| NorthWest Citizen.us Let's do the Public's business in public. by John Servais, Bellingham Archived Page - Nov 4, 2003 Election Commentaries Mayor My election recommendations were posted Oct 31, just below. Tue, Nov 4 Day of our decision. County Auditor Shirley Forslof will have the election results posted online as soon as or even before the printed copies are brought out her office door to those of us in the court house rotunda. First absentee tally may be posted by 8:15 pm. Mon, Nov 3 Sunday's Herald front page story on the mayor's race again showed us how to skew reporting to favor your candidate. John Stark does this type of reporting on a regular basis. His story lists controversial contributors to Brett's campaign at the very top of page 1. Not reported was how many of Asmundson contributors have jobs because of the city, are appointed to commissions by him, or have business contracts with the city. A huge number. This is news. The Herald could have listed and questioned these people. It did not. At the top of page 1, the Herald managed to cram in facts that paint Brett as supported by the extreme right and accepting gross amounts of money from development interests. That most read top of page 1 Sunday Herald space was well used to hurt Bonner's chances with liberal and swing voters. Herald editors knew that would hurt Bonner - unless you want to think the editors are complete dunder heads with low intelligence. At the very end of the article, at the bottom of page 4, was some info on Mark's contributors. I checked the PDC filings and the Herald did not show Mark's largest contributors. Just some normal ones. A former mayor's wife. Wow. Nor did the Herald list the developer interests contributing to Asmundson's campaign. Pat Jones, anyone? They cough up or lose. I personally know of one closed door deal that has netted Mark one of his largest contributions - and another he tried that was turned down and they are supporting Brett. Both were one on one in his office with no one else present. Both were money in return for legislation to be presented to the council by Mark - legislation he has previously opposed or ignored. I learned of both on strict off the record conditions. But I can tell you they stink of corruption. The Herald is printing negative facts about Brett as subtly as it can. Without fair news reporting we citizens will always be guessing at who to vote for and who best represents our personal values. Mark is a corrupt mayor. You would never learn that from the Herald. Election Recommendations For what it is worth, here are my recommendations for the election. The basic values that I apply are for elected officials to have honesty and provide open government that is accountable to the citizens. We can all bring our different views to the public process, but without honest public process we have factionalism and corrupt government. Beyond that, environmental protection is the most important cause I support. Bellingham Mayor - Brett Bonner. Brett will be a fresh breeze and will try hard to provide open and honest government. Mark has not been honest, has taken vengeance on those he does not like, provides favors at public expense to his friends and is generally quite corrupt. I agree with what comes out of his mouth, but his actions do not follow his words. Bonner's election will encourage the council to set policy as it should and allow new liberal leadership to develop in Bellingham. Mark stifles liberal progress. City Council - John Watts, John Wilson and Terry Bornemann. Watts trys so hard to be a good representative that it doesn't matter whether we agree or disagree. Wilson should replace Bjornson for At Large. Louise is a leaf in the wind on issues and does not contribute to any solutions any longer. Don Hansey is a good conservative but his interests on the council would be too narrow. Terry has learned during this campaign that he needs to be more open to public input and process. Port of Bellingham - Jim Jorgensen. Jim will work with Scott Walker to make the Port work for our community again. Ginny has avoided being accountable to the citizens for her cozy deals with Port clients. Jim is highly qualified to contribute to our Port and economy. County Council - McShane and Kaufman. McShane is more environmentally responsible than Chappell, although he is certainly not the hero his adoring fans make him to be. He has flaws and is erratic in his decisions. Kaufman holds promise of being one of the most intelligent and energetic council members we have ever had. He should replace Crawford who is a knee jerk representative of gravel and development interests. Levy for EMS - NO. This levy is a tax increase to allow previous funds to be wasted on cultural projects. The EMS is not in any danger of under funding. But other pet projects are in danger. The fear tactics used for this campaign are despicable. Local governments and fire districts are playing a big shell game with our taxes. They just want more easy money. Thur, Oct 30 Will be posting election recommendations today. Have not had time for some good posts the past week. Reliable rumor has it that another weekly newspaper will start publishing in early November in Bellingham. Will be named "The Independent" and offer better coverage of local politics and events than the Weekly. For many of us wanting an alternative news to the Herald, the Weekly has been a huge disappointment after six