting metadata records October 7 UTC), focused substantially on Eastside Fire & Rescue (EFR) funding for 2027–28. A motion to direct the city’s EFR board representatives to approve EFR’s proposed budget—including partner contributions of $12,714,252 for 2027 and $14,583,931 for 2028—failed 4–3. Council then approved 4–3 an alternative direction: oppose the proposed operating budget as presented, support the capital budgets as presented, and pursue a revised operations budget of $84.94 million for 2027 and $90.9 million for 2028, including three positions (finance, specialty mechanic, and public records). The alternative also called for overtime above $5 million in a year to be offset by vacancies or other savings and for a partner- and contract-agency-led evaluation. Public comments raised concerns about the funding formula, service levels, staffing, and fire apparatus replacement; no final EFR budget adoption was recorded at this meeting.

The council approved renewal of the city’s hearing-examiner services contract with John G. (the transcript gives the name incompletely), after staff reported a current rate of $175 per hour and a prior RFP in 2024 that yielded a substantially more expensive proposal. The council also received the Human Services Commission’s 2027–28 grant recommendations, including support for Kindering’s child-care consultation and Families in Transition programs, but no grant awards or amounts were approved in the available transcript. A separate resolution opposing two state initiatives was postponed indefinitely, 4–3; the remaining agenda items were deferred except for the hearing-examiner contract.