From Paben

I just got done reading John Stark’s story today about former Rep. Kelli Linville deciding to run against Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike and I saw her comment about winning all of the precincts in Bellingham during the last election. She narrowly lost to Republican Vincent Buys of the Everson area.

Linville

I decided to do a deeper look at the numbers from the last election, which ended in a recount her race with Buys was so close.

She did, indeed, win every single Bellingham precincts, and not a single precinct was even close. Here are some facts from that race:

• Overall, Linville took 70 percent of the vote, and Buys 30 percent, in Bellingham
• Linville’s best showing was precinct 219, where she got 84.6 percent of the vote. That’s in the northern portion of the York neighborhood.
• Her worst showing was in precinct 202, where she got 54.5 percent of the vote. That precinct includes areas south of West Bakerview Road and west of Meridian Street.
• I don’t know if she still lives along Eldridge (I know she did, at least). But the precinct for her stretch of Eldridge voted 72.4 percent in favor of her.

Click here to see a spreadsheet I did.

I’ll take a look at Pike’s election in a separate post.

From Stark:

Mayor Dan  Pike says he’s expecting a re-election challenge from Kelli Linville,  the former state representative who is making an unspecified political announcement this afternoon.

Pike said Linville personally informed him several days ago that she would be running, and Pike said he appreciated that gesture. He also praised her long record in Olympia before her 2010 defeat in the 42nd District at the hands of Republican newcomer Vincent Buys.

But he also said that an executive has “a completely different skillset” from a legislator.

“I think this is a time to continue with a steady hand at the helm,” Pike said. “It’s not a time to turn things over to someone learning a new job.”

During his term in office, Pike said he’s attracted some opposition from real estate agents and developers for his efforts to limit the size of the city’s urban growth area. He also reckons his effort to relax the city’s restrictions on big-box retail displeased some in the environmental community, as well as labor unions.  And his successful effort to create a transportation benefit district tax probably didn’t sit well with many retailers.

But he contends that the overall level of satisfaction with city services and Bellingham life in general will be an asset in his reelection bid.

He said he has successfully maintained core services and kept the city on a sound financial footing during a difficult economic climate.

From Stark

Kelli Linville, former 42nd District state representative, said this morning (Monday March 7) that she expects to make an announcement this afternoon.

Speculation about Linville’s likely Bellingham mayoral candidacy has not been in short supply for the last few weeks. When I spoke to her this morning, she declined to confirm that she is announcing that candidacy today.

“So for all we know, you could be announcing your retirement from politics?” I asked.

“I don’t think it will be my retirement from politics,” she replied.

(I don’t think so either.)

If Linville does run for mayor, it sets up an interesting contest between her and Mayor Dan Pike, as well as City Council member Barry Buchanan. Pike has already announced he will seek a second term, and Buchanan’s candidacy has already motivated a couple of strong Ward 3 candidates to file for his council seat.

Update: Here’s a link to the “Bag It Bellingham” website promoting the ordinance.

From Stark

BELLINGHAM—City Council member Seth Fleetwood is spearheading a proposed city ordinance that would ban plastic shopping bags within city limits, while requiring retailers to levy a five-cent fee for every paper bag used by a customer.
The intent is to encourage shoppers to carry their own reusable bags.

“The object is to kick start behavioral change,” Fleetwood said in a press release. “We live in a profoundly wasteful culture with horrendous environmental implications and corresponding public costs. It’s time to lead by example.”

A similar statewide measure proposed in the current session of the legislature appears dead.

Here’s a link to the proposed city ordinance, which is seven pages long not counting the signature page.

There are lots of interesting wrinkles–a provision exempting low-income people from the nickel fee; a provision allowing a store to get a temporary exemption from the law that would be granted by the mayor; and provisions specifying that bags used inside the store (bulk food bags, for example) are not being outlawed.

