ANSWERS TO COUNCIL QUESTIONS

The 2024 Central Business District rezone was laden with financial conflicts of interest by downtown developers Gurdeep Bains and Councilman Mike Hill. The resignation of Councilman Hill--implicated in numerous counts of self-dealing--is an opportunity for a new beginning. Recurring perjury by City Manager Mike Harmon, and fraudulent State Environmental Policy Act determinations by Development Director Alex Wenger, need to be investigated by the Washington State Auditor.

This city council appointed three realtors to the planning commission. On March 13, 2025, Blaine Planning Commissioner Sam Randhawa--the listed agent at Freeman Real Estate for the properties in the Urban Mixed Use rezone--unlawfully voted himself a $50,000 windfall in commission value and a $2 million increase in property values for his clients.

This city council refused to adopt a code of ethics, and the misconduct of Mike Harmon at the June 23 city council meeting is evidence of why a code is needed. Harmon recommended the city council suspend the Rules of Procedure in order to appoint Sarbie Bains (Gurdeep's wife) to fill the council vacancy. Harmon even announced that "Mike Hill endorses her." 

Blaine is willfully neglecting to protect Lummi Nation's cultural and natural resources in the Drayton Harbor watershed--especially on Semiahmoo Spit, where the city is proposing to allow 211 luxury condominiums next to the Semiahmoo Marina, violating the state-required shoreline setback. (In 1999, Blaine intentionally desecrated a Lummi burial ground on the spit, costing the city $3.5 million and two acres of land.)

The invalid proposed ballot measure for a one thousand luxury home new Urban Growth Area on the Semiahmoo Uplands--located over the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area for Birch Bay--has not been preceded by a current Environmental Impact Statement--required by state law for any proposed development in a Critical Aquifer Recharge Area.

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