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The Puget Sound Partnership Scam, It Matters Here

1/12/2014

2 Comments

 
The Excavator has repeatedly raised alarm in the last three years about the Puget Sound Partnership's expanding and pushy presence here in Whatcom County, which is on the "Salish Sea" but far north of Puget Sound's central basin.  Just last Thursday night, it (or they, whomever they really are) went so far as to submit a last-minute recommendation for 20-year population growth here in our county - both city and rural - having provided absolutely zero science that we know of that would justify or support that recommendation.

It was sheer coincidence that Freedom Foundation has just released a new report that exposes the Puget Sound Partnership's notorious history of nepotism, incompetence, and patronage. This synopsis will ring a bell if you've witnessed PSP's slick "facilitation" tactics here (like the WIT, glad-handing funds to county departments, and liberal palm-greasing to preferred vendors and grant recipients). How can we rid ourselves of their cronyism and bureaucratic fleas?  (Ideas and comments welcome, below.)

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Why we must abolish the
Puget Sound Partnership Scam


Liberty Blog, Freedom Foundation
January 10, 2014


Unfortunately, it’s not very difficult to find evidence of incompetence and waste in most government agencies.  But that alone isn’t  why we are calling for abolishing this agency.  

By Washington state standards, this is a small operation, consuming less than $20 million in state taxpayer funds this biennium.  There are bigger financial problems in Washington state government. 

We are calling for abolishing the Puget Sound Partnership because if ever an agency deserves to be dissolved, this is it.  If our elected officials are unable to redirect our limited tax dollars away from such an obvious waste of resources, then we should question whether it is possible to do it under any circumstance.  

We are calling for abolishing this agency because a message needs to be sent to all government agencies in our state that there are consequences for corruption and total incompetence at some point. 

In addition to the attached report, it is worth reviewing some of the colorful history behind this agency. This is largely a tale of nepotism, incompetence and patronage, and is hardly unique in government history. What might be unique is how all this drama has produced a state agency that has accomplished so little for so much money squandered.  

It is helpful to know this history when reading our report and considering our suggestions.

Founded in 2007 by then-Gov. Christine Gregoire, the Puget Sound Partnership was created to be a “community effort of citizens, governments, tribes, scientists and businesses working together to restore and protect Puget Sound.” 

It was an opportune time for the Washington State Legislature to create a new agency dedicated to “restoring” the Puget Sound. State revenues were up and the prospect of a financial crisis did not appear likely.

The old agency dedicated to cleaning up the Sound, the “Puget Sound Action Team,” was looking increasingly more powerless to do anything productive and was set to be abolished by the state Legislature. Most auspiciously, Congressman Norm Dicks (D-6th) was serving as a ranking member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee and was in-line to become its head in a Democrat-controlled Congress, putting the representative from Bremerton into one of the most powerful positions in the nation to funnel federal dollars.  
  
While sitting on the committee in January 2007, Dicks secured a $50 million earmark for Puget Sound cleanup efforts. At the same time, David Dicks -- Rep. Dicks’ son -- applied to become executive director of the newly created Puget Sound Partnership, a position that paid $125,000 a year.

PictureDicks (the younger)
David Dicks, a 36-year-old attorney at a Seattle law firm with no administrative experience, seemed an unlikely choice to head up the new agency whose mission was to lead a “science-based, results-driven, publically embraced partnership.” Yet the junior Dicks was eager to pursue a career in the public eye like his father. During public hearings, he touted his ability to secure federal funds and was repeatedly praised for doing so.

Despite concerns about his actual administrative ability, the Partnership’s Leadership Council, headed by President Richard Nixon’s one-time EPA-chief -- and vocal Norm Dicks’ supporter -- Bill Ruckelshaus, sent David’s resume to the governor for approval.

In August 2007, Gov. Christine Gregoire appointed David Dicks executive director of the Partnership. After his son’s appointment, Norm Dicks authored a bill that doubled the amount of federal spending on Puget Sound restoration projects. 

The elder Dicks also bragged about his role in funneling more money towards his son’s agency, “[before I was head of the committee] Puget Sound was receiving $500,000 from the EPA,” he said. “Since then, we've put in $93 million for Puget Sound cleanup in the federal legislation." 

In addition to increasing the sheer amount of money his son’s agency receives, Norm Dicks also sought to increase the political clout of the Partnership.  Bills passed by Dicks’ committee would also have clarified that “the Partnership is the sort of entity in Washington state charged with cleaning up Puget Sound,” according to his son David.

The father’s funneling of federal dollars to his son’s agency and the political appointment was obvious enough to generate interest by traditional media. National newspaper outlets like the Washington Post, and several  Washington politicians sounded off on what clearly seemed to be a case of high-profile nepotism in government.


