Blaine Confidential

Today's letter to Blaine City Council: Public officials have immunity from prosecution if they make a mistake. If, however, they knowingly and willfully violate the law, then they are personally liable.  This means the entire city council, planning commission, city manager, and community development director could be sued individually. IMO, Wenger would have to pay more than his puppets on the council and commission. As Mayor Steward's thug, Harmon is a special case.  

In the aftermath of the mayor of Blaine's February 12, 2024 , edict ending open public comment at Blaine City Council meetings, I hosted a community forum on April 6, 2024 , at Blaine Public Library titled, "Ending the Culture of Exclusion at Blaine City Hall." Participants in the forum decided to conduct a public education campaign, and on April 8, 2024 , we staged a silent FREE SPEECH protest at the Blaine City Council meeting. Washington State law requires open two-way discussions where citizens can ask questions and get answers from public officials, as well as offer their ideas. Blaine City Council has adopted a 2024 comprehensive work plan for redevelopment without holding a single town hall.  In my May 5, 2024 , email to Blaine City Council, I called on Mayor Steward to resign for making backroom deals, covering up conflicts of interest, and facilitating self-dealing by developers. On May 6, 2024 , Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon responded to my email accusing me o...

Today's letter to Whatcom County Council and Blaine City Council: Blaine's conspiracy to subvert the letter and spirit of the Growth Management Act was hatched at the 3/24/2023 Blaine City Council retreat where Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon was instructed by the council to initiate Central Business District text and map amendments without public participation as required by law. This was followed by the 6/4/2023 self-dealing by members of the Downtown Advisory Committee facilitated by Blaine Community Development Services.  On 7/10/23 , Blaine City Council passed Resolution 1923-23 forwarding the illicit Downtown Advisory Committee recommendations to Blaine Planning Commision for review. On 2/8/24 , Blaine Planning Commission recommended increasing building heights and reducing parking requirements. On 2/12/24 , Blaine City Council approved Resolution 1940-24 to increase building heights and reduce parking requirements. You can read more about this criminal misconduct by ...

Today's letter to Blaine City Council: Ordinance 24-3019 , the Central Business Waterview Text and Map Amendment, is fraudulent. The amendment—based on the illicit recommendations of downtown developers with financial conflicts of interest—violates both state and federal law. You have received the  Common Sense Planning  report from Glen Pentland—former member of the Downtown Advisory Committee—documenting the official corruption by Blaine Community Development Services. Proceeding on the basis of this official criminal misconduct exacerbated by the corrupted planning commission places the City of Blaine in a position of liability.

Today's letter to Blaine City Council, copied to Whatcom County : The proposed  Resolution 1955-24  adopting a public participation plan for the purpose of initiating the Blaine Comprehensive Plan update reads much like the pervasive propaganda emanating from Blaine City Hall over the last two years designed to hoodwink state oversight agencies and the public at large. The City of Blaine has not lived up to those promises, and it is unlikely it will honor these.  What Blaine public officials have done is to undermine public participation by design, and to retaliate against individuals who ask uncomfortable, probing questions about official corruption facilitated by Blaine Community Development Services with Blaine City Council's blessing. Public participation in Blaine is a farce and undermines the validity of Whatcom County's Comprehensive Plan update. There will be a day of reckoning as we pursue federal enforcement of the Clean Water Act in Whatcom County impaired by t...

Patrick Grubb and Louise Mugar wrote a letter extolling their virtues in this week's issue of their newspaper, The Northern Light. Their claims to "comprehensive coverage of city council meetings" and "ensuring transparency" in local government are demonstrably false. Since January, The Northern Light has knowingly covered up criminal misconduct at Blaine City Hall and self-dealing by developers. Grubb and Mugar's assertion that they are keeping us informed is nothing but propaganda for profit.

The primary role of a local newspaper is to provide its readers with the information they need to exercise their duties of citizenship. When a local paper neglects this essential function for financial or other reasons, they fail the community. This, in turn, enables official corruption, as we are seeing in the City of Blaine. Since January,   The Northern Light  has been aware of ethical and criminal misconduct by Blaine Community Development Services in conjunction with developers.  I drew this corruption to the attention of   The Northern Light  numerous times to no avail. This compels me to ask what relationship does  The Northern Light  publisher Patrick Grubb have with these crooks? Why is his paper covering up this scandal? In so doing,  The Northern Light  has done immense harm to our community and democracy. For those of us who believe in the rule of law,  The Northern Light 's behavior is unacceptable.