In an interview the afternoon of Friday, March 4, Fleetwood said he has no immediate plans to introduce the ordinance for council consideration. He prefers to let the draft ordinance trigger some community discussion first. He added that the ordinance will likely be changed as it moves through the official adoption process.

From Stark

A cut in moorage rates for commercial fishermen will be back on the Port of Bellingham commission’s agenda Tuesday, March 1.
At a meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. in the Harbor Center conference room, 1801 Roeder Ave., commissioners are expected to discuss a proposal to lower the commercial moorage rate for vessels smaller than 80 feet to $5.90 per foot per month, from the current $6.92.
At their last meeting Feb. 15, 2011, commissioners voted 2-1 against a bigger cut, to $5.39, but all three commissioners also indicated they wanted to take steps to support the existing commercial fleet and encourage growth in that sector locally.
Fishing vessel owners and supporters in the fish processing and marine services industries have been trying to convince commissioners that a cut in moorage rates would mean more job-generating fishing boats using Bellingham and Blaine as their base of operations. The Port of Bellingham’s current commercial rate at Squalicum Harbor and Blaine is above rates charged in Seattle and some other ports, although port officials also say that other operating costs are lower here.

I’ll have a complete report online and in print in the next few days, and I expect to be at Tuesday’s meeting.

From Stark

BELLINGHAM—The City Council took a small, cautious step toward a landlord licensing program during a Thursday, Feb. 24 committee discussion on how best to improve enforcement of city codes regulating rental dwellings.

The four members of the council’s Planning and Community Development Committee—Gene Knutson, Michael Lilliquist, Seth Fleetwood and Chairman Jack Weiss—agreed to ask city staffers to draw up a draft landlord licensing ordinance for public scrutiny and council discussion.

It appears likely that it will be months before a draft ordinance is ready for the next step in the process. Chief Administrative Officer David Webster told the committee that it may take awhile for city departments to estimate the costs of administering such a program.

Committee members agreed they want the cost and the regulatory burden for landlords to be minimal. Weiss suggested an annual fee of $24 per rental unit, which he said would raise $360,000 a year based on an estimate of about 15,000 privately-owned rental units in the city. The money would be used to hire new city staff to beef up enforcement of city codes, in response to complaints from tenants. Education of tenants could also be a component of the program.

Weiss said conscientious landlords would benefit, because better city enforcement would reduce competition from landlords who don’t properly care for their properties. Weiss said he also wanted to offer landlords city help in dealing with problem tenants.

Some property owner representatives at the meeting were not reassured.

I’m at work on an expanded report on this meeting for online and Friday print editions.

From Stark

Hold on a minute–While Mayor Pike’s office agrees that he will appear and debate the red-light camera issue before the Northwest Business Club, there appears to be some confusion about the date. I hope you wrote this one down on your calendar in pencil. We will provide the date as soon as it becomes available.

The city of Bellingham’s proposal to install red-light cameras in some locations has become a hot issue. The cameras seem to draw opposition from a number of normally non-allied points on the local political spectrum.

Now, the Northwest Business Club is offering a public debate on the issue at a meeting scheduled for noon Wednesday March 9, 2011 at the Elks Lodge, 710 South Samish Way

Mayor Dan Pike will present the case for the cameras, while club member Dan Robbins, a club member and former mayoral candidate, offering the opposing view.

With Pike’s support, the City Council approved installation of the cameras in November 2010.

The cameras have been an issue in the current session of the state legislature, but as of today it is not clear if any bills to restrict those cameras will make it into law.

A buffet lunch commences at 11:45 and the meeting starts at noon.  Cost is $10 for annual members and $15 for others.  Visitors are welcome.

From Stark:

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen provided a brief statement Wednesday, Feb. 16 on the negotiation stalemate between Whatcom County and Lummi Nation over a new lease to insure continued operation of the Lummi Island Ferry.

I emailed Larsen for a comment after county officials said they had appealed to him and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell for their assistance in helping to resolve the matter.

