Rationalizing Fraud

2/27/25 letter to City of Blaine:

A while back, Blaine City Councilman Richard May--responding to my exposure of the Central Business District self-dealing by developers (including Councilman Mike Hill and Downtown Advisory Committee member Gurdeep Bains)--said that he was not concerned about this fraud in downtown planning and that the city just needed better public relations. 

On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, responding to my letter Making Things Worse, Councilman May rationalized his eager support for Mayor Steward's hijacking of Councilman Lewis' motion to restore oral public comment at city council meetings, and replace it with a fraudulent 'town hall' pacifier because oral public comment would have been defeated. 

May was unconcerned by the Mayor's violation of the rules of procedure putting forward her alternative unrelated motion to allow the public to use city hall to talk with each other once a month for 30 minutes with council attendance optional. This 'town hall' fraudulent pacifier, illegally voted on at the February 24, 2025, meeting, was improperly brought forward, rather than reinstate our right to address the council orally and on the record.

So once again, Councilman May is more concerned with the city's image than it's substance, as though free speech, the rule of law, and government accountability are just advertising gimmicks. May evaded the subject of his duty to investigate Community Development Services director Alex Wenger and Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon for malfeasance, caught on film lying to the council at the February 24, 2025 meeting.

Read May's own words and see what you think.

Hello Jay,

Just to offer you some clarity, I believe that whatever motion that Eric Lewis or I would have made to restore public comment at city council meetings would have been defeated by the existing current council members. So that is why Steward's motion to allow any sort of public comment at all was something that I was gracious about. The two real possibilities at that meeting were to accept Steward's motion, or have a different option defeated.

And yes, this is an election year that could mean as early as January 2026 (11 months from now), there could be a different group on council, that could have different policy.

RM

 

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