Blaine Confidential

11/18/24 letter to Blaine City Council: The community forests you are destroying in the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area of East Blaine and the Semiahmoo headland of West Blaine are valuable community assets for public health and wildlife protection. Blaine needs a forest protection plan to keep our waters clean and our air fresh. Your dedicated efforts 2022-2024 as whores of crooked developers is contrary to this mission.  

11/17/24 letter to Blaine City Council: Psychologists say that new concepts need to be repeated many times before the average person understands. In Blaine, new concepts you have struggled with under the tyranny of Mayor Steward and the bullying by Blaine City Council member Mike Hill are democracy, ethics, and the rule of law.  As Blaine Water Coalition implements these new concepts in Blaine, you will have the opportunity to change Blaine into a welcoming community, rather than one where citizens who hold elected officials in Blaine accountable for criminal misconduct are no longer accosted at city council meetings by public officials such as Mike Hill. Thuggery and democracy are incompatible.

11/17/24 letter to Blaine City Council: Regarding the Peace Portal culvert replacement council member Hill railed against, the point of the treaty tribes' successful suit against Washington State was to open up salmon spawning habitat made inaccessible by impassable culverts. Their conservation economy was destroyed by the pollution economy of settlers in violation of the federal treaties, and we are now making amends. Each restored stream will add salmon to the Salish Sea. Cain Creek, Spooner Creek, Dakota Creek, and California Creek all have salmon, albeit in diminished numbers due to habitat destruction. Blaine Water Coalition is working to stop the destruction by Blaine Community Development Services so restoration can occur.

11/17/24 letter to Blaine City Council: Contempt for the federal property rights of Northwest Treaty Tribes came through loud and clear in recent  remarks made by Blaine City Council member Mike Hill  in The Northern Light. The box culvert to be installed by the Washington Department of Transportation is to help restore the salmon as a result of a federal suit by the tribes. Hill's shaky plans to proliferate four-story condominiums adjacent to the Cain Creek salmon recovery project and the Drayton Harbor saltmarsh without an environmental impact statement are reminiscent of past practices by the City of Blaine such as dumping municipal trash on the tidelands (now under Marine Park). While those of us at Blaine Water Coalition work unpaid to protect and restore the environment in Blaine, the white settler attitude of rape and pillage is still alive and represented on Blaine City Council by Mike Hill. This attitude can be seen in the dying trees that shade Cain Creek behind the libra

11/16/24 letter to Blaine City Council: The February 28, 2024,  article  about the proposed Creekside development (East Harbor Hills subdivision) noted it is currently assessed at $20,000 and that in 2023 the Jansen's paid $225 in taxes on the property. "Once developed, [the owner] Skip [Jansen] said he estimated the assessed value would be $25-30 million." Residents would own their homes and rent the manufactured home pads from the park owner. Clearly not affordable housing.

11/16/24 letter to Blaine City Council: I am told that an employee of Cascade Engineering, which is involved in the destruction of Blaine's Critical Aquifer Recharge Area initiated by developer Skip Jansen, joined Blaine City Council member Mike Hill in accosting Blaine Water Coalition member Otto Pointer at the November 12, 2024, council meeting.  I vaguely recall that Blaine City Council member Eric Davidson has a personal connection with Cascade Engineering, which should be looked into ASAP. If Cascade stands to benefit from the Central Business District zoning amendments Davidson supported while Downtown Advisory Committee liaison, then this potential conflict of interest should be investigated. Favoring family, friends, and oneself financially while an elected official is a no-no. PS--Skip Jansen's legal name is Louis Jansen. The principal engineer at Cascade Engineering is Craig Parkinson. Parkinson and Jansen are officers of East Maple Ridge Community Association and Par