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Ruckelshaus, still head of the steering Leadership Council, defended both his decision to hire David Dicks and his congressman father’s steering of federal dollars to the Partnership in a series of radio interviews and a letter to the editor. Ruckelshaus cited Dicks’ “long-time commitment to Puget Sound cleanup efforts and David’s qualifications as director.

Yet Ruckelshaus was certainly not in any position to defend them: Bill Ruckelshaus and his daughter Mary also worked together. When picking the top 15 finalists for the Partnership’s nine-slot Science Council, the Washington State Academy of Sciences  rejected Mary Ruckelshaus’ application, yet three  months later, David Dicks signed her up to be the Partnership’s chief scientist.  

Apparently, Mary Ruckelshaus was not qualified for the less-important Science Council position but was “well-suited” to be senior chief-scientist.

The Partnership’s director of government affairs, John Dohrmann, said of Mary Ruckelshaus and nepotism at PSP: “…it has always been humorous when she's been in a position to testify or make a presentation in front of a board that her father is chairing.”

Clearly, the two most politically powerful families involved, Dicks and Ruckelshaus, had managed to ensconce themselves with good positions at the agency, despite their lack of qualifications and familial conflict of interest. Nepotism was only the first of many missteps at the agency, one that led directly to many more mistakes. 

Fears about David Dicks’ incompetence as executive director of the Partnership quickly proved to be well-founded. Under his watch, the Partnership violated multiple state laws and ethical guidelines. 

According to a two-year long probe of the agency, the state Auditor’s Office found that the Partnership repeatedly circumvented state contracting laws, exceeded its purchasing authority and made unallowable purchases with public funds. 


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The audit report alleged that the Partnership: “…filed a contract with the Office of Financial Management (OFM) for $19,999, one dollar below the $20,000 threshold for advertising or conducting a competitive procurement. We found no cost detail to show how the Partnership determined this amount.”

Then-state Auditor Brian Sonntag said of the contract amount in a Washington Post interview, “This contract was originally $19,999. Now come on — that shows intent.”

Sonntag continued, “That tells me they were looking for a way to direct that contract without opening it to competition.”

Even more revealing, the Partnership gave the contract to the law firm K&L Gates, one of Norm Dicks’ largest congressional campaign contributors. The contract eventually superseded the original contract, paying $51,498 in total, more than twice the original agreed amount. 

No surprise, the contract was with Gerry Johnson, a personal friend and former co-worker of David Dicks.  Even the contract itself  -- for setting up a nonprofit foundation into which he could channel taxpayer funds  (which would have been immune from public audits) -- was a violation of state law that requires all agencies to use the state Attorney General’s Office for all legal business.

While the Partnership’s illegal contract with K&L Gates was the most expensive violation of state law, it was far from the most inept. 

Under Dicks’ directorship, the Partnership spent at least $120,000 on IT goods, exceeded their original budget for IT investments for the 2007-2009 biennium, and used to it purchase Apple Macintosh computers  --  which were not compatible with statewide information systems and applications for financial reporting, payroll, or travel according to the Auditor’s report.  

Wasteful spending was commonplace at the Partnership, including gems like:

·         $6,853 for 120 monogrammed fleece vests;
·         $5,044 for 30 monogrammed jackets;
·         $3,650 for 5,000 tubes of lip balm;
·         $687 for 20 personalized mahogany gift boxes containing sparkling apple cider for state officials; and,
·         $2,474 in catering for a private reception – which state agencies are prohibited from providing according to state law.

The OFM was also able to stop yet another attempt by the Partnership to break state law -- canceling an invoice for $4,900 worth of alcohol for a February event they held at the Convention and Trade Center.


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The report also criticized the $10,000 purchase of a “membership” to the Cascade Land Conservancy – which, according to the auditor “the Partnership could not show the public received value commensurate with the amount of funding provided for the membership.” 

Why would the agency spend the money in the first place? David’s brother, Ryan Dicks, was actually vice president of transactions and also served in a paid consulting role at the Conservancy at the time.

A series of high-profile investigations by John Ryan of local radio station KUOW highlighted further unethical activity at the Partnership. 

The KUOW report revealed that it was not just K&L Gates and the Cascade Land Conservancy that had benefited from political connections with the Dicks’ family. Steve McBee and Tom Luce, a lobbyist and a consultant, respectively, who used to work for Norm Dicks, were able to secure contracts with the Puget Sound Partnership through David Dicks.

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The relationship paid off big time, as McBee’s firm got nearly $400,000 for consulting work; Tom Luce was able to secure over $1 million from PSP for consulting work from “Enviro Issues,” a firm for which he was subcontracting.  

KUOW also reported that David Dicks was one of only a handful of directors with his own state-assigned vehicle. Dicks said that he did not commute to work with the car, which would be a violation of state law. And technically, he doesn’t -- the car’s official station is actually in front of his Seattle home. 

