Sammamish council keeps “trust and transparency” as an explicit goal, asks staff for measurable success criteria

The Sammamish City Council voted to retain “trust and transparency” as a formal city goal after more than an hour of discussion about whether the concept was a value to be embedded in operations or a measurable objective.

Councilmembers said they agreed on the principle but diverged on whether the phrase should remain an explicit goal. Several members urged keeping it in the goals list so it would not be overlooked; others said it should be embedded across work plan items unless staff could present concrete success measures. The council ultimately kept the goal “for now” and asked staff to develop specific, time‑bound success measures.

Councilmembers described several candidate metrics staff should return with, including a public‑records response performance target, an improved response rate on a recurring community survey, and a centralized, user‑facing dashboard that shows the status of capital projects (planned, paused, under construction). A council member also suggested proactively publishing commonly requested records to reduce staff workload and improve transparency.

Staff said they would draft definitions of success and metrics and come back with a proposal that ties measurable outcomes to the next two years of work. Finance and administrative staff emphasized that measurable goals should be realistic and data‑driven; they noted the need to collect baseline data before some metrics can be meaningfully tracked.

The council’s action leaves the policy question open to future refinement: the body retained the goal but made clear it wants specific outcomes and targets rather than a standalone value statement that lacks measurable follow‑through.