“Whoever told the Lummi Nation that cutting off the lifeline of the 900 residents of Lummi Island is a good idea, is giving them terrible advice,” Larsen replied. ” I hope that the County and the Tribe will return to the table to negotiate a productive solution to this issue that addresses the needs of the local community.”

In a followup email, I have asked Larsen whether he is in a position to discuss this situation with federal agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Department of Interior, which oversees the bureau. I’ll relay his response as it becomes available.

Larsen spokeswoman Emily Halnon has relayed this response:

“Rick has reached out to the Bureau of Indian Affairs a number of times to clarify how the federal government can be involved in this process. There is not a regulatory or oversight role at the federal level other than the BIA approving the final lease on the tidelands-which does not include the lease for the actual land.”

I have also asked the tribe for a response to Larsen’s comment.

Tip Johnson, a former Bellingham City Council member and prominent civic activist, has examined documents from county archives going back more than 100 years that appear to document the existence of a county right-of-way for ferry access to the island, granted by the Department of the Interior.

Up to this point, county attorneys have said they didn’t think that the right-of-way argument was a trump card they could play in ferry negotiations.

But if the ferry issue moves from the negotiating table to the courtroom in a couple of months, it would not be surprising to see attorneys for the county and/or the islanders introducing these documents into evidence.

From Stark

Jared’s post about Delft Square spurred me to pull this press release off the bottom of the pile on my desk: Bellingham City Hall is being reviewed for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places and the Washington Heritage Register, according to a press release from the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

The review will be  conducted by the Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, at a meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. at the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation Conference Room at 1063 S. Capitol Way, Suite 106.

Among many other things, the press release says that historic designation would make it more difficult to get a permit to open a strip mine on the site of City Hall.

But seriously, City Hall is a very nice example of civic architecture from the New Deal period. I always enjoy those stylized wildlife friezes that grace the main lobby walls.

From Stark

The New York Times reported today that the coal export terminal for Longview may turn out to be a lot bigger than expected–if it can get past a court challenge.

The Longview terminal’s developers have talked about a rather small five-million-ton-per-year facility. That’s about one-fifth the early-stage estimate of the size of the Gateway Pacific terminal proposed for Whatcom County’s Cherry Point by SSA Marine of Seattle.

But now, according to the Times, court documents indicate that Millenium, the Longview developer, has held internal discussions about eventual expansion to 25 million tons, and that revelation has infuriated the project’s foes.

Without addressing the bait-and-switch allegations directly, another story in the Longview Daily News suggests that rail access constraints would keep the Longview terminal from growing much beyond five million tons annual capacity.

From Stark:

I’ve gotten a few calls and emails today from people scoffing at the idea that we now have 24 to 28 trains passing by on the local rail lines, as reported in today’s story about the impact that a proposed Cherry Point cargo terminal would have on rail traffic here.

If you have definitive information on this, let me know by email, phone call or blog post. Just had a nice chat with a Custer resident who insists that the 24-to-28-train total is at least double the actual amount today.

Of course, today’s total could be well below “normal,” since severe recession does reduce cargo shipments of all kinds.

From Stark

Via North Sound Baykeeper Matt Krogh: Here is a link to an article in the Longview Daily News about coal dust at the big Westshore coal terminal in Tsawwassen, B.C.

Among other things, boaters at the nearby Point Roberts Marina say they get coal dust on their boats. This is apparently the result of nearby coal terminal operations, not passing rail cars.

Terminal operators say they do their best to keep dust down, and some suggest that much of the dust that people complain about is just road and diesel soot that you get anywhere. But operators also admit that the operation does produce dust.

Longview is interested because a coal terminal is proposed for that city, although it would apparently be much smaller than the one in B.C., or the Gateway Pacific terminal proposed for Whatcom County at Cherry Point.