months of publishing. It mainly serves as a vehicle for the Skinny, which while entertaining is not news. I tried to print Tip Johnson's excellent analysis of Mark Asmundson's record as mayor - a devastating analysis - in the Herald as an ad but they turned it down, saying they were not accepting any "negative" political ads. My my - such standards. Guess that does not apply to the letters they accept and the slanted news stories. The letters slandering Brett Bonner are amazing. Guess negative only applies to Mark. It also means that an incumbent's record while in office is immune from analysis. Some free press. Have you heard about the write in campaign for the many liberals and Democrats who will not vote for Mark but cannot bring themselves to vote for Brett? They are writing in "Dirty Dan Harris" on their ballots. They are distributing bumper stickers, buttons and other campaign materials. This was started by some card carrying Democrats in the city - some well up in the organization. Wish I had more time to research for this posting. Lots the Herald is missing that is important news of local politics and business. Hopefully the Independent will fill the huge gap for news in this community. And sorry for those who check daily that I am unable to provide daily nuggets of confirmed news that is ignored by the Herald. That was always my goal, but the work of verifying is immense. Wed, Oct 22 So the Public Disclosure Commission is investigating Foster without any complaint. Yet they pretend to not know of flagrant violations of the PDC laws being committed by Mark Asmundson as mayor - to wit, the use of the City of Bellingham website to promote the passage of the Levy for EMS. The PDC has been written about this and they are choosing to ignore it, citing a court ruling they say ties their hands. We will hear more about this issue after the election - when it is too late. It stinks. And no one in a position of responsibility will touch it. The Herald continues to print stories only after I break them on this website - and has never extended the common courtesy of a credit to NwCitizen for breaking a story. A courtesy common between newspapers. Indeed, Herald reporters have frequently told me they check this website daily for story ideas. So do other news organizations - yet only KGMI has ever given credit where credit is due. The question that you, gentle reader, should ask yourself is: would the Herald report some stories if they had not been reported here first? One of the writers of the commentaries being posted has written me to say they had no idea so many people read this website. That writer has gotten a lot of feedback on their commentary. I am pleased that these people have written for NwCitizen. Their independent commentaries are very credible and are written from a deep involvement in our local politics. Mon, Oct 20 10 pm Noon Sun, Oct 19 On the levy, low cost rentals and the mayor's gag order. Today's Herald devoted much of the first section of the paper to promoting the levy tax for EMS services, under the guise of reporting the issues. They printed two big graphs showing increases of responses and budget for EMS over the years. Two graphs were missing that could have told the rest of the story. A graph for the same years showing total local taxes collected and a graph showing the percent of taxes that goes to EMS over the years. By ommission, the Herald made it look like EMS costs have risen while tax revenues have remained flat. A very false impression. Mayor Mark will strike a blow against affordable housing at Monday's city council meeting. He will propose that loopholes be closed that allow accessory dwellings. These are the most wonderful way of providing low cost rentals, supervised student rentals, infilling of neighborhoods and low impact housing for people. Why any thinking liberal can support Mark is beyond me. Can anyone get Mark or the four council members up for re-election to comment on my Oct 14 story that Mark has gagged the city council from talking to anyone on the Clean Water Alliance? The Herald has nothing on this - and that is probably because Mark asked them to not run it. Cozy relationship there. Or maybe the Herald will print it two weeks late - like they finally did today on the Bonner and the Unions story that NwCitizen posted on Oct 9. Oh - the mayor is allowing the city attorneys to talk to the opposing lawyers - but not to the CWA folks the city is supposedly working with. Why? Because Mark is trying to torpedo the lawsuit. Bottom line question - why the big silence on the gag order? It is real - and you have only read it on NwCitizen. Why? How can this town run day to day without acknowledging reality - like the mayor gagging the city council? Where is everyone? Is this town so neurotic that it cannot handle the facts and truth about itself? Gag orders are a serious business. Ask a city council person. Go to the city council on Monday and ask them. Ask the mayor. Is there a gag order on a lawsuit about our drinking water? Why? I challenge any real environmental liberals on these issues. You say you support Mark for clean water and housing for low income folks. Mark is a sham when it comes to those issues. He works against both. Fri, Oct 17 What closed door deal has Mark made with Foster? That is the question making the political rounds this afternoon. Foster Rose, who came in third in the primary election for mayor, today