The July 10 Planning Commission Meeting was worthy of note. A Commission majority seems to be growing comfortable with their authority and staff relations - perhaps a bit too comfortable.

At 0:00:50 Chair Onkels introduces planning staffer Personious who reports that the Widespread Slaughter ordinance passed unanimously at the July 8 County Council meeting.

It’s not clear who is saying what, but a flurry of comment erupts, “That’s ‘cause they were exhausted, worn out and done”, “We exhausted them on that one”, “They turned that one into a corpse anyway.” Then Personious reminds them it is under appeal and still subject to a compliance hearing. Oh, buzzkill!

Discussion proceeds to one of their other GMA compliance issues, the Slater Road rezone, a LAMIRD (Limited Areas of More Intense Rural Development) involving an illegal car lot that was ordered to remove the cars. They moved them long before their followup inspection, but then brought the vehicles back. Some commissioners wondered if such scofflaw behavior should be rewarded, but Elenbaas - also an ardent proponent of Widespread Slaughter - had another take:

At 1:29:34, he says, “The fact that he is here with an application and, and the process shows me that he does want to comply, ‘cause there’s a lot of ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag flying citizens here in Whatcom County who would just pull out their shotgun and tell the planning staff to get to steppin’, so, um, I got to applaud him for that.”

Commissioner Haugen objects to Elenbaas’ threatening language, but chair Onkels gavels him down repeatedly, asserting Elenbaas still has the floor.

Elenbaas continues, “Alright…”, but stalls. Onkels asks if he would like a minute to compose his thoughts. Ellenbaas replies, “Yeah…”, but stalls again, saying, “Deep breath…Uh…It’s gone…I’m completely focused on Commissioner Haugen right now.”

The shotgun thing seems to run in the Elenbaas family. It doesn’t seem like Commissioner Haugen is fitting into Elenbaas’ Rural Rights paradigm.

Tip Johnson