KUOW also reported that Dicks handed out most of the jobs on the management staff without advertising for them, hiring them on at salaries that paid $20,000 more a year on average than similar jobs at other natural resource agencies like Deparemend of Natural Resources  or Department of Ecology. 

According to an anonymous whistleblower at the agency, David Dicks also used his position to have his long-time friend, Jon Bridgman, taken on as graphic designer at the Partnership. Dicks would later have him design a poster for King County commissioner candidate Dow Constantine, without disclosing the in-kind donation to the Public Disclosure Commission.  

Constantine himself had been appointed to the PSP’s ecosystem coordination board by Dicks only five months prior.

An investigation was ordered, but after state investigators prematurely tipped off the parties concerned, the probe was closed. 

Dicks proceeded to have the tipster fired, an action in violation of state whistleblower-protection laws.Dicks then claimed not to have known that the worker he fired was the whistleblower, yet record requests of employee performance reviews turned up no previous complaints about her job performance, and her supervisor wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for her after she was fired.

Dicks had to shell out $40,000 in order to get her to sign an agreement agreeing not to sue the agency for firing her, according to an agreement obtained by journalists at radio station KUOW. 

Record requests performed by the Freedom Foundation determined there was yet another anonymous whistleblower, likely from inside the agency. This whistleblower told state investigators that PSP had “back-dated” the hiring documents of a new employee, Christopher Townsend, effectively paying him three months before his actual starting date.

Not coincidentally, Townsend was another personal friend hired by David Dicks after he was appointed by the governor. Despite this incredible snafu, Townsend was able to remain at the Partnership and collect a nearly six-figure salary for another two years.  

It is not clear at this time that state investigators have done anything about this complaint. Time and time again, the Puget Sound Partnership has been unwilling to follow the basic rules that govern how state agencies should spend taxpayer funds.

Even the Environmental Protection Agency (not known for great financial controls itself) found “a near total lack of certification” for PSP contracts and forced PSP to return $125,000 in federal grant funding already given to PSP.  

The Puget Sound Partnership did not appeal or dispute the findings and returned the funding in 2011 (although the Washington State Legislature increased funding to PSP the next year anyway).


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In the face of David Dicks’ incompetence as executive director of the Partnership, Gregoire’s demeanor towards him had changed considerably. Gregoire grilled Dicks on the lack of accountability at an otherwise friendly annual Public Accountability Forum for the directors of all the natural resource departments in October 2010. 

Gregoire interrupted Dicks in mid-speech to note, “These slides are too general for me. I knew the story. I want data. I want to be able to see that we are accomplishing what we set out to do. ... I need to be able to show to the legislature, candidly, that we are doing our job.

“We have to have measures, goals," Gregoire said, "and we don't have that. We have to have (them) for the Puget Sound Partnership itself." 

The governor added, "The next time we come here, I've got to be able to ... hold the Puget Sound Partnership accountable.  Where's the part where the Puget Sound Partnership can say ...’Here’s our job, and here’s how we're doing our job?’” 

In 2011, Gregoire interrogated Dicks over one of his most touted abilities as director. “David, where is the federal legislation that would allow us to have a continuing funding rather than having to ask the question every year?” she asked.

Unfortunately for the Dicks’ political dynasty, the congressional dynamic shifted dramatically in Washington, D.C., after the 2010 mid-terms elections. The Democrats’ historic loss at the polls wiped out Norm Dicks’ chance at becoming chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which had seemed assured.

In the ensuing session of the 111th Congress, the “Puget Sound Recovery Act,”presented by Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray on Norm Dicks’ behalf, failed in committee.  

Six days after the 2010 elections, David Dicks quietly resigned as executive director at the Partnership. Inside sources indicated this happened at Gregoire’s behind-the-scenes insistence.  The nepotism, cronyism and waste that had plagued Dicks’ directorship were a point of embarrassment for the governor.  

Seemingly, David’s only useful quality was his ability to secure additional federal funds for his agency from his father. But with the new political makeup of the 112th Congress, earmarks like this were not likely.  

Unfortunately, Dicks did not totally abandon government work. He was given a three-day-a-week,  $75,000-a-year job, ironically, teaching students how to manage “strategic partnerships” at a newly created post at the University of Washington.

 Despite Dicks’ disappearance from power, the problem of politics at the Partnership does not seem to have disappeared. Before securing another executive director, PSP has seen three interim directors -- Gerry O’Keefe, Tony Wright, and Marc Daily. In the meantime, the chairman of the steering Leadership Committee, Bill Ruckelshaus, sent in his resignation to Gregoire.  

Ruckelshaus’ replacement, Martha Kongsgaarrd, also happened to be one state’s largest campaign donors, shelling out more than $250,000 to various Democrat candidates and causes since 2000.  

