PART 2: The Girlfriend, The Mother, The Mitigation Credits Hustle, and Robbing an Elderly Seller: The Evidence Gets Worse
- Brian Gass
- Jan 19
- 11 min read
Updated: Jan 26
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Throughout this story, I might refer to an "investigation" or comments related to it. Please know that we have an entire story coming up next that goes in-depth on it. I'll give you the punchline first: It was designed to protect the county and the corrupt planner, not to seek justice or to pay any attention to the VICTIMS.
Planning Departments Have Far More Power Than You Think
In our first article, we exposed how corrupt Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner Matt Mahaffie bought the 4470 Castlerock Drive property for $80,000 after issuing a restrictive wetland determination, then flipped it 18 months later for $229,000 after the problems mysteriously resolved, with him doing not a single thing to "improve" the property he deemed unbuildable for the previous owner.
One property. One suspiciously convenient flip. A 186% return in 18 months.
But that story only scratches the surface of how much power planning departments wield over property values—and how little accountability exists when that power is abused.
Here's what most people don't understand: Planning departments don't just approve or deny permits. They control what can be built, where, when, by whom, and ultimately what your property is WORTH.
A single wetland determination can:
Turn a $162,000 property into something "worthless."
Make a property unsellable for years
Force owners to accept pennies on the dollar
Then—if you're the right buyer—transform that "worthless" property back into a goldmine
This isn't about environmental protection. This is about who controls the knowledge of what's actually possible, and who profits from that information asymmetry.
The property transactions at 8358 and 8366 Blaine Rd in Blaine, Washington, show exactly how this works against the public.
First let's take a look at the players
The Players
Matt Mahaffie, the corrupt Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner since 2015. Reviews wetland determinations and critical area assessments. Decides what's buildable and what's not. Owns private wetland consulting company (Skagit Wetlands and Critical Areas, LLC) that operates in other counties. Formed Dead Goat Properties LLC in February 2019.
Lara Kratzer, Mahaffie's girlfriend. Lives at Mahaffie's home address. No apparent history as a real estate investor. Suddenly purchased 8358 Blaine Road in April 2019.
Reta Stephenson, Mahaffie's mother. Listed as registered agent for Dead Goat Properties. Submits permit applications for 8366 Blaine Road despite having no legal ownership or signing authority for the LLC.
Dead Goat Properties, LLC Shell company formed February 7, 2019—two months before purchasing 8366 Blaine Road. Governor: Matthew Mahaffie. Registered Agent: Reta Stephenson. The mailing address is the same as that of Mahaffie and Kratzer.
Miguelina Beckwith Widowed senior citizen. Owned two adjacent 7-acre properties on Blaine Road with a combined assessed value of $162,067. Properties had been on and off the market since 2015.
Tom Brissenden, Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner, who reviewed Mahaffie's permit applications for both Blaine Rd properties. He was also employed by Mahaffie's private consulting company, Skagit Wetlands and Critical Areas, LLC. (We'll expose just how bad this conflict was in our next article on the investigation cover-up.
The Hidden Ownership Structure
Here's how you hide a massive conflict of interest: Don't put the property in your own name.
The Properties:
8358 Blaine Road: 7 acres, assessed value $59,000
8366 Blaine Road: 7 acres, assessed value $103,067
Combined assessed value: $162,067
Both are owned by Miguelina Beckwith. Both had been in forestry/agricultural tax classification, creating back tax liability if converted to residential use. Both had for-sale signs suggesting they'd been on the market for extended periods.
The Purchase Structure:
8358 Blaine Road → Purchased by Lara Kratzer (girlfriend) for $70,000.
8366 Blaine Road → Purchased by Dead Goat Properties LLC (Mahaffie's shell company) for $10,000.
Not in Mahaffie's name. Not traceable to him unless you dig into corporate records and notice everyone shares the same address.
For properties with a combined assessed value of $162,067, Mahaffie's entities put down $30,000 in cash and immediately controlled both properties, with three years to work the permits before the $50,000 note came due.
Why this matters: As a county planner, Mahaffie would face immediate scrutiny when purchasing properties in areas where he reviews permits. But girlfriend purchases? Mother submitting applications for an LLC? That creates distance. That creates deniability.
That's the whole point.
The Seller's True Cost—She Paid to Be Robbed
Here's where the exploitation becomes crystal clear.
Mrs. Beckwith's costs were calculated on the $80,000 gross sale price. While she received $30,000 in cash at closing, there were some real costs that was hoisted on her:
What Beckwith Had to Pay:
1. Real Estate Commission (4-6% of $80,000): ~$4,800
2. Real Estate Excise Tax (1.78% in WA): $1,424(Calculated on $80,000 gross sale price)
3. Title, Escrow, Closing Costs: ~$1,000-$1,500
Total Costs to Beckwith: ~$6,200-$8,500
What Beckwith AGREED to pay as part of the negotiated sale:
1. Back Taxes (forestry/agricultural classification removal): $23,854.70
8358 Blaine Road: $12,560.80
8366 Blaine Road: $11,293.90
These taxes were required to convert from forestry/agricultural use to residential. Any buyer would need this resolved. But in a normal transaction, this cost is negotiated, typically split, or credited against the purchase price.
