BLAINE MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION

Astounding as it is that the citizens of Blaine have tolerated the misconduct of Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon for the last three years since the city unwisely hired him, it is reprehensible that the new publisher of The Northern Light--Kari Mar--has in her brief tenure at the helm allowed her newspaper to defame open government activists who revealed him and his staff to be committing crimes to benefit developers.

When Harmon convinced the city council to confer special privileges to downtown developers on March 9, including Councilwoman Bains, by removing building height and parking restrictions, he was gifting all downtown on-street parking to the developers free for their condominium tenants, likely in the hundreds as six-story buildings replace existing small businesses, which will no longer have any parking. 

The Northern Light maintains silence on the issue of municipal corruption, a feature of Blaine City Hall added by the hiring of Harmon, but never an item in the news. Mar blocks letter writers who expose the corruption, apparently looking forward to the abundance of real estate advertising money. Harmon can be fired or prosecuted, but Mar has her toy publishing empire and The Northern Light is her money-maker.

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

GUEST COMMENTARY REJECTED BY CASCADIA DAILY NEWS

The CDN article about the  East Blaine de-annexation  and UGA Swap excludes any mention of the extensively documented Blaine Water Coalition objections we sent to CDN well in advance. I feel this is not fair and balanced coverage. CDN reporter Julia Tellman attended the July 14, 2025 Blaine City Council meeting where as a city council vacancy applicant I introduced myself as a member of the Blaine Water Coalition (BWC) speakers bureau, and provided both an oral and written presentation with alleged legal violations by the city related to the proposed UGA Swap, as well as BWC's legal objections to previous well-documented evidence of City misconduct. Tellman mentioned none of this, nor the fact that I alone was hastily appointed at the meeting to write the voters pamphlet statement against the city-sponsored initiative, despite four additional qualified  ‘Con’  applicants  (important n ote: the City received only one ‘Pro’ Applicant) . . This city attem...
Read more

CARA PROTECTION DISTRICT PROPOSAL

November 24 letter to Whatcom County Council : Protect ing  Blaine and Birch Bay Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas (CARAs) Whatcom County oversees many special purpose districts with taxing authority to meet public needs. A  CARA Protection District  for Blaine and Birch Bay that can purchase the east Blaine and Birch Point CARA properties under county jurisdiction in order to protect our joint public water supply system, reduce flooding, and control urban pollution fits that purpose well.  Combined with improved stormwater management in the Drayton Harbor and Birch Bay watersheds, putting these aquifers in public hands would allow for public health, educational and recreational opportunities within an area beset by luxury, gated, planned unit developments. They could become forested 'greenway parks' as a n oasis from the surrounding chaos. Recommendation Whatcom  County Council   adopt  a  moratorium on  new  development applications...
Read more