Blaine Confidential

In his February 13  letter to Blaine City Council , Otto Pointer observes, "It is concerning that the City dismissed alternative methodologies and took the opportunity to discredit a concerned citizen in a publicly-recorded city council meeting where any form of response and dialogue is no longer allowed, only submitted questions. This is yet another example of the councilmembers and the city staff undermining public trust and discouraging constructive dialogue on crucial issues. Furthermore, councilmembers’ attempts to misrepresent my analysis as "disinformation" and claiming a two-to-three-year timeframe for population doubling is demonstrably “false“ seems to be a tactic to distort the information for their agenda which is to prevent citizen investigations and questions of city stewardship of resources, code of conduct, and accountability." His February 19  letter provides additional details about his concerns for protecting Blaine's water supply.

My current letters to Blaine City Council include citizens not welcome , clueless , code of conduct , coverup update , cumulative effects , planning process , priorities , quality of life , and state investigation .

In his February 22 letter to the editor of The Northern Light, Ray Leone asks what Blaine City Council did to provoke disruptive behavior at council meetings leading to the "Silencing of Blaine" by closing down public comment for everyone.

Councilman Davidson asked me to state my priorities, which I list below. They are foundational to any future achievement downtown or at civic center, and their absence to date is harming our economic recovery and cultural development. Number two would specifically address conflicts of interest, self-dealing and transparency of relationships with developers and consultants.  1. Adherence to the rule of law regarding public process 2. Establishment of a city code of conduct for officials and staff 3. Facilitation of meaningful public involvement prior to work plans

Blaine City Council outlines work priorities for 2024 without public input as required by the Washington State Growth Management Act. Another thing our city council is required to do under the Growth Management Act is to consider the "cumulative effects" of their decisions. Piecing together the current amendments to our comprehensive plan by our city government, I imagine a four-story wall of view-blocking condos lining Peace Portal.

The downtown planning process has not been explained to the public, which is the reason I recommended the city hold a 2024 comprehensive plan update orientation at the community center, prior to looking at alternatives for downtown redevelopment in public participation educational events where citizens of Blaine can contribute their ideas. Expediting planning amendments by resolution to build momentum absent public participation is contrary to the law. The City Manager, Community Development director, and Blaine City Council have been very active in moving the developers' wishes forward without public input for eight months. One technique they use to confuse the public is to get bogged down in technical language. The actions they have taken related to downtown planning are designed to expedite the amendments by resolution before the public understands, culminating in their final "action" of adopting an ordinance. I have no idea how fast things will move, as the city's

In his February 14, 2024, response to my letter calling for a state investigation into official corruption by the Blaine City Council and City Manager, Councilman May said, "I don't think it's fraud or corruption or breach of law. It's just a lack of enough effective PR." 

Blaine City Council appears to be entirely dependent on the City Manager Mike Harmon and Community Development Services director Alex Wenger for direction on what they can and cannot do as they expedite amendments to development regulations before the public finds out or has a say. When Harmon was caught violating state law by directing the downtown advisory committee to vote on self-dealing amendments, his excuse was that Blaine City Council told him to.  This closed loop that excludes public participation calls out for a code of conduct governing the ethics and behavior of city staff, elected and appointed officials. 

I am informed by Blaine Community Development Services that the minutes from the February 8, 2024, meeting of the Blaine Planning Commission--which include the recommendations for amendments to downtown development regulations--will be available at the next planning commission meeting on March 14, 2024. Since these recommendations were used by Blaine City Council to justify taking action on development regulations at their February 12, 2024, public hearing, that means Blaine citizens attempting to become informed in advance of the city council hearing on these amendments were out of luck.  Then Blaine City Council forbid oral comment by Blaine citizens at the public "hearing." 

It appears Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon is pulling the strings of his underling Alex Wenger, head of Community Devlopment Services, which, in turn, is leading Blaine City Council by the nose on the behalf of downtown developers who--with the help of The Northern Light--are keeping us in the dark. There has been no opportunity for the citizens of Blaine to have any say in the future of downtown. By organizing this fraud, Community Development Services has broken the law, and by passively going along to get along, so has Blaine City Council. This calls for a state investigation into official corruption.

On February 8, 2024, Downtown Advisory Committee (DAC) members Gurdeep Bains--a downtown developer with three building sites--and Scott Meaker--a downtown building contractor--were invited by City of Blaine Community Development Services (CDS) to provide presentations to the Blaine Planning Commission to support CDS’s efforts to change downtown zoning and development regulations to financially benefit developers.  The exact wording of the (DAC) recommendations--voted on by Bains, Meaker and Blaine Planning Commissioner Kevin Owens--is now written in the downtown zoning code for review. The proposed changes have already been included as a placeholder in the 2024 docket resolution1940-24 that went before Blaine City Council on February 12, 2024. Commissioner Owens spoke at two Blaine City Council meetings to promote and encourage them to move the DAC recommendations to the Planning Commission where he will review the DAC recommendations, despite concerns raised as to his no longer appear