endorsed mayor Mark Asmundson for reelection. Foster's voters have been seen as swing voters who might go for Mark or challenger Brett Bonner. How many of them will follow Foster's suggestion now becomes a big question in this campaign. Why is a deal suspected? Because after the primary, Foster went to Brett and said he would endorse Brett if he, Foster, was promised the position of deputy mayor should Brett be elected mayor. Brett told him no and that he was not making any promises to anyone before the election. This included his own closest campaign supporters. A couple weeks later, at Foster's request, a second meeting took place between Foster and his advisor and Brett and his advisors. Again Foster made his request. Again Brett told him no. No deals before the election. Over the past couple weeks I've heard about Foster's request from several political observers who are not with either campaign. So the word was out on the street. There is no position of deputy mayor. The closest is Don Keenan's position of Administrative Assistant. We doubt Mark would trade Don for Foster. Let us not forget that Brett made no deal - even with the prospect of gaining what might be the winning margin for the mayor's office. Thur, Oct 16 Tip Johnson has written the best analysis of the mayor Mark's record that will appear anywhere. Tip, a hero to local environmentalists and liberals, takes an honest and courageous look at Mark Asmundson. Tip served two terms on the Bellingham City Council - several years of that with Mark. Tip knows him well and he knows city politics as well as any other person in town. His analysis is long but does not waste words. The mayor's race is gut wrenching for liberals and Tip explores this complicated situation. He knows what he is writing about from first hand experience. This is the piece that this election deserves. His commentary is most useful for liberals trying to decide how to vote for mayor. He has worked several weeks on it and the result is comprehensive. It is also a good read. My thanks to Tip for this commentary. Wed, Oct 15 The Bellingham Police Guild will endorse Don Hansey today for city council. Their executive board voted 100% last night to endorse Hansey and not Bornemann. To most political observers this will be a surprise as Terry Bornemann is part of the local law enforcement organization as a parole officer with the county. It turns out the police saw Terry pointing out undercover police to anti-war protestors last spring at an anti-war rally. Terry apparently knows who the undercover cops are because of his law enforcement job. Of course, this raises the obvious question of why is the police chief sending undercover cops to these rallys? This is a waste of taxpayer money and nothing more than preparation for the harassment of citizens exercising their civil rights. Are they looking for the organizers? Why? However, Terry's actions are appalling - if he did point out the disguised cops. And a reason for tossing him out of his job as a parole officer. If he knew who the undercover cops were because of his council position then it is also a reason for him to be voted out of office. We may strongly disagree with the undercover police presence at a peaceful and legal rally, but for a law enforcement official to out fellow officers is appalling. The Police Guild believes Terry did this. Tue, Oct 14 2:45 pm In the afternoon closed executive session, Mayor Mark and his city attorney Joan Hoisington put a gag order on all council members regarding the litigation against the county on Lake Whatcom. She has no basis in law to do this - but Mark is performing a squeeze play and needs silence until the election. To his liberal supporters he is pretending to be for cleaning up the lake, while he secretly sabotages all efforts to do so. Last evening, in what was obviously a carefully planned process by the council, Terry Bornemann as council president changed the agenda and moved the EMS resolution to the first spot on the agenda. He then opened the meeting for public comment - to an almost empty council chamber. One person spoke for the levy. Then each council member made a lengthy speech for the levy - all of this focused to run repeatedly on Channel 10 this week. No public hearing was on the agenda. The resolution was way back in the agenda. This liberal council again showed its disdain and contempt for public process and open government. My liberal friends have told me it is OK when it is their agenda. They just get upset when conservatives use dirty tricks for their agenda. John Watts tried to belittle those against the levy by quoting Oscar Wilde, that they "...know the price of everything and the value of nothing." Well, Mr. Watts, the rejoinder to that in the play was "...a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything, and doesn't know the market price of any single thing." 