PLEASE CHECK SOON FOR A COMPRHENSIVE TIMELINE OF WHAT HAS UNFOLDED!!

On May 6, 2025, Redmond City Councilmember Steve Fields announced he would be making a motion for Mayor Birney and the City of Redmond to reopen the Old Fire House at the next public business meeting. However, Councilmember Fields was blocked from making that motion on May 20, 2025, after Mayor Birney held a closed door executive session "related to potential litigation."

We can only speculate as to what that "potential litigation" was, but it was likely linked in some way to OFH so that the City could silence council on the OFH matter. Some are speculating it could also be related to the disappearance of the beloved manager of OFH, Jeff Hagen, who has now disappeared after 25 years of service to the city. The teen's are asking "Where's Jeff?"

The session was set to be 30 minutes but was extended by 10 minutes twice. Due to the nature of the executive session the public was left completely in the dark about what had occurred during that time. Following the executive session, Councilmember Fields announced that he could not make the motion because it had been made clear that it was not “in the best interests…” to make that motion - with no clarification on whose best interests. It was clear that something had happened in that executive session that prohibited Fields from even raising the motion. Public comment additionally raised a diverse range of questions, concerns, and observations. It started out with the mayor violating the rules of public comment, replying to the first speaker and even asking the council if they had questions. The full meeting (at least what is public) is available here.

THE DECISION-MAKERS:

Director of the Parks Dept., Loreen Hamilton: lhamilton@redmond.gov

Loreen is the key administrative decision-maker that chose to close OFH without engaging in any teen outreach or gathering any hard evidence that the building has issues that necessitated its closure. Ms. Hamilton has terrorized OFH staff and volunteers, threatened retaliation to anyone who speaks out against her plan to close OFH, and is continuing to try to evade our public records requests and hide information from the public. Call for her to step down now!

Mayor Angela Birney: mayor@redmond.gov

Mayor Birney joined Greater Seattle Partners in March 2025, just before announcing the closure of OFH. The community cannot help but wonder if there is already a deal in place with a developer who has its eye on the $5million piece of real estate the OFH sits on. Ask Mayor Birney to show she is on the right side and remove Loreen Hamilton for misleading the City regarding the OFH closure and engaging in a campaign of intimidation to silence City workers.

We are hopeful City Council will help to stop the unwarranted closure of OFH - they hold the power to reject the plans pushed by Parks Director Loreen Hamilton and Mayor Angela Birney.

Melissa Stuart: mstuart@redmond.gov

Angie Nuevacamina: anuevacamina@redmond.gov

Osman Salahuddin: osalahuddin@redmond.gov

Jeralee Anderson: janderson@redmond.gov

Steve Fields: sfields@redmond.gov

Jessica Forsyth: jforsythe@redmond.gov

Vanessa Kritzer: vkritzer@redmond.gov