For a month now, The Northern Light has had evidence of a conspiracy by Blaine City Council to violate the law governing comprehensive planning and public participation requirements under the Washington State Growth Management Act. While it is understandable that a small-town paper might have conflicts of interest or personal relationships with some of the downtown developers and city council members, it is inexcusable that they keep readers in the dark about corruption in our city government. Our community cannot correct a problem they don't know about. While corruption enriches a few, it destroys a community. If the coverup follows the customary pattern, The Northern Light will change from ignoring us to patronizing us, as though we are just confused. The next step after that is to attack us, which is why we need to reach out to media that doesn't have a conflict of interest. Any Blaine resident concerned about this can send a news tip to Cascadia Daily News. News tips are co

We may never know who was present when the scheme to stack the deck on downtown planning was hatched.  Logic says it involved the City Manager, the director of Community Development Services, at least one member of Blaine City Council, and at least one developer involved in the public deception revealed by Downtown Advisory Committee member Glen Pentland, who blew the whistle on the city's role in the scandal. After eight months of hiding the evidence, Community Development Services relented under pressure and produced the missing minutes from the June 6, 2023 Downtown Advisory Committee meeting where a downtown developer and downtown builder teamed up with a Blaine Planning Commissioner to do some self-dealing by introducing and passing motions to financially benefit themselves.  This sordid tale serves as prelude to the Comprehensive Plan ten-year update resolution before the Blaine City Council on Monday, February 12, 2024, when they will vote on the self-serving recommendations

BLAINE COMMUNITY FORUM Ending the Culture of Exclusion at City Hall Self-Dealing The Downtown Advisory Committee (DAC) members voting on changes to city development regulations on June 6, 2023, included the following members: Mia Richardson, Glen Pentland, Greg McHenry, Scott Meaker, Susan Sturgill, Kevin Owens, and Gurdeep Bains. Gurdeep Bains is a developer who owns three sites downtown. Greg McHenry works for the Port of Bellingham. Scott Meaker is a downtown builder. Kevin Owens is a Blaine Planning Commissioner. McHenry moved and Bains seconded a motion to reduce minimum parking requirements downtown. Pentland and Sturgill opposed.  Meaker moved and Owens seconded a motion to investigate a municipal parking facility. Pentland and Sturgill opposed. Bains moved and Meaker seconded a motion to amend building height restrictions. Pentland opposed. Meaker moved and McHenry seconded a motion to increase building heights by twelve feet. Pentland opposed.

The city is launching its ten-year comprehensive plan update Monday without a peep in The Northern Light. A robust public participation plan such as advertised on all city propaganda would include communicating to the public in advance what they are doing and providing an orientation to the process. This orientation would occur long prior to scheduling a hearing on amendments to the comprehensive plan that the public never heard of due to the city railroading us.

My recent letters to Blaine City Council include my request that they rescind resolution 1923-23 , my letter regarding their  lack of transparency , my suggestions for regaining public trust , my note on the downtown traffic study , my letter on cost/benefit analysis , a corruption timeline , and my advice to them that they are getting the cart before the horse .

It isn't easy to get information from the City of Blaine website, so I asked the city clerk for help.  The three city documents I requested were: the 3/24/2023 City Council Retreat minutes --where they changed the Downtown Advisory Committee from an advisory group to a quasi-official body voting on amendments to city development regulations and decided on what recommendations the committee should make to the city council--the 6/6/2023 Downtown Advisory Committee minutes --where the vote was taken to make the Council-recommended changes to city development regulations--and the 7/10/2023 City Council Resolution 1923-23 --moving the recommendations forward to the planning commission. Instead of the City Council Retreat minutes, the deputy city clerk sent me the City Council Agenda and said Retreat minutes are in Documents somewhere. I was unable to find them. Regarding the City Council resolution, the clerk said, "I confirmed that this resolution is listed on the City website in

The minutes for the June 6, 2023, Downtown Advisory Committee meeting where they voted on recommending changes to development regulations are missing on the City of Blaine website. Of particular interest to me are the names of those who voted and their respective credentials such as "public official" or "downtown landowner." 

The Central Business District (CBD) Project Charter and Downtown Advisory Committee (DAC) resolution 1897-22, approved by Blaine City Council on August 8, 2022 states, "This charter will be consistent with the State Growth Management Act provisions for public participation and current best management practices for participant involvement...City of Blaine will encourage early and continuous public participation throughout the process of reviewing and updating the CBD Development Standards [and] engage in two-way communication with citizens, and create an environment for open decision-making, and responsiveness to citizen input." No such engagement occurred. On April 7, 2023, the Blaine city manager emailed DAC proposing DAC forward policy recommendations to the city council to reduce parking requirements and increase building heights.  On June 6, 2023, five of seven DAC members voted to change these development regulations, despite some having direct financial conflicts of int

As we contemplate whether to provide public subsidies in the form of exemptions from parking requirements and increased building height limits for developers west of Peace Portal, our community would benefit from a cost/benefit analysis. As some residents of the adjacent Salishan neighborhood have argued, preserving the views for visitors and residents to enjoy is an economic asset to our community in its adopted goal of tourism development. In weighing alternatives to the city-driven effort to accommodate view-blocking development downtown, we can consider options such as purchasing the lots in order to create a genuine Blaine-by-the-Sea ambiance.