Press Release
TOM ODELL to Run for City Council – a Positive Voice for the Citizens Tom Odell announced his candidacy for the Sammamish City Council today. He will seek the seat now held by Jack Barry.
A resident of Sammamish for 20 years, Odell lives in the Heritage Hills neighborhood in the northern half of the city. Odell believes Sammamish is a wonderful place to live – and he is not alone. Money Magazine recently ranked Sammamish as the 11th best place in which to live and he wants to work to make it even better! His first priority will be to listen to the citizens and advocate for the issues that will bring real quality of life improvements to Sammamish.
Odell initially plans to focus his attention on four major issues that he believes are important to all Sammamish residents:
Improving Traffic Congestion and Providing Transportation Alternatives – by revising the design of the East Lake Sammamish Parkway project to make wiser use of transportation dollars. He believes that there are other needed projects that will provide greater traffic relief for Sammamish citizens. He will also focus on improving bus services and completing the integration of the city’s trail system.
Reprioritizing City Spending – in these tough economic times – turning away from unnecessary expenditures on unneeded or nice-to-have items to those which are truly needed and which offer real quality of life improvements for Sammamish residents. These include such items as maintaining and upgrading existing roads and streets along with working for more community services such as a teen or community center, swimming pool/aquatic center, youth counseling, a new YMCA, and Boys and Girls Clubs.
Emphasizing Thoughtful and Viable City Development – that would provide additional commercial and residential options that meet the needs of the community, reduce the need for travel off of the plateau, and which are provided in a financially viable manner while maintaining the character of Sammamish.
Balancing Property Rights and Values – with the need to grow the city while protecting our shorelines and watershed by improving control of storm water runoff , the single biggest source of pollution for our community’s lakes and ultimately a threat to all Sammamish property values. This must be accomplished in a way that is both effective and fair for the property owner with clear and easy-to-understand regulations.
Odell has regularly attended City Council and Planning Commission meetings for many months to fully familiarize himself with the important issues facing the city. As a retired executive with an extensive marketing, planning and financial background, Odell has the temperament and experience to devote to being a successful City Council member.
He has an MBA from the University of Minnesota and 36 years’ experience in airline planning, marketing and finance, product development, and aircraft management. An 18 year veteran of the airline industry, Odell retired last year after a further 18 years with The Boeing Company where he was a regional marketing director with account responsibilities in Europe and Asia. His extensive international travels have given him a unique perspective on what makes a great city and why Sammamish is such a wonderful place to live and is what gives him a passion to help keep it that way.
Odell, 64, has lived in Sammamish with his family since 1989. His wife Ruth, a long-time teacher on the plateau with the Lake Washington School District, is currently working at Blackwell Elementary. Their two adult children are both graduates of Eastlake High School and Seattle area universities. Daughter Anne is now a marketing director for a local communications company and son David is a UW Medical School graduate and surgeon in Boston who ultimately hopes to return to the northwest with his wife and their daughter.
“Now is the time for me to give back to the community that I have been a part of for the past 20 years” said Odell. I want to help ensure Sammamish stays a great place to live for future generations”, says Odell. He is committed to give the time he knows this job requires. Tom Odell wants to be a part of a positive change on the Council.