She has bestowed thousands of dollars to the campaigns of various powerful politicians in Washington state, including Inslee, Norm Dicks, Murray and Cantwell. Inslee is overseeing one of his largest campaign donors at the Partnership. 

With Kongsgaarrd at the helm of the Leadership Committee, it seems like the Partnership has received a fresh dose of politics, moving it further in the wrong direction by pursuing political patronage at an agency that is supposed to be guided by hard science.

It is time to end the silly drama of the Puget Sound Partnership. The Legislature needs to stop funding this embarrassment. There are far more worthy recipients of tax dollars, and there can be no claim to fiscal responsibility in Olympia as long as this agency still exists.


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2 Comments

A Cautionary Tale - Over the Top?

12/14/2013

1 Comment

 
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The George Orwell novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in 1949. At that time, it was considered fiction. What was once fiction is now real. Today (judging by their behavior), all too many elected officials consider the novel more of a handbook: "Tyranny for Dummies". Maybe WE should count our blessings that we got 10 or 20 good years past the eponymous year in question.

Anyway, WE noticed that one of our readers posted over on Kakistocracy Report, a parody that has been circulating on the internet about the Orwell characters, Winston and Julia in the book 1984, framed in what could be the not too distant future...


"Winston, come into the dining room, it's time to eat," Julia yelled to her husband. "In a minute, honey, it's a tie score," he answered. 

Actually Winston wasn't very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington. Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its "unseemly violence" and the "bad" example it sets for the rest of the world", Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch wasn't nearly as exciting. 

Yet, it wasn't the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey. Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce, and mincemeat pie), it wasn't anything like real turkey. 

And ever since the government officially changed the name of "Thanksgiving Day" to "A National Day of Atonement" in 2020, to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims' historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster. 
(Continue reading...)

The author adds some of his own commentary about the cumulative effects of progressivism:

... we have not reduced poverty; we have institutionalized it. We've created a dependent underclass. We've reduced self-respect. We've increased crime. We've reduced upward mobility. We've reduced liberty. Then, there's this from Bill Whittle:
If WE don't raise awareness, who will? As the album title goes, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. 
1 Comment

Tales of Tyranny - Another Episode

12/13/2013

0 Comments

 
Bureaucratic pressure has become pretty serious here, where crimes against the bureaucracy can cost a fortune, and even land you in jail.  What kinds of crimes? Environmental crimes, like not filing a Farm Plan or not obtaining a Ground Disturbance Permit before digging a hole on your property.  But most victims are too afraid to fight back. Decent people are bullied into submission.  And a growing number of fines and extortion demands loom as mitigation banks and the "resources marketplace" are being set-up all around us, as a huge new financial industry.  WE think this county's becoming a green jail...  But we're not alone.

Some people think WE overuse the word "tyranny".  From Google:
tyr·an·ny
ˈtirənē/    noun
  1. cruel and oppressive government or rule. 
    "people who survive war and escape tyranny"
    synonyms: despotism, absolute power,  autocracy,  dictatorship,  totalitarianism, Fascism; 

It seems pretty cut-and-dried to us. Tyranny is just bureaucrats abusing power, taking peoples' liberty and jerking them around; like this:

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Tales of Tyranny: Criminalizing Poverty in the San Juans - The Errol Speed Story
by Glen Morgan
December 11, 2013

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From the front gate of Errol and Kathleen Speed’s 20-acre Orcas Island farm, they can glimpse a small stand of evergreen trees, an open meadow and their own, fenced organic garden. 

What they can’t see is why the local governing authority, San Juan County inWashington State, has chosen to treat them like criminals for committing what appear to be minor building code infractions.

Like many rural Washington residents, the Speeds live “off the grid” in a small trailer on the property they share with their horse, goats, and  chickens. They are neither wealthy, nor are they hardened criminals.

Consequently, they never expected to be subjected to a search warrant, charged with a criminal offense, tried before a jury of their peers, and sentenced to actual jail time for minor code violations involving their own property. 

The driving force behind Errol and Kathleen Speed’s nightmare is the bureaucrats’ relentless effort to criminalize minor infractions and victimless crimes. The Speed family’s experience is just the latest example, but it demonstrates the pointlessness of this over-criminalization effort by Big Government.


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According to San Juan County law enforcement officials, the couple’s great crime was to erect a small building on their property, believing that structures less than 1,000 square feet were exempt from permit and building code requirements.  They also committed the great crime of having a bed, blankets, a couch, and a kitchen in this building.

They also used a composting toilet.

For their trouble, the Speeds endured a police raid of their property (using a criminal search warrant), a jury court trial, thousands of dollars in fines, and a 180-day jail sentence for Errol Speed. Not coincidentally, the county has spent tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money prosecuting the case.

