Blaine Confidential

11/30/24 letter to City of Blaine : What once was an inspiring forested Semiahmoo peninsula has become an eyesore of proliferating condominiums and clearcuts. The impact on migratory birds, endangered salmon, and marine mammals has been devastating. The defilement of the sensitive ecological wonder we know as Semiahmoo spit is heartbreaking to lovers of wildlife who previously found solace in walks along the shoreline there or kayaking in the adjacent Drayton Harbor. The City of Blaine's reckless onslaught on the peninsula and spit is detrimental to the spiritual well-being of Blaine residents, Semiahmoo First Nation, and Lummi Nation, whose ancestors are buried there. The luxury condominiums being built on the spit in violation of the Clean Water Act, the State Environmental Policy Act, the Shoreline Management Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act are destroying vital habitat for such migratory birds as plovers. I have seen thousands of plovers on the spit during fall mi...

11/28/24 letter to Blaine Chief of Police : Dear Chief Funk, Keeping track of the unlawful Blaine Community Development Services (CDS) shell game involved in upzoning downtown for developers requires fortitude. The June 10, 2024, vote by Blaine City Council, including council member Mike Hill,  reduced parking requirements for downtown developers . (The slide show at the meeting by Alex Wenger, director of CDS, examined council member Hill's property behind Starbuck's.) This is self-dealing, and as that is a crime in Washington State, you should contact the FBI regarding official corruption. I copy the Washington Attorney General so you can coordinate with them as well. In her  November 26, 2024, article on increasing downtown building heights , Grace McCarthy, editor of The Northern Light, shows she has mastered the art of concealing the truth. Granted, she answers to Patrick Grubb, publisher of The Northern Light, but that doesn't excuse her abetting fraud by Blaine City ...

In her November 26, 2024, article on downtown building heights , Grace McCarthy, editor of The Northern Light, shows she has mastered the art of concealing the truth. Granted, she answers to Patrick Grubb, publisher of The Northern Light, but that doesn't excuse her abetting fraud by Blaine City Council. In her article, she justifies the illegal council action upzoning properties downtown by referencing the downtown advisory committee support for increasing building heights but does not mention that the committee's vote involved financial conflicts of interest on the part of two committee members--Gurdeep Bains and Scott Meaker--as well as the improper voting by committee member Kevin Owens, a Blaine Planning Commissioner.  This advisory committee was revamped by Mayor Steward, City Manager Mike Harmon, and Community Development Services director Alex Wenger into a voting body despite the inherent conflicts of interest. Their corrupt vote to increase building heights and reduce...

11/28/24 letter to Blaine Chief of Police: Dear Chief Funk, The Northern Light  article on the building height increase  approved by Blaine City Council in a 4-3 vote indicates that council member Mike Hill voted for this upzoning amendment to the municipal code and comprehensive plan. In the initial Community Development Services presentation by CDS director Alex Wenger to Blaine City Council of the proposal to increase building height limits in the Central Business District, council member Hill's property behind his Starbuck's property was used by Mr. Wenger to illustrate how the height increase could make Hill's property more profitable to develop. Council member Hill has voted numerous times on upzoning amendments in the Central Business District where he owns several properties, as well as in the Blaine Critical Aquifer Recharge Area where his properties are adjacent to the proposed mobile home park. Under Washington State law, council member Hill is required to recuse...

11/18/24 letter to Blaine City Council : Calvin Armerding, Blaine Planning Commission Eric Davidson, Blaine City Council Patrick Grubb, Publisher of The Northern Light Mike Harmon, Blaine City Manager Mike Hill, Blaine City Council Rhyan Lopez, Blaine City Council Grace McCarthy, Editor of The Northern Light Kevin Owens, Blaine Planning Commission Mary Lou Steward, Mayor of Blaine Alex Wenger, Director of Blaine Community Development Services PS--Davidson, Lopez, and McCarthy added 

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...

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 Pa...

