Blaine Confidential

September 30 letter to City of Blaine: In 1999, the City of Blaine intentionally desecrated a Lummi Nation burial ground on Semiahmoo Spit, unearthing over 100 human remains they threw into the back of a pickup truck, and got caught, costing the city $3.5 million and two acres of land. This propelled Blaine into stardom at Western Washington University urban planning studies, which made the Blaine fiasco a staple in their examples of how not to do urban planning.  Now, with the 2025 Blaine Comprehensive Plan based on perjury by the city manager, self-dealing by Blaine officials, and fraud by the Community Development director, the City of Blaine will enter the major leagues of planning done wrong. Maybe someone will go to jail this time.

September 29 letter to City of Blaine: The City of Blaine  public records controversy  did not happen in a vacuum; it happened due to three years of intense attacks by city staff on Blaine Water Coalition for holding city hall accountable to the Growth Management Act, State Environmental Policy Act, and the Clean Water Act, while the city appointed three realtors to Blaine Planning Commission, who promptly rezoned Blaine in violation of these laws and the Ethics in Public Service Act, adding to the numerous acts 2024-2025 of  self-dealing by Blaine officials with direct financial conflicts of interest .  Those of us who protested the free speech ban by the mayor (now 18 months of no oral public comment at city council meetings) and self-dealing by Blaine City Councilman Mike Hill, Downtown Advisory Committee member Gurdeep Bains (husband of Blaine Councilwoman Sarbie Bains), and Blaine Planning Commissioner Sam Randhawa were repeatedly dismissed and defamed by Mayor ...

September 29 letter to Whatcom County: The  excellent op-ed  in The Northern Light by George Erb, secretary of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, explains why Public Records Act requests are important for citizen oversight of their public officials. As Erb notes,  "Embracing transparency would help Blaine City Hall escape the volatile climate that has engulfed it...City officials, starting with mayor Mary Lou Steward, should follow the letter and the spirit of the state Public Records Act...Dismissing records requests as a nuisance completely misses the vital role they play in our civic life. For 53 years, the Public Records Act has proven itself, again and again, as one of our most effective accountability and transparency tools." The controversy created by the mayor is due to city policies developed over the last three years that deprive Blaine citizens of information and a voice. Banning free speech and hiding documents from the public while intimidating tho...

September 29 letter to City of Blaine: The allegations by the City of Blaine that Blaine Water Coalition is costing the city with public records requests belies the fact that the city staff are incompetent to process public records requests, and that the city website is dysfunctional, which generates the requests in the first place. All the information we have requested should have been easily accessible online, thus freeing up staff time.  As an example, we recently requested 200 very specific communications by the city manager; city staff sent us 30,000 communications and a bill for $405.04. We have not had this problem with Whatcom County, which has a functional website and competent staff. Read the op-ed on Blaine by Washington Coalition for Open Government.

September 28 letter to Blaine City Council: The City of Blaine is like a reckless drunk lashing out at anyone who condemns the dishonesty, incompetence, and irresponsibility of the lot of you. Trashing our CARA, turning Drayton Harbor into a cesspool, and greedily committing election fraud (Prop 7) in order to do the same to Birch Bay.   Jay Taber, Blaine Water Coalition

Lisa Guthrie, Past President, Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce Pat Jerns, Birch Bay resident

September 26 letter to Whatcom County: "Managing Extinction" was the takeaway from the Shared Waters presentation by Whatcom Watersheds Information Network at Blaine Public Library yesterday. A sad documentation of the failure of governments--despite heroic efforts by Tribes and First Nations--to prevent the looming extinction of Salish Sea chinook salmon, orcas, and Indigenous cultures. I shared the Whatcom Watch  Blaine Case Study  with the audience, which was surprised to learn that City of Blaine shoreline setbacks (that protect chinook salmon) on Dakota Creek, Cain Creek, and Drayton Harbor were reduced this spring to half that of county standards, in violation of the Clean Water Act. Even more surprised to learn that the Department of Ecology let them. The coverup of these crimes by Cascadia Daily News and The Northern Light on behalf of their developer friends has apparently left everyone in the dark. Meanwhile, Blaine Mayor Steward has attacked Blaine Councilman Lewis...