I have fought for public participation in planning Washington's future for over 30 years. In 1994, I voluntarily led a litigation consortium—including North Cascades Audubon Society—to victory at the Washington Supreme Court, where we set legal precedent for Critical Areas protection under the Growth Management Act. Simultaneously, we prevailed at the Washington State Court of Appeals on our case to protect Lake Whatcom—the municipal reservoir for the City of Bellingham—from improper sewer system management by Water District #10. In 1995, my commitment to these duties of citizenship forced me into bankruptcy.  In 1996, I assisted the FBI in arresting Christian Patriot white supremacists for bomb-making in the greater Seattle region. (The year before, Christian Patriots blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City, claiming 168 lives.) In 2016, retired, I moved into federal low-income senior housing in Blaine. In 2017, I led our tenant's association to victory in U.S. District ...

Today's letter to Blaine City Council: Under Mayor Steward's reign of tyranny, the City of Blaine transformed into a criminal enterprise devoted to making back room deals with developers and intimidating any citizens who speak out against this official corruption. Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon and Blaine Community Development Services director Alex Wenger are key players in this criminal enterprise, as is Blaine City Councilman Mike Hill. The Northern Light coverup of criminal misconduct at Blaine City Hall completes the picture of how fascism came to Blaine.

Today's letter to Blaine City Council: One of the reasons for "early, continuous, and inclusive public involvement throughout the planning process" being required under the Washington State Growth Management Act is that this gives public officials the opportunity to hear the community's vision for their future and to consider alternative means of achieving that vision. Community visioning under Growth Management typically begins with an orientation to the Comprehensive Plan process followed by numerous town halls where open two-way discussions are hosted and facilitated by professional planners. Alternatives to the developers' vision now being railroaded by Community Development Services include preserving the downtown views as presented to the city during the 2014 Comprehensive Plan ten-year update by Salishan Neighborhood Association. This proposal, which was supported by the city council at the time, was never raised as an alternative for consideration in 2024....

Today's letter to Whatcom County Council: When Mayor Steward and Councilman Hill shouted down Donna McGhaffic in the middle of her oral public comment at the February 12, 2024, Blaine City Council meeting, it coincided with her questioning the financial conflict of interest of Councilman Hill voting to upzone developers' properties adjacent to his in the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) for Blaine's drinking water without doing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as required by law. The simultaneous fiat by Mayor Steward that she was shutting down oral public comment right then and there until further notice followed on the heels of a dissenting report by former Downtown Advisory Committee (DAC) member Glen Pentland documenting financial conflicts of interest in the Central Business District upzoning that once again involved Councilman Hill voting to upzone his own properties.  While "early, continuous, and inclusive public participation" is required und...

Today's letter to Blaine City Council: Calvin Armerding, chair of Blaine Planning Commission, showed what a fool he is by his dismissive remarks in The Northern Light regarding Central Business District upzoning for condo developers. The city has no evidence that this upzoning will be financially beneficial to the city, especially when it displaces all public parking downtown for condo tenants due to commission and city council giveaways to developers. Armerding is well aware that the public process leading up to these giveaways was illegal, and that this official corruption was facilitated by Blaine Community Development Services director Alex Wenger. Yet, Commissioner Armerding never once asked the commission to investigate self-dealing that included one of the planning commissioners and developer Gurdeep Bains bringing forward unlawful zoning and development amendments that benefit Bains and Councilman Hill financially. The planning commission is to be a citizen oversight body ...

Today's letter to Whatcom County Council: While "early, continuous, and inclusive public participation" is required under the Clean Water Act, the State Environmental Policy Act, and the Growth Management Act, it is excluded by intent in the City of Blaine. This leaves Blaine citizens with one viable option to have their voices heard and to establish the rule of law in our community—going to federal court.  Our extensive discussions with the Washington Attorney General, Washington Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency make it clear that our civil right to participate in planning our future and safeguarding public health in Blaine without spending six figures on attorneys is being violated by the State of Washington and City of Blaine.  Crooked developers have taken over our city with the blessing of our city council under Mayor Steward's rein of tyranny. You can help end this nightmare by investigating this 'racketeering' by Blain...

Today's  letter to Whatcom County Council : 20% of Birch Bay drinking water is supplied by the City of Blaine, which this summer allowed developers to start clearcutting the watershed in Blaine's Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) to build in the improperly designated Urban Growth Area (UGA) after illegally upzoning properties above our drinking water aquifer.  Blaine Water Coalition believes the City of Blaine may have overpromised its capacity to provide adequate water for the growth planned for East Blaine and Semiahmoo without proving the quantity and quality of the Sumas Aquifer now being contaminated by unlawful, reckless, and irresponsible development.  