“We built an accessory agricultural building with the understanding that we could build a building under 1,000 square feet with no fees, no permits and no plans,” Kathleen Speed said. “Normally in code violations, you work with the Planning Department and negotiate after the fact, and maybe there are additional fees. But in our case, we’ve been criminalized and treated as if we robbed a bank.”

“The justification for using a criminal search warrant was (that) we denied them (government officials) access,” Errol Speed said. “They never asked for access.”

While the couple doesn’t deny being in violation of at least some part of the code, the reality is that most people run afoul of some ordinance or minor law every day. Disputing these details hardly justifies the effort San Juan County has made to prosecute the Speeds.

In the area of home ownership and private property, few properties are immune to potential violations. In modern times, most people have become numb to the ever-expanding ordinances and the new thousands of pages of rules and regulations that apply to every property owner in the local jurisdiction. 

In most cases, there is little concern over these ordinances because it would take a police state to actually enforce them, and most people feel they could appeal to common sense or pay a small fine to resolve the problem.


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From left - Prosecutor Randy Gaylord, San Juan County Sheriff Rob Nou, Judge Stewart Andrew
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The complicity of at least three elected officials is needed to formally charge Errol Speed for committing a crime. These include San Juan County Sheriff Rob Nou (elected in 2010), San Juan County Prosecutor Randall Gaylord, and San Juan County District Court Judge Stewart Andrew. Without the formal sign-off and approval by all three of these elected officials, the Speed family could not be criminally prosecuted. If even one of these elected officials believed that prosecuting the Speed family was not a priority, they could have stopped this criminal trial from even starting.  San Juan County does have real crime problems. At least four people have died of heroin overdoses in just the past 12 months, but apparently prosecuting the Speed family is more important to these elected officials. 

Andrew was originally a California attorney who relocated to San Juan County and has been a judge since 1998. Gaylord has been in office for 20 years, and he is best remembered for his successful effort to ban personal watercraft in San Juan County in 1996 and for his failed effort to suppress free speech in 2005 when he filed suit against local radio talk show hosts for opposing a gas tax increase. 

In 2010, the Heritage Foundation published a booklet titled, “One Nation Under Arrest,” (co-authored by the Freedom Foundation’s Trent England), detailing many cases around the country of an explosion of laws—federal, state and local—which have created thousands of new “crimes” that can justify criminal search warrants, jury trials and jail time.

No victims or common sense are necessary in this process. Errol Speed discovered what it’s like to personally experience a “Crime Against Bureaucracy” in San Juan County. 

Unfortunately, he isn't likely to be the last.

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0 Comments

Water, water every where - Nor any drop to drink

12/6/2013

1 Comment

 
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WE suppose you know that northwest Washington is a rain forest. What you may not know is that some people are trying to gin up the idea that water is scarce around here; that we're on the brink of a water shortage (or something), and (wait for it) that water needs to be rationed by a cadre of self-appointed busybodies and shake-down artists. Radical curtailment of both access to water and land use are being actively discussed right here in Whatcom County.  Is there a target on private landowner's backs?  Yes, indeed there is.

WE suppose further that you know water isn't consumed; it's recycled. Every drop of water that has ever been drunk, polluted, used to generate electricity, irrigate crops, or anything else - is still present on planet Earth. We're drinking the same water that was swallowed and subsequently peed out by Jesus Christ, Sir Isaac Newton, Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin and millions of others.  Mother Nature is the greatest recycler of all.

Well (no pun intended), WE were alerted to this story (it's about Skagit County, but don't think Whatcom County is very far behind; it isn't):


Got WATER ? Maybe Not

Private water well owners' rights were just usurped by a WA Supreme Court case decision. For now, the Department of Ecology says they will not shut down anyone’s private well. What about in the future? If the State controls private water rights they control much, much more.

This petition may make it around to various lists, but sign it once and pass it on through email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  A maximum number of signatures is needed to impress upon our state senators and representatives that corrective legislation is needed.  Our neighbors in rural Skagit County and throughout the state have a right to the water on their land. 

Please sign the petition in support of basic legal access to water for rural citizens in the Skagit Watershed. We support a balanced approach, but it must include water for tax-paying citizens!

Please send this to everyone (including organization membership lists) you know that are supportive of water for rural farmers and landowners across the state. While our problem here presents a unique set of past circumstances, it is a statewide issue. Let our legislators know we need a legislative solution now.
1 Comment

Voter Alienation, Anyone?

11/2/2013

9 Comments

 
WE see that the Whatcom Tea Party took exception to the mean spirited Democrat party mailers that have been going out to voters in the past few days. You may be one of the unlucky recipients of one or more of these spit bombs.