11/16/24 letter to Blaine City Council : Your evil deeds will reap judicial nemesis. Even the mayor's thugs cannot intimidate us. The day of reckoning I warned you about previously has arrived. Redress of our grievances is nigh.  

11/16/24 letter to Blaine City Council : I am told that the deciding vote on increasing building heights in the Central Business District will be that of Blaine City Council member Eric Davidson. Davidson was council liaison to the Downtown Advisory Committee hand-picked and bullied by Alex Wenger into illegally becoming a voting body that included self-dealing by committee members Gurdeep Bains and Scott Meaker. As a witness to this fraud, council member Davidson never said a word, leading me to believe that he was in on the shady deal.  This all goes back to the infamous 3/24/23 Blaine City Council and department head retreat where the scheme to mislead oversight agencies and the public, as well as to expedite unlawful development in the Central Business District was hatched. Davidson, as such, has a double responsibility to vote against this official corruption he turned a blind eye to at best. We'll see if he has suddenly acquired integrity now that this corruption is becoming ...

11/16/24 letter to Blaine City Council copied to Whatcom County: The habitual mischaracterization of SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) designations, the public process, and the environmental impacts of Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) and zoning amendments city wide by Blaine Community Development Services (CDS) director Alex Wenger leads me to believe that he is a pathological liar, and as such has intentionally misled and manipulated you into repeatedly making harmful and unlawful land use decisions. The bullying you and Blaine Water Coalition members have experienced by Blaine City Council member Mike Hill is related to this pathology, as Wenger and Hill have worked in tandem to mislead you and the public about environmental impacts of their unlawful development plans in both the Central Business District and in the City of Blaine Critical Aquifer Recharge Area. Developer friends of council member Hill such as Skip Jansen and Gurdeep Bains have benefitted from this combination ...

11/14/24 letter to Blaine City Council : Blaine City Council member Mike Hill might be the driving force behind the corruption of the City of Blaine over the past two years, but with the exception of council member Eric Lewis, the rest of you have gone along with this corruption. You can partially redeem yourselves by discontinuing to follow his lead and that of the dishonest developers he helped to undermine the rule of law in Blaine.  This corruption that you aided and abetted by your silence and votes to support the self-dealing Hill introduced at the peril of our community is coming to an end. The sooner you acknowledge your betrayal of public trust, the better. Or you can accompany council member Hill in the Blaine Hall of Shame.

11/14/24 letter to Blaine City Council : As a bastion of bigotry and cesspool of corruption , the culture of Blaine might appeal to Trump supporters and other social misfits, but Blaine's survival depends on appealing to visitors and retirees who value inclusivity and human dignity. As the good-old-boy system of corruption unravels--beginning with Blaine City Council member Mike Hill, and soon The Northern Light publisher Pat Grubb--Blaine will have a chance to join the 21st century. It is long overdue. PS--Public humiliation is an effective cure for overinflated egos, and Hill is right on track for that.

11/14/24 letter to Blaine City Council: Blaine City Council member  Mike Hill's comments in today's Northern Light  reveal him to be as big a fool as Blaine Planning Commission chair Calvin Armerding. Both these fools ignore the law and intimidate citizens who oppose official corruption by the City of Blaine. Unconcerned by systematic law-breaking and environmental destruction under Mayor Steward's reign of tyranny, these two think they, too, are above the law, and that their ill-informed opinions can substitute for environmental impact statements, public participation, and the rule of law.   

11/14/24 letter to Blaine City Council : The Northern Light bias that led to the coverup of City of Blaine crimes violating the State Environmental Policy Act 2022-2024 is not new. A few years ago, I wrote a letter to the editor of The Northern Light about  BP Crimes  that threaten worker safety and harm the environment. Quoting federal prosecutors who called BP a "recidivist offender and repeated violator of environmental laws and regulations," my letter was rejected, but a full-page paid ad from BP was published.   