Whatcom County is updating the 2025 comprehensive plan that includes Blaine. The email addresses to send comments are: 2025update@co.whatcom.wa.us and council@co.whatcom.wa.us Right now, development continues in the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) and Blaine Community Development director Alex Wenger wants to add development at Semiahmoo to replace any development in the CARA that is infeasible. The county council has to approve changes to Blaine's Urban Growth Area (UGA) so this is an opening to discuss Wenger's history of fraud with them. The county government is responsible for approving Blaine's comprehensive plan update and has authority to stop Wenger's criminal misconduct. If they only hear from me, they probably won't do anything about corruption in Blaine. We want the county council to investigate Wenger's unlawful upzoning in cahoots with developers both in the CARA and in the Central Business District (CBD).

My October 13, 2024, letter to Whatcom County Council : In his  October 10 letter to Blaine City Council , Blaine Community Development Services director Alex Wenger proposes significant changes to Blaine's Urban Growth Areas. Allegedly, the de-annexation of a portion of the UGA is due to problems a developer is having in the aquifer protection recharge area.  The Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) for Blaine's drinking water should never have been included in Blaine's UGA, and Whatcom County failed us by allowing it. Whatcom County failed us again when last year you allowed Mr. Wenger to upzone the CARA for high-density residential development without doing an environmental impact statement as required by law. While climate resilience and environmental justice are the subjects of national policy discussions, little attention is focused on how laws such as the United States Clean Water Act and the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) in Washington State are being subver...

October 8 letter from Glen Pentland to city council : October 8, 2024 Dear Blaine City Council and Planning Commission:  Re: Common Sense Planning – Reject the Building Height Recommendation  The Downtown Development Initiative has been off the rails since its inception over two years ago. Key concerns raised by many members of the community include:  The City repeatedly thwarts public engagement Despite a requirement of the Wa State Growth Management Act, and expressly promised in its own Downtown Development Project Charter (approved 2 years ago), the City repeatedly thwarts “early and continuous” public engagement. “Early and continuous” never occurs. Two-way conversation is non-existent. The community of Blaine is literally kept in the dark and prevented from participating in the planning process to develop their community. Public Hearings appear pointless, occurring long after decisions are made. Elementary planning work is abandoned and not completed There is no Dev...

My October 6 letter to city council : Since January, Sonia Hurt has ignored evidence provided by Blaine citizens of official corruption by Blaine Community Development Services (CDS) and Blaine City Council. Indeed, Councilwoman Hurt has gone along with Mayor Steward's corruption every step of the way. Hurt's October Salishan Newsletter comments, pretending to encourage public participation in planning downtown development—after she already approved fast-tracking Central Business District (CBD) zoning amendments for developers--are thus disingenuous.  By positing the CBD redevelopment choice as between prosperity by allowing height increases versus views that do nothing for commerce, Hurt ignores the fact that she and the rest of the council and commission received several public comments about the harm to commerce and tourism development from privatizing all on-street public parking for condo developers, which she supported.  Hurt's faux concerns about public participation...

My September 26 letter to city council : Your devotion to the desires of developers at the expense of our community comes through loud and clear by your remarks in The Northern Light. Councilman Hill's frustration with a minor delay by the planning commission in voting on the Central Business District upzoning that financially benefits him as well as Gurdeep Bains—both of whom have engaged in illegal self-dealing by voting for the upzoning— exemplifies the degree of corruption that has become the norm at Blaine City Hall under Mayor Steward and Development Director Alex Wenger.  Illustrating the lack of independence at the planning commission, which should function as citizen oversight of public officials rather than puppets of Mr. Wenger, Mayor Steward suggested the council meet with the commission to discuss their visions of development in Blaine. Meanwhile, the visions of the community—shut down by Mayor Steward in February when she ended public comment at city council meetings—...

My October 6 letter to city council : Propaganda by Blaine planning commissioners in The Northern Light and by Councilwoman Hurt in the October Salishan Newsletter show the City of Blaine is attempting to persuade Blaine citizens that increasing condo heights in the Central Business District will be economically beneficial to Blaine. They have no data to prove that, and they have already approved privatizing public parking for condo developers that downtown businesses need for customers, employees, and tourism development.  Rather than hold town halls with two-way communication and consideration of alternatives for CBD redevelopment, as required by law and promised in the CBD project charter, the City of Blaine adopted a comprehensive plan resolution as proposed by developers without any public participation. Now, as the city is preparing to finalize adoption of the developer-driven CBD agenda on building heights, they are attempting to mislead us into believing they are interested...