The mild mannered law-abiding "We The People" crowd responded politely to the gross misrepresentations by posting a piece entitled What's Wrong With This Picture? where they wrote,

The Whatcom Tea Party objects to being used to smear honorable candidates. The candidates being smeared here have not been running as Tea Party candidates. We wish the Democrats would have left us out of this. We are a non-partisan organization. Non-partisan does not mean unprincipled, but we deliberately do not endorse or disparage any candidates.
Here's the distorted picture of the Tea Party fabricated by the Whatcom Democrats:
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The article patiently explained how government can and should work for us, and that they object when it works against us. WE tend to agree.

But wait! There's more! In a second article, What's Wrong With This Other Picture?, they repeated the same preamble, but over a blood red slaughterhouse picture. Here they caught on that perhaps these mailers meant (in a vicious way) to intimidate voters; that the Democrats may want to so disgust the "undecideds" about local politics and the process that they won't vote at all.  This material is so ugly it just may alienate some from wanting to exercise their rights.

Here's the factually-absurd slaughterhouse mailing, for the morbidly curious:
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On the Whatcom Tea Party facebook page, they suggested that if you find candidates' campaigns disgusting, send back a strong message by way of your ballot.

WE love it!  That's exactly what elections are for.  The public has got to reject this bloodstained bomb-throwing tactic.  It's too low for a civil society to accept.

Rewarding partisan ugliness with with positions of power would be oh so wrong. Is that the Whatcom County you want to live in?
9 Comments

Riot at WWU - Outrageous behavior, young voters

10/14/2013

2 Comments

 
There was national coverage of the absolutely outrageous and violent behavior that a mob near Western Washington University engaged in Saturday night. It is not known how many of these rioters are students at Western. The few people who were arrested were reportedly not students. The question remains, where did the nearly 500 rioters come from, exactly?

WE do know that in and around Western, these hundreds of people vote, and that they are constantly courted by environmental PACs and Whatcom Wins!

These little darlings did a nice number on the environment right there. Do they have any idea how big the carbon footprint is for all that beer? And whatever they belch out after drinking it? Not to mention the mess they made of the neighborhood: tearing down stop signs, pointless vandalism, littering ... everywhere. Way to nurture nature! Yelling “Faggot!”  Oh yes, that's a nice tolerant attitude toward homosexuals. All hail diversity! These are the people that Bellingham wants to protect from dangerously negligent landlords. WE wonder who really needs the protection. Al Gore should come down from Mt. Olympus and give them all a very good spanking.
2 Comments

Wants balance and common sense...

9/18/2013

5 Comments

 
PictureThe EPA - fair??
    WE just received a PDF copy of a passionate letter that county councilwoman Kathy Kershner dashed out on September 13th to the DOJ and EPA in Washington D.C. pleading for the fair-handed and balanced treatment of Rader Farms here in Whatcom County.

      If the Bellingham Herald's account below is correct, the scale of fines related to the federal government's case for blueberry farming this 10-acre parcel seem unbelievably mean-spirited and way out of proportion:


"Under the new lawsuit, filed Aug. 29, EPA could seek several penalties, including an order to make Rader and Uptrail Group restore the site to its pre-fill condition at their own cost. The lawsuit also could seek civil fines of up to $32,500 per day for each day the wetland has been clear - or more than $86 million as of the time the case was filed."

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/09/13/3200551/lynden-blueberry-farm-faces-another.html#storylink=cpy
That's outrageous, and in some ways this reminds us of the Idaho Sackett Case that the Pacific Legal Foundation took to the Supreme Court (and won) and also the Koontz Case.  The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected disproportionate EPA actions.

Without analyzing the ins and outs of the case or the letter, WE definitely admire Kershner's grit and willingness to stand up and fight for someone like this.
5 Comments

Barred Owls and Property Owners vs. USFWS

8/5/2013

2 Comments

 
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In a recent article, the Freedom Foundation wraps up a number of abusive cases of owls and property owners vs. the US Fish and Wildlife Service. USFWS are going to shoot more than 3600 Barred Owls in order to protect the Spotted Owl, and they're going to prevent people who have bought and payed for their own property from using it until enough slugs have been counted to ensure they're not endangered. Some service, eh? WE detect that natural selection and evolution are only supposed to work when they can be used to ridicule biblical creation (as if the two are irreconcilable - but that's a topic for another day).

Freedom Foundation notes,


The USFWS budget totaled $3.1 billion as of 2011. Of these funds, $1.2 billion were grants to local governments or other groups for habitat improvement programs. Basically, USFWS is a financial middleman for over one-third of its budget. Much of its remaining budget funds ESA-related issues, which includes paying rewards to groups like the Center for Biological Diversity to sue the government. Other budget items include “plans” to recover species (but not the “action” to save them) and about $100 million per year for land acquisition.
That's right, USFWS provides taxpayer-funded government grants to extremists, to sue us for living. Our tax dollars are being used against us. As one of our occasional contributors likes to say, "over-active government is a fraud magnet". USFWS is not limited government. It is an example of mission creep and bureaucratic sprawl, if ever there was one. The article continues,

The Barred Owl is just one local example of these corrupt, inefficient operations at work. The USFWS listed the Northern Spotted Owl in 1990, causing financial ruin for many Pacific Northwest communities. Now, after more than 20 years of massive restrictions on human activity, the USFWS has been forced to admit that the process of natural selection has more to do with the dwindling Spotted Owl population as it loses out to its bigger and more adaptable cousin, the Barred Owl.

