Closed Loop

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. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter to County Prosecutor

To Mr. Eric J. Richey, Whatcom Prosecuting Attorney, 311 Grand, Ste. 201, Bellingham WA 98225 I write to you as Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney in hope you will protect the rights of the people of Blaine from a city government that--due to embedded corruption--is unable to effectively govern and is putting our health and prosperity at risk by their unlawful acts. Your reply requested.  I am told you have the authority to empanel a grand jury to investigate official misconduct and encourage you to do so. I copy my most recent letter to the City of Blaine below. This is the tip of the iceberg, and we have abundant evidence of widespread intentional wrongdoing.   To Blaine City Council, Planning Commission, and Community Development Services As you proceed with the downtown rezone/development regulation items of parking and building heights this month, I remind you that this process was corrupted at the outset when on 3/24/2023 Blaine City Council ordered the Blaine City...
Read more

Letter to Community Development Services

As an observer of Growth Management in Washington state since it was passed into law thirty-three years ago, I cannot recall a more egregious example of the intentional subversion of both the letter and spirit of the law by a city than what has transpired in Blaine. Not only did Community Development Services (CDS) fail to convene public participation--as required by law--in deciding how to go about creating a new economic development plan for downtown, but they also predetermined the desired outcome in cahoots with developers. My Comprehensive Plan Timeline might help you in comprehending the mess you find yourselves in. As I noted in my post Culture of Exclusion , "The significant changes to zoning and development regulations by Blaine City Council—absent from public participation—a​re not just ten-year updates to our comprehensive plan, cumulatively they are a once-in-a-century major makeover of our community. Expediting planning amendments by resolution to build momentum abse...
Read more

Culture of Exclusion

BLAINE COMMUNITY FORUM Ending the Culture of Exclusion at Blaine City Hall As the city of Blaine experienced unprecedented growth over the last couple of years, citizens from Semiahmoo, Salishan and East Blaine contributed ideas on how to protect critical areas (city aquifer, Cain Creek, Drayton Harbor), how to kickstart prosperity at our civic center (new library, art center), and how to facilitate meaningful public participation in planning our future. As these citizens soon discovered, corruption by Blaine officials of the planning process required under the Washington State Growth Management Act put critical areas, prosperity, and public participation at risk. When these citizens asked questions concerning conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and the city conspiring to violate the Growth Management Act, the city council retaliated. Now that the City of Blaine has closed public comment at their meetings—making Blaine the only city in Whatcom County that excludes public participation...
Read more