Rule of Law

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 of developers they apparently made a deal with prior to the corrupt mess it has become. Completely ignoring the public participation requirements under the Washington State Growth Management Act, while at the same time producing propaganda on all city planning documents boldly claiming a robust public participation process--as though saying it is the same as doing it. 

The revelation by the city manager that Blaine City Council directed him to facilitate the self-dealing vote with precise instructions on what the motions should be shows the contempt for the citizenry among these elected officials, and worse, disdain for the rule of law. 

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