The current majority on the Whatcom County Council has instituted what I believe to be fiscally misguided policies designed to promote urban sprawl.

Their decisions will increase unfunded county budget deficits, rapidly draining needed reserve funds.

The council voted to spend $12 million dollars, of its total road fund of $20 million, in the unincorporated area around Birch Bay. Federal census data was, I believe, distorted by the county to indicate a population of 7,800 for the area from the border of Semiahmoo in the north to the border of Ferndale in the south, and from Interstate 5 in the east to the Strait of Georgia in the west.

They call it "Birch Bay;" if it were a city which it is not, it would have a city limits larger than that of the city of Bellingham, yet at 7,800, less than one-tenth the population of Bellingham.

Birch Bay has been made a poster-child for uncontrolled urban sprawl, by a council lead by an individual with I believe an obvious conflict of interest.

The council deliberately became "noncompliant" with our state's Growth Management Act, which means millions of dollars in state funds could now be lost.

Please vote for Alan Black and Christina Maginnis to reaffirm the rule of law.

Lincoln Rutter

Blaine