BLAINE ACCOUNTABILITY DEFICIT

September 11, 2025, letter to Whatcom County:

It wasn't the fact that Blaine City Councilman Eric Lewis made motions to 1) reinstate oral public comment at city council meetings, 2) adopt a code of ethics for Blaine officials, and 3) adopt the WA State Department of Ecology 2024 Western Washington Stormwater Management Manual (as required by state law) that infuriated Mayor Steward; it was the fact that she was responsible for a) ending free speech in Blaine, b) neglecting to prevent self-dealing by Councilman Mike Hill, Planning Commissioner Sam Randhawa, and Downtown Advisory Committee member Gurdeep Bains (husband of Councilwoman Sarbie Bains), and c) allowing Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon and Community Development Services director Alex Wenger to lie under oath at a city council meeting saying the 2024 manual is optional.

The fact that all three motions by Councilman Lewis were rejected by his fellow council members says a lot about the City of Blaine's attitude toward public participation, transparency, and the accountability of our elected and appointed officials. 

Jay Taber, Blaine Water Coalition
Chair, Voters Pamphlet Committee Against Proposition 2025-07

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BLAINE TOXIC COVERUP

2/25/25 letter to City of Blaine : BLAINE TOXIC COVERUP A Town that Never Learns By  Jay Taber Blaine Water Coalition Blaine City Council member  Mike Hill --recently under investigation by the Whatcom County Sheriff's Department for accosting Blaine Water Coalition activist Otto Pointer at the November 12, 2024, city council meeting (Case #24A39027)--has a problem with his plan to develop condos across Peace Portal Drive from his  Chevron  station downtown. In a November 28, 2023,  Hazardous Materials Analysis Report  presented by GeoEngineers to the City of Blaine, Hill's Chevron is listed as a 'high-risk' Department of Ecology site (Cleanup Site ID # 9280) due to confirmed releases of petroleum products--including  Benzene --on and off the property,  contaminating the groundwater  that migrates from the Chevron station under Starbuck's toward  Cain Creek  and  Drayton Harbor . The  Drayton Harbor estuary  is home t...
Read more

Letter to County Prosecutor

To Mr. Eric J. Richey, Whatcom Prosecuting Attorney, 311 Grand, Ste. 201, Bellingham WA 98225 I write to you as Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney in hope you will protect the rights of the people of Blaine from a city government that--due to embedded corruption--is unable to effectively govern and is putting our health and prosperity at risk by their unlawful acts. Your reply requested.  I am told you have the authority to empanel a grand jury to investigate official misconduct and encourage you to do so. I copy my most recent letter to the City of Blaine below. This is the tip of the iceberg, and we have abundant evidence of widespread intentional wrongdoing.   To Blaine City Council, Planning Commission, and Community Development Services As you proceed with the downtown rezone/development regulation items of parking and building heights this month, I remind you that this process was corrupted at the outset when on 3/24/2023 Blaine City Council ordered the Blaine City...
Read more

Mike Hill on CCTV

1/30/25 letter to City of Blaine : BLAINE'S SHAME CCTV of Blaine City Council member Mike Hill accosting community activist Otto Pointer at the November 13, 2024, council meeting. Mike Hill, owner of Starbuck's and Chevron, as well as a downtown and CARA developer, has not recused himself when voting on zoning amendments to the Blaine Municipal Code that financially benefit him. This self-dealing is against the law. In late 2023, when Blaine community activists handed over their extensive evidence of alleged official corruption by the City of Blaine to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) criminal division and the FBI, they had reason to believe that the rule of law would be restored in their town. The City of Blaine--which had illegally up-zoned the city's Critical Aquifer Recharge Area (CARA) into a Planned Unit Development (PUD) over the city's drinking water aquifer without preparing a legally required Environmental Impact Statement--was clearly in the wr...
Read more