7:00 am State law forbids use of public office or agency facilities in campaigns. It forbids the use of public facilities to promote a ballot proposition. The city website is certainly public facilities and the home page promotes the ballot proposition for the levy. Very cut and dry. Well, don't expect the city to comply with the law willingly, and don't expect the PDC to enforce the law. The PDC has been wimping out of late to enforcing its own laws. But we citizens can vote 'NO' on this levy - this extra tax - this attempted extortion by the mayor. The only dedicated, stable funding for emergency services is from our general fund - our normal taxes. We should not trust levies to fund vital services. Levies are for extras like Greenways. Would not the idea of funding fire protection by levy be absurd on its face? We pay taxes for vital services. We have supported the EMS for over 25 years from our regular taxes. If the mayor got out of the business of subsidizing builders and trying to buy and sell land then we would have the money for EMS. I'll be voting no. Mon, Oct 13 Very quietly, more and more liberals are telling me they are voting for Brett Bonner for mayor. Some very prominent ones - but they are not going public. Why not? Fear of retaliation. Why are they against Mark? Two reasons in general. 1. He is duplicitous as he runs city hall from behind closed doors, cutting deals and ensuring his own power. Liberals are realizing that hearings and council considerations of issues only happen after the deals are put together. Mark brings many things to the council in "emergency" form, such as the land deal on Division Street a few months ago that was a gift for a personal friend of Mark's. Remember? 2. He does not actually accomplish any liberal projects. Lake Whatcom is not protected and Mark has undermined several "environmental" projects that would have protected it. Neighborhoods have to defend themselves against Mark's closely controlled Planning Department. Birchwood, Whatcom Falls, Happy Valley, Lettered Streets - and even the Edgemore neighborhoods have all been blind sided by Mark's "liberal" planning department. We now learn the subsidies for all that downtown construction is coming out of our pockets and going into the pockets of Mark's friends, the owners of the Barkley Village. Sharon Crozier has a second commentary on her views of Mark and Brett. Sharon is very active, very liberal and made Lake Whatcom protection a top campaign issue in her run for mayor. Sharon has a lot of courage. She does not come out for Brett, but her angst is very evident. I'm liberal and am voting for Brett. To me it is shameful that liberals and Democrats will overlook serious corruption and duplicity in our mayor just because he is a Democrat. If we liberals think we are morally superior to right wingers then we fail miserably when we wink and support a crooked politician. Privately, every liberal and Democrat I've talked with has agreed that Mark is terrible. But they cannot bring themselves to say it in public. Shame on them. Their silence may enable Mark to be reelected. Thur, Oct 9 The political junkies around town are abuzz about the trap Brett Bonner stepped into on Tuesday evening at the Labor Council. Dave Warren blind sided Brett without even allowing an introduction. They jammed questions at him, and baited him. It ended with Dave Warren, supposedly retired as prez of the group, telling Bonner to leave - get out. Why? Because Mayor Mark is spending his money at out of town print shops that are union - and for that the unions will do anything for him. In labor speak, Mark has "come to jesus". No matter that Mark's print job does not benefit any workers in Bellingham. Brett got a lesson in local labor politics. He accepted their invitation in good faith. Wed, Oct 8 A citizen askes a question of Mark Asmundson, on left, and Brett Bonner during the Mayoral debate at the Soapbox Forum today.
The two differed strongly on several issues. The differences between them are becoming more apparent and this should continue for the next two weeks. Brett continues to develop his Lake Whatcom protection plans in a way that should appeal to the most strident environmentalists. He said - and passed out a white paper stating - that as mayor the inaction of the past several years will end. Brett will assert Bellingham's authority under state law to take the lead in protecting the lake - even if that means taking legal control of the entire watershed. Mark poo poohed that idea, saying the city cannot do that by law and listing his plans - more committees, more studies, more research and more discussions. Mark's leadoff question to Brett was to challenge him to name what groups and organizations have endorsed him. Brett replied that very few have and noted that it is perceived that those who do not support Mark know they risk retaliation in their dealings with city hall. Brett noted the fire and police organizations endorsed Mark without interviewing himself. He also noted Mark is a registered Democrat and of course they also did not invite Brett to be interviewed. Brett's leadoff question to Mark asked why Mark spent over $5,000 in Seattle for printing his brochures. Mark replied that he needed top quality and needed them done on time. He also said the Seattle print shop he used was Union and provided health benefits and other benefits to its employees. Brett responded that he kept his spending in Bellingham and Whatcom County and felt he got full value here. Let's see how the Herald does with this in the morning. John Stark was there taking notes. Sun, Oct 5 Remember the 'Truth Squad'? We need one to follow Asmundson during the next three weeks - and to nudge the Herald to do minimal checking of facts before publishing. I'm referring to Friday's post below, where it was noted how Stark allowed Mark to phone in why he, Mark, had done the surprise raise in our taxes the day after his re-election in 1999. Mark said it was caused