R E D M O N D˜
.com com
REP RTER
NEWSLINE: 425.867.0353
NEWS | Checking in with Redmond Police Chief Gibson [2] CRIME ALERT | Redmond Police Blotter [8]
FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2015
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
SPORTS | Redmond players help Lightning FC score soccer championship [7]
City officials look back at 2014
Police are still searching for missing Microsoft employee
SAMANTHA PAK
SAMANTHA PAK
spak@redmond-reporter.com
From a successful new night market, to a construction mistake that led to a Frontier outage that lasted two-and-a-half weeks, 2014 was a year filled with ups and downs for the City of Redmond.
A BIG LESSON
This past year was one of lessons learned — the biggest of which came from when a construction crew working on the Redmond Way Stormwater Treatment Facility project in September cut through fiber and copper cables. This disrupted Frontier Communications FiOS and copper services for phone, television and hi-speed Internet, as well as some 911 services. “What I learned is that people turn to the
spak@redmond-reporter.com
From left, Redmond Mayor John Marchione and City Council President Hank Margeson and their colleagues experienced highs and lows in 2014, and they’re looking forward to what they can accomplish in 2015. SAMANTHA PAK, Redmond Reporter city for information, no matter what the crisis,” said Redmond Mayor John Marchione. He said while the outage occurred on a Saturday, it wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon that they realized information was not going out to the community and the city needed to be more proactive. “The city’s mistake was not taking the lead on communications,” Marchione acknowledged, saying they allowed Frontier to take on this role because it was the
company’s customer base that was affected by the outage. “That was the big learning point.” Redmond City Council President Hank Margeson added that while they appreciated Frontier taking the lead on the situation, the city had more opportunities to communicate to the community as the way things were handled were not up to people’s expectations. [ more CITY page 5 ]
Governor’s budget eyes new sources of revenue BRANDON MACZ bmacz@bellevuereporter.com
With opposition to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposed 2015-17 biennial budget coming from both sides of the aisle, the state’s top executive says it’s up to the Legislature to provide a better alternative. Inslee revealed his budget last month in separate portions, ending with his revenue strategy on Dec. 18. Staff members from Reporter newspapers met later that day in Bellevue to discuss the budget with the governor. Inslee’s budget would fund a number of major state transportation projects over the next 12 years, including completing the State Route 520 floating bridge and Interstate 405 projects between Renton and Bellevue. About $4.8 billion of that money would come from a cap-and-trade plan on carbon emissions that
affects 130 of the state’s biggest polluters. That, the governor said, would advance the state’s clean air obligations without raising the gas tax. He added this has been a proven method in the United States and other parts of the world. “This is not a rocket ship to the moon where we have to invent a new science,” the governor said. “This is a well-known, well-accepted, successful policy, so I don’t think there’s any reason we shouldn’t be able to learn from the experience of other states.” The governor said he’s open to other ideas, adding his budget has encouraged Republican lawmakers to reconsider raising the gas tax for the 2015-17 biennium. “It’s interesting; I’ve heard some critiques of this (emissions plan) where, all of a sudden, some of my Republican colleagues are falling in love with the gas tax,” Inslee said, “and I’m wondering where they’ve [ more GOVERNOR page 5 ]
STATE BUDGET
Gov. Jay Inslee discusses the revenue portion of his proposed budget with Reporter staff members last month. CRAIG GROSHART, Bellevue Reporter
It has been more than two months since Krishna Venkatesh, a program manager at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, went missing and police are still looking for him. The Capitol Hill resident has not been seen since the evening of Oct. 15 and there have been no new updates on the case, according to the Seattle Police DepartKrishna Venkatesh ment (SPD). As previously reported, Venkatesh was reported missing that evening when family and friends had not heard from him. The SPD then verified that he was not answering his phone and he had not returned to his home. According to the earlier report, Venkatesh’s name and information was entered into a national database but no new information was obtained on his whereabouts. In addition, the report stated that the SPD is working with other local agencies such as the King County Sheriff ’s Office and Washington State Patrol on the case. Redmond police are not involved in the case. Police had one lead that suggested Venkatesh had driven to Deception Pass as they found his car in the area, but nothing has resulted from this, according to the SPD. Venkatesh is 27 years old and Indian American. He is American born and does not speak with an accent. He is between 5-feet-8 and 5-feet-10 and weighs about 160 pounds. Venkatesh has black hair and brown eyes. He drives a 2006 gray Toyota Corolla with the license plate number 759 ZDH. If anyone has any information about Venkatesh’s whereabouts, they should call the SPD at (206) 625-5011.