11/14/24 letter to Blaine City Council : If the United States Department of Justice investigates Blaine Community Development Services (CDS) for criminal conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act and the Growth Management Act, they will need to begin with CDS director Alex Wenger's predecessor Stacie Pratschner, who was in charge of that. Ms. Pratschner, who subsequently left Blaine to become the development director for the City of Mt. Vernon, might be persuaded to roll on Mayor Steward and Councilman Hill. Pratschner was informed by the Washington State Department of Ecology that the upzoning of Blaine's Critical Aquifer Recharge Area by CDS on behalf of developers such as the Jansen's was unlawful. She ignored them and should be prosecuted.

11/14/24 letter to Blaine City Council :  The appropriate authority should investigate the numerous counts of self-dealing by Blaine City Council member Mike Hill. Every resolution and ordinance he voted on in which he has a financial conflict of interest is a separate count. All the upzoning amendments for the Central Business District and for the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area that he approved are additional counts.

The official complaint: November 13, 2204 City Council Members of Blaine, WA Mary Lou Steward, Mayor of Blaine, WA Chief of Police, Rodger Funk Mike Harmon, City Manager, City of Blaine, WA   Subject: Formal Complaint Against Council Member Mike Hill for Hostile and Intimidating Conduct Toward a Citizen Dear City Council Members, Mayor Steward, Mike Harmon and Chief Funk: I am writing to formally report an incident involving Council Member Mike Hill that occurred on November 12, 2024, at approximately 5:40 p.m. in the Blaine City Hall chambers. Mr. Hill's aggressive and intimidating behavior toward me is inconsistent with the standards of conduct expected from public officials and may constitute violations of several legal codes. Incident Summary During a public meeting, I was engaged in a conversation with Chris Damitio regarding environmental protections for the Cain Creek project and other PUDs that the City Planning is approving without public comment. I work hundreds of hours ...

The following was submitted to Whatcom County Council : Due to the careless attitude toward environmental protection historically in Blaine, the forests, salmon streams, and harbor have been seriously degraded. Rather than learning from the lessons of the past, the City of Blaine has embarked on a mission to destroy what's left. Legally required restoration is neglected. 2022-2024, Blaine Community Development Services fast-tracked this degradation from the city aquifer in East Blaine into Spooner Creek, Dakota Creek and Drayton Harbor. Same for the Central Business District adjacent to Cain Creek, Drayton Harbor and Semiahmoo Bay--as well as in the Semiahmoo headlands. By issuing fraudulent State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) designations and subverting public participation under the Growth Management Act, Blaine has also violated the Clean Water Act and the Civil Rights Act. Additionally, these actions by the City of Blaine have impaired the treaty rights of Northwest Indians. ...

The Bellingham hate crime against a transgender teen is reminiscent of a similar incident in Blaine. "Somebody needs to do something about this" was the remark at a PFLAG meeting in Blaine a few years back after the attempted murder of a transgender middle school student on campus. Subsequently, Blaine School District voters elected an openly anti-queer candidate to the school board. Now that the bigots of America will again have a champion in the White House, the targets of bigotry (Jews, Muslims, Blacks, American Indians, Queers) will be fighting for their lives. Financial support for equality advocates is good, but it will not be enough. What they need is our commitment of time. Research is key to the success of equality advocates, providing background information on organizers of bigotry and what they are up to. We took down one violent bigotry advocate when we exposed his conviction for child molestation. We took another one down when we exposed him hosting vigilantes w...

Today's letter to the editor at Cascadia Daily News: Editor, Security concerns — used by local governments to eliminate open public comment sessions ( CDN, Nov. 1, 2024 ) at council meetings — can be addressed without removing the single opportunity for citizens to address their elected officials orally so others in the audience can learn from each other and come together in common cause. I have written many emails to Blaine City Council and Whatcom County Council, and they have never responded to corruption issues I raise about community planning and public participation. I don’t even know if they bother to read them. The only way to have total security for council meetings is to prohibit the public from attending and asking questions. That sounds like fascism to me. In Blaine, Mayor [Mary Lou] Steward shut down oral public comment on Feb. 12 when a citizen asked questions about corruption involving the mayor and council member Mike Hill. Steward simultaneously announced she was ...