by the passage of initiative 695 on the day before - which limited taxes. Tilt. The Herald on Thurs, Nov 4, 1999 reports that Asmundson told the council that he realized the previous Sunday - two days before the election - that a tax increase of 3% was needed. He did not cite 695 as a reason. Indeed, he said a "695 version" - a further scaled down budget - would be presented at a later date. The tax increase was needed because he needed extra funds for his budget expenditures. Asmundson had the special session of the city council called on short notice for the day after the election - Wed, Nov 3. He presented the budget and talked the council into voting for it - even though they had no chance to study the budget. Lynn Carpenter, then city Finance Director urged council members to "comb through" the budget to see if a tax increase was really needed. Asmundson was visibly upset with her and said her figures were "goofball percentages". Bob Ryan switched his vote to give 5 votes needed for passage as a "courtesy" to Mark. Only Gene Knutson had the gumption to stick with his 'NO' vote. In 1999, Mark repeatedly promised no tax increase before the election. He could not present the budget to the council in October, as required by law, because the "computer was down". He delayed until after the election. And revealed a tax increase. This year, 2003, he is promising top priority for Lake Whatcom - something he has moved very slowly on for eight years. And my environmental friends believe him. Mark routinely fudges the truth - and worse - and gets away with it. With the council, with the Herald and with us citizens. We need to remember this election that this guy has said whatever he thought needed to be said for his agenda for eight years now. He is dishonest on a routine basis. We cannot trust him even day to day. As I talk to my liberal friends each day - and local Democratic Party operatives - they all admit that Mark is dishonest and they are embarrassed about him. Some say they will not vote for him - but they will not admit that in public. For the rest of us liberals and progressives who are not morally corrupt party followers, we should vote for Brett Bonner. Remove Mark, a very dishonest politician, from public trust. Fri, Oct 3 If you're a liberal and just figure you'll vote for Mark for mayor, then read Tip Johnsn's analysis of the two candidates. Compared to John Stark's report in this morning's Herald, Tip gives a far superior and more objective analysis of last night's debate. Further, Tip did not allow one candidate to phone him after the debate to fix his bad rebuttals. Stark actually included Mark's phoned in comments in his report. (Mark did have time to complete his answer but chose to tell us how much he "loved" his job.) No telling how much more of Stark's report was influenced by Mark's phone call. How cozy. Tip ends by writing "...I think it is time for a change." Tip served on the city council with Mark and knows him well. He writes about Mark abusing the public process with the Mason Building - the Pit fiasco. He comprehensively covers the debate. He, as commentator, adds information of value for the reader rather than allowing a candidate to add information to make up for muffed debate answers. Thur, Oct 2 11:00 pm
8:00 am John's reporting implies the opponents of the levy think Medic One is too fancy. He fails to report that Nick used the description the Medic One administrators use to describe their own program. Either John does not know the history or he purposely intended to misinform the Herald readers. Either way, it is yet another example of how the Herald slants reporting to promote their own agendas. |
The Town Crier - a new Bham site, with opinions on local, state and national issues. Below in this column: Candidate websites Auditor Election Results Whatcom County Auditor Bellingham Port of Bellingham Whatcom County To Top of page Current Issues - local Waterfront Futures for Bellingham Not Found To Top of page US President - candidates Four worth watching To Top of page
To Top of page War and Peace - mideast truthout - Reports & Opinions Our Future as a country To Top of page News & Opinion - national Doonesbury Online Le Monde Diplomatique France. Blue Ear Participatory reporting WebActive Audio & video clips Online Journal US - very good The Nation Progressive Chronology of American State Terrorism A documented web site. Drudge Report Good as NBC. Corporate Media Guide Who owns what media Tom Warner's web site plus a NwCitizen page with links. To Top of page Whatcom Links - local The Town Crier - Bham opinions Bellingham Herald - daily news Lake Whatcom water quality Stop the FTAA site No to SE2 - Sumas Energy Civic Access - a bit out of date
To Top of page Community - local & afar City of Bellingham The G.R.I.T. of Sultan To Top of page Reference - reports & issues NTSB Olympic Pipeline explosion report Bellingham, June 1999 Scorecard.org Wisconsin & Mercury Fateful Harvest Toxic metals in our common garden fertilizers. Also list of what is in that bag of fertilizer you just bought. Canadian Genocide Crimes by Canada against native peoples Making Sense Of It All - 9/11 Rep. Dick Armey On ethnic cleansing of Palestinians Fitz Creek photo Named for the director of WA Dept of Ecology. Photo of the DC snipers at a party in Bellingham in 2002. Angel Drayton posts are on a special page. To Top of page Know of a good site? To Top of page |