Human activity was irrelevant  to this inevitable outcome. The Barred Owl will eventually exterminate the Spotted Owl. I wrote about this story here. However, now that USFWS intends to reverse  nature and deny natural selection, it is worth looking at this agency and realizing the Spotted Owl fiasco was just a template of future behavior by this arm of our government. 

The Barred Owls are toast, but at least USFWS haven't started killing us yet - not physically anyway. The article goes on to enumerate four or five examples of un-checked, un-elected bureaucratic over reach, and offers a solution. WE don't want to spoil the ending, so please go and read the entire article. 
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On Independence Day, Liberty, and Kings

7/2/2013

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Picture
Two hundred thirty-seven years ago, as Abraham Lincoln described it so brilliantly, “our forefathers brought forth to this continent a new nation conceived in Liberty.”

As Independence Day nears, it’s a good time to reflect on that ideal - on liberty and the meaning of representative government, particularly as it operates here.

Numerous local campaigns are underway, and politicians of all stripes will vie for votes promising to “protect” every aspect of modern life for us - health, safety, and welfare.  Some campaign promises will likely include pledges to protect the world from us. Will protection include safekeeping citizens liberty? Likely few candidates will willingly address the growing reach and imbalance of the local administrative state, and how that impacts freedom. Even the best-intentioned may find themselves veering away from the topic, worried that standing up for freedom will be interpreted as radical.

Our forefathers suffered prolonged distress and oppression at the hands of a king at a time when power was centralized, and top-down hierarchy was the norm of social order. The will of “the people” was an irritant, and loyal subjects had no choice but endure the indignities of subservience. The power of the state was absolute, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were vulnerable to the whims of local magistrates and bureaucracies. Freedom was limited to permissions. [Does this ring any bells?] And measures to maintain the king’s central order carried the weight of the crown, without regard to rights or the burdens carried by the “governed.”

The nation’s founders, early classical liberals, dared to rebel when talk of liberty sent upstarts to the gallows. The colonials fought, somehow prevailed, and the rest as they say “is history.” Every 4th of July flags wave, and we celebrate living in the land of the free.

How much of the founding Liberty that Lincoln spoke of is still relevant? Has the protection of our freedoms become passe' now, if that duty is considered at all?  Perhaps some rights should be forfeited to achieve bureaucratically controlled designs to achieve community “visions” of progress.  And perhaps we should accept that our private property is a "natural resource" that the state and county should manage.  NOT.  Much of this new local "governance" smacks of dominion, not far from the ham-fisted control that infuriated colonials.

While politicians walk in local parades this week surrounded by flags, touting American beliefs, conviction to freedom may not stir in their hearts. The idea that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth” may seem laughable and hackneyed. "Get with the program, times have changed. Polls confirm what the people want, which is holistic and sustainable community management."

We have a county executive who promised he wouldn't “be ideological,” but goes whole hog for this stuff. Following suit, candidates left and right scramble to avoid the issue of rights as they fit into the big picture. Have the foundations of representative democracy become vestigial, given the local political climate?  WE feel that top-down bullying and magisterial orders feel like a yoke. Mountains of bureaucratic dictums and regulation should not incapacitate the flexibility and wisdom of the people to manage their lives, businesses, homes, and farms.  The "the private sector" must not be considered the government's oyster.

WE are not in bad company. Here’s a quote written by the Supreme Court that’s only a few days old:

         “The essence of democracy is that the right to make law rests in the people and flows to the government, not the other way around. Freedom resides first in the people without need of a grant from government.”

Those words were published in Washington DC on June 26th in regard to state initiatives. It’s something of a national shame that the statement was written in a Supreme Court dissent (Case 12-144).

Four justices that some would expect not to agree did agree about “these truths.”  (Justices Kennedy, Thomas, Alito and Sotomayor)  So, the principles of liberty still rattle in a few highly placed heads, just as these important concepts remain central to our state and federal constitutions. But how functionally important are liberty concepts here, in this county?

Too often in the hallowed halls of the Whatcom County courthouse it's said that “people need to give up some rights” for the greater good. Really? Should that ever be necessary, much less permissible? And we hear that "anything not permitted isn't permitted."  Government is taking our rights, and selling them back to us as permits! How does that "square" with the Supreme Court statement above?