Note that the article says the Tsawwassen port gets 600 rail cars per day to serve its 29 million-ton-per-year capacity. Gateway Pacific would be about the same size, with proponents now estimating 25 million tons per year.

From Stark

SSA Marine spokesman Craig Cole left me voice mail this morning about today’s report on SSA Marine’s Gateway Pacific Terminal project.

Cole said it was incorrect to describe Goldman Sachs as a “major investor” in Carrix Inc., SSA’s parent firm.

Carrix and SSA continue to be controlled by the Smith family, whose forebears founded the company in Bellingham in the 1940s, Cole said.

My description of Goldman Sachs as a “major investor” was based on a 2007 press release from Carrix stating that “Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners has committed to a significant equity investment in the Company, positioning Carrix to capitalize on the substantial growth opportunity in the global port operations industry.”

Read more about Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners here on the Goldman Sachs website. Among other things, the web page says Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners makes investments ranging in size from $100 million to $400 million.

From Stark

The interest in the Wednesday, Feb.16 meeting to discuss Border Patrol tactics and operations apparently exceeds the capacity of the small Border Patrol conference room originally scheduled to contain it.

This morning, the agency announced that the site has been changed to the Performing Arts Center at Blaine School District, 1055 H Street, Blaine. Here’s the text of the agency announcement:

U.S. Border Patrol Town Hall Meeting moved to larger venue in Blaine

BLAINE – Due to overwhelming public interest, the meeting scheduled for February 16, 2011, from 5:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m., has been moved to the Blaine School District Performing Arts Center in order to accommodate all who wish to attend.  The Blaine School District Performing Arts Center is located at 1055 H Street, Blaine, Washington.

Residents living near the international boundary with Canada are invited to this town hall meeting with senior officials of the U.S. Border Patrol, Blaine Sector and Office of Air and Marine, Bellingham.  The meeting will begin with a general overview of Border Patrol operations and then open up to questions, concerns, and input from the public.

There is no longer a need to call if you would like to attend, however, if you have any questions regarding this event, the public affairs department can be reached at (360) 332-9255.

From Stark:

I had been expecting some heat from the crowd at Tuesday night’s public discussion of a proposed Parking and Business Improvement Area for the downtown and adjacent business areas.

But most of the audience of about 50 downtown business owners and landlords had more questions than complaints about the plan that would charge them a two-tenths of one percent levy on the assessed value of their buildings. That will happen only if owners representing 60 percent of the assessed value of the district sign petitions to the city to create the district, and the City Council agrees.

The PBIA levy differs from a property tax because failure to pay does not empower the city to put a lien on a property, even though the city creates the PBIA and collects the assessment, which would raise an estimated $300,000 a year. Proponents say the money would pay for added security, beautification and cleanup downtown.

The only person to speak out in opposition was city resident Rick Hannam, who said he was opposed to “tax scams.”  Hannam said he doesn’t own property or a business downtown.

Larry Feeney of GB Heron, a downtown jewelry store, said he thought the PBIA was a good idea, but he questioned how it would be created and controlled. He said building owners had the legal authority to approve the creation of the district, but tenants like him would wind up paying it through “triple net leases” that pass maintenance and other expenses on to them.

Commercial real estate broker Jim Bjerke said shopkeepers who lease commercial space have market power: Their landlords don’t want to lose them by piling on additional expenses. He also observed that in single-owner shopping areas such as Barkley Village, retailers are already paying high assessments to cover the kinds of services that the PBIA would perform downtown.

Bjerke said the PBIA assessments will be relatively low, and retail tenants will benefit.

“These fees will translate into nickels and dimes in a triple net,” Bjerke said. “This is actually going to have a positive effect on the presentation outsite the door of your store that is worth every dime.”

PBIA backers made it clear that the proposal is in its formative stages, and there will be more meetings and changes in the plan before it moves ahead — if it does. They also told Feeney that the PBIA board could be structured to include representatives of retail tenants like him.