New Mayor of Bothell follows old Mayor’s corrupt habits
Fellow Bothell, WA residents, Once again there are more signs of corruption within our city council, specifically surrounding Mayor Joshua Freed and his friend and business partner, current council member and Former Mayor Mark Lamb.
In case people have forgotten, in 2012, Lamb lied to us denying the allegations of having a 2-year-long affair with his secretary.
then later admitted to it.
At that time I posted that if he can’t be trusted to uphold his solemn oath of marriage, how could he possibly be expected to uphold his oath of political office?
Now Joshua Freed is recusing himself of matters of the city trying to purchase the Wayne golf course he and Mark Lamb have teamed up to try to buy and develop that property themselves. The ongoing evidence of a lack of integrity and using their public office for personal gain is chronic and abhorrent.
Fortunately the citizens of Bothell have organized to see that this golf course becomes a protected greenway rather than a housing development. See http://onebothell.org/
Here are more links of interest regarding this issue:
http://www.bothell-reporter.com/news/299624481.html
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/bothell-residents-say-mayor-should-be-impeached/nkspx/
http://www.bothell-reporter.com/opinion/letters/299262541.html
http://impeachfreed.com
Mark Lamb is a real estate attorney as stated in his Linkedin profile.
He represents clients in transactional and litigation matters in real estate and venture capital. Joshua Freed is a real estate developer as stated in his Linkedin profile.
It would appear that together they are doing business from the Bothell City Council dais. This is not an isolated incident of not acting in Bothell’s best interests. Let’s consider the purchase of a superfluous $52 million city hall with so much extra office space that the city doesn’t expect to need one entire floor of the 4 story building for decades to come (and by law can’t be leased out). That purchase was driven through without a taxpayer vote. Or the McMenamins project downtown where these two drove a vote to accept the several-hundred-page contract in less than 48 hours of receiving it. Later it was revealed the “aquatic center” (which is desperately needed by the Northshore School District swimming & diving programs) was replaced with a wading pool in the contract. I’m having trouble seeing how these two are on the Bothell City Council for altruistic reasons. Legitimate leadership would not allow these things to happen.
If you drive on any roads in the Bothell area, you will see what at first look like Joshua Freed campaign signs. But quickly you will notice it says “Impeach Joshua Freed for Conflict of Interest”. There are two problems with this sign. First, we don’t impeach him. We have a Recall. Second, it should also include council member and Former Mayor Mark Lamb.
Be sure to visit http://impeachfreed.com for more details and show up at the city council meetings Tuesday nights to voice your opinion during the public input.
Posted on April 22, 2015, in Community and tagged Bothell, City Council, impeach, joshua freed, mark lamb, mayor, recall. Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments.
The Notes Guy in Seattle 
Let’s get rid of these self-aggrandizing miscreants ASAP!
Freed and Lamb have served several terms. Council seats often are unopposed.
Perhaps the lack of candidates is the fault of an uninterested community. Perhaps term limits would be an appropriate limit on human nature’s power and corruption problem.
Fried has clearly stepped over an ethical line and his reaction suggests that he is unfit to hold the public trust.
Mark Lamb cannot even keep a promise of fidelity to his wife. Why should the public believe that he would approach his council job with any more integrity?
City Manager, Bob Stow has been doing their bidding and has completely botched the “revitalization” of Downtown by wasting tens of millions, giving us huge multi story tenement apartments fit for the inner city, and a NO BID CONTRACT to Paul Allen’s company to build a new city hall that the voter’s rejected two years ago. The cost of that building is nearly $1,000/ square foot. Columbia Center (the 72 story, tallest building in Seattle) sold for $372/ square foot last year…and that INCLUDED the land! Corruption or incompetence? – Our house needs to be cleaned…
Well said, J. Henry. Well said.
I expect anyone who is leading our government to meet certain minimum standards. Of all the traits that define a true leader, Integrity is #1. Former Mayor Lamb demonstrated his willingness to compromise his integrity and his oath to his wife and family as he admitted in court documents. He abused his position of power at his law office with his assistant. So why should we be expected to trust him to not abuse his position on the city council? That he managed to reconcile with his wife and remain married does not change the fact that he committed the crime of adultery and lost our trust.
It is not my judgment that has proven to be clouded. That would be council member Lamb. Clearly you are upset to see council member Lamb’s actions discussed in public. I welcome you to share exactly what is inaccurate so that I can make corrections where appropriate. The facts I presented were taken from published news articles and from the court documents regarding his case which I would be happy to post for all to read and make their own judgments.
As for Council member Samberg’s election, She has nothing to do with my website or my opinion of other council members. The opinions expressed in this website are my own. I will say, I commend Council member Samberg for having the courage to give up her position on the council in order to run against Lamb and glad that she was re-elected in 2014 so that she can again contribute her leadership, integrity and fiscal responsibility to our city government. I’m just sorry she wasn’t on the council when they had the chance to buy the Wayne golf course. She would have done the right thing for the city’s best interests. I think she has done a fantastic job of earning the public trust and brings a transparency to the actions of council.
David,
Once again it’s sad to see a champion of rightness and propriety being sniped at by those liberals with low expectations who vote for and wink at the miscreants who routinely get elected only to fulfill their own self aggrandizing purposes at the expense of a duped populace.
Thank you Mark. I welcome a healthy debate of the issue on my website. However, I have ZERO TOLERANCE for trolling. ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolling , scroll through the article).