This area's bureaucrats assume a prostrate position when interpreting federal and state dictums, particularly any dictum that comes with grant funds tied to its tail.

Instead of the state having to prove that some problem or nuisance has occurred, citizens are asked to “prove” that future activity will do no harm. Precautionary principle trumps constitutional principle. Our local guilty until proven innocent regulations and restrictions about "community resource protection" turn justice itself on its head.


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Speaking of heads, Jack Louws has made a habit of saying he’s "the head of Whatcom County."  WE see a bit of a crown on the guy...  Has “a man who would be king” moved into the corner office of the county courthouse? For years he's been sitting on boards, voting to wheel-and-deal public funds, and building up a retinue of courtiers.

He and his county department heads don't seem overly fond of Council scrutiny.  Recent moves were made to expand administrative latitude to simplify (avoid) council's informed review and consent of spending decisions, "for efficiency."  Uh-huh.


PictureWho's the boss?
And talk in the county is that he brought the “Lynden Mafia” along. Well-heeled consigliares and lieutenants whisper in his ear, with raging appetites to split economic and resource pies.  Not all policy decisions affecting our lives and business are made in council chambers, not by a long shot.

WE dislike the notion that kingly power, or godfathers, should dominate representative government. Legitimate power "rests in the people." Here's to honest self-governance, open and accountable.

This nation once confronted a king, declaring
  • He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. (See Executive appointments and advisory committees, plus other favored "partners" and special "teams".)

  • He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. (Remember this, with it's educational goal being "give in".)

  • He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; … in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. (Promoting that Whatcom County should go along with outside control and interests, like the WIT - and this outside "integration" isn't going away.)

You may recognize these brief excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. But aren't we getting that sort of treatment today?

WE thought this was supposed to be a free country. We feel the people deserve better than to be "managed." We're citizens, not subjects.


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PLF Wins Case Against Offsite Mitigation Extortion!

7/2/2013

1 Comment

 
PictureVictory!
    In January WE shared news that the Supreme Court accepted a case fought by Pacific Legal Foundation related to wetlands mitigation for land disturbance, "Koontz v. St. Johns River Management District."

We are happy to report that they won, and that nexus and proportionality really do matter.  There's a great video about the case here at YouTube, and additional information at the PLF site.

The opinion states:  "Our decisions in Nollan v. California Coastal Comm’n, 483 U. S. 825 (1987) , and Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U. S. 374 (1994) , provide important protection against the misuse of the power of land-use regulation. In those cases, we held that a unit of government may not condition the approval of a land-use permit on the owner’s relinquishment of a portion of his property unless there is a “nexus” and “rough proportionality” between the government’s demand and the effects of the proposed land use. In this case, the St. Johns River Water Management District (District) believes that it circumvented Nollan and Dolan because of the way in which it structured its handling of a permit application submitted by Coy Koontz, Sr., whose estate is represented in this Court by Coy Koontz, Jr. 1 The District did not approve his application on the condition that he surrender an interest in his land. Instead, the District, after suggesting that he could obtain approval by signing over such an interest, denied his application because he refused to yield. The Florida Supreme Court blessed this maneuver and thus effectively interred those important decisions. Because we conclude that Nollan and Dolan cannot be evaded in this way, the Florida Supreme Court’s decision must be reversed."   [Complete case information is available at the bottom of this post]


Here's more from Justia.com:

In 1972 Koontz bought 14.9 undeveloped acres. Florida subsequently enacted the 1972 Water Resources Act, requiring a permit with conditions to ensure that construction will not be harm water resources and the 1984 Henderson Wetlands Protection Act, making it illegal to “dredge or fill in, on, or over surface waters” without a wetlands permit. The District with jurisdiction over the Koontz land requires that applicants wishing to build on wetlands offset environmental damage by creating, enhancing, or preserving wetlands elsewhere. Koontz decided to develop 3.7-acres. In 1994 he proposed to raise a section of his land to make it suitable for building and installing a stormwater pond. To mitigate environmental effects, Koontz offered to foreclose development of 11 acres by deeding to the District a conservation easement. The District rejected Koontz’s proposal and indicated that it would approve construction only if he reduced the size of his development and deeded a conservation easement on the larger remaining property or hired contractors to improve District wetlands miles away. Koontz sued under a state law that provides damages for agency action that constitutes a taking without just compensation. The trial court found the District’s actions unlawful under the requirements of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard, that the government may not condition permit approval on the owner’s relinquishment of a portion of his property unless there is a nexus and rough proportionality between the demand and the effects of the proposed use. The court of appeal affirmed, but the Florida Supreme Court reversed.  (more)
Complete Supreme Court docket, Case 11-1447  here

Cornell University Law School (page)
  • Syllabus [HTML] [PDF]
  • Opinion, Alito [HTML] [PDF]
  • Dissent, Kagan [HTML] [PDF]
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