Not here. Beckwith paid it all.
Net Cash to Beckwith at Closing: -$1,000 to -$1,500
Read that again: Mrs. Beckwith sold properties worth $162,067 and wrote a check at the closing table.
Her only compensation? A $50,000 promissory note from Lara Kratzer, payable over three years, while Mahaffie controlled the properties and used his position to perfect them.
LET'S TALK ABOUT THE TERMS OF THE SALE WHERE BECKWITH DIDN'T GET A SINGLE CONCESSION IN HER FAVOR
From the investigation, Mahaffie claims he "never met Beckwith" and the transaction was "arms-length."
Let's examine what "arms-length" actually produced:
Terms That Benefited Mahaffie/Kratzer:
✓ Split purchase between two entities (obscuring Mahaffie's involvement)✓ $80,000 for properties assessed at $162,067 (51% discount)✓ Seller pays ALL back taxes ($23,854.70)✓ Seller pays ALL commission (~$4,800)✓ Seller pays ALL excise tax ($1,424)✓ Seller provides $50,000 financing✓ Three-year note term (perfect window to work permits)✓ Only $30,000 cash required upfront
Concessions to Beckwith:
ZERO
Not a single term was negotiated in her favor. Not one concession was extracted from the buyers. Every aspect of this deal maximized buyer benefits and seller losses.
The Dual Agency Problem
In Washington State, a real estate agent can represent both buyer and seller, this is called dual agency. When this happens, the agent owes duties to both parties and cannot favor one party over the other.
But look at this deal. Every single term favors the buyers.
Someone structured this transaction. Someone convinced Beckwith to:
Accept half of the assessed value
Pay all back taxes with no credit
Provide $50,000 seller financing
Accept the terms that left her underwater at closing
Who negotiated these terms? Who suggested splitting the purchase between Kratzer and Dead Goat? Who proposed the three-year note?
If it was a dual agent, representing both Mahaffie/Kratzer AND Beckwith, then that agent collected ~$4,800 in commission while delivering zero value to the seller and everything to the buyers.
That's not dual agency. That's a setup.
Why Make the Seller Pay the Back Taxes?
In any real estate transaction, back tax liability is a known issue that gets negotiated. Typically:
Buyer credits the amount against purchase price, or
Parties split the cost, or
Seller pays but purchase price reflects this
Here's what didn't happen: Beckwith paying $23,854.70 while the buyers claimed they "effectively" paid it by making their "purchase price" really $103,854.70.
Mahaffie later claimed: "I paid $23,854.70 to correct the illegal tax classification, so my effective purchase price was $103,000, not $80,000."
The documents show that Beckwith paid the $23,854.70.
Mahaffie took credit for a cost he never bore—then used that false claim to defend against accusations of getting a sweetheart deal.
Why This Structure?
Making Beckwith pay the back taxes served multiple purposes:
Reduced Mahaffie's cash outlay to only $30,000
Created a false narrative that he paid ~$104K when he paid $80K
Maximized Beckwith's losses to make the properties seem "difficult."
Established a pattern that these properties had "problems" (when the only problem was that Mahaffie manufactured the situation)
Every dollar Beckwith paid in taxes was a dollar Mahaffie didn't have to. And then he claimed he paid it anyway.
The Reviewer Who Worked for Both
When Mahaffie needed permits approved for these properties, who reviewed them?
Tom Brissenden—a natural resources planner who worked for Whatcom County AND simultaneously worked as "staff ecologist" for Mahaffie's private consulting company, Skagit Wetlands and Critical Areas, LLC.
June 2021: Brissenden reviewed and approved critical areas delineations for both Blaine Road properties.Timeline: Both approved on June 24, 2021—exactly 21 days after submission.
Compare that to other property owners in this investigation who waited years for the same approvals, faced endless requests for additional studies, and watched their projects die in regulatory purgatory.
Mahaffie's properties? 21 days. Both of them. Simultaneously.
The Obvious Conflict
The person reviewing Mahaffie's permits was an employee of Mahaffie's
.
But here's what makes it even worse: The county investigation characterized Brissenden as a "former" county employee—implying the conflict didn't exist because he'd already left. THEY LIED Brissenden never left working for the county. He was transferred from Planning to Public Works!
We have evidence suggesting otherwise.
In our next article, exposing how the investigation was designed to protect the county rather than find the truth, we'll show you exactly when Brissenden was on both payrolls, what he reviewed, and how the investigator deliberately obscured this timeline.
For now, just understand: The person who approved Mahaffie's permits in 21 days was being paid by Mahaffie.
The Pattern—When "Worthless" Properties Make Fortunes
Let's zoom out and see the bigger picture.
The Castlerock Property (Article 1):
Owner told property had significant wetland issues
Mahaffie buys for $80,000 (2020)
Mahaffie flips for $229,000 (2022)
Gain: $149,000 (186% return in 18 months)
8358 Blaine Road:
Beckwith told property is difficult due to wetlands
Kratzer buys for $70,000 (2019)
Kratzer sells for $210,000 (2021)
Gain: $140,000 (200% return in 2.5 years)
8366 Blaine Road:
Beckwith told property is "virtually unbuildable"
Dead Goat buys for $10,000 (2019)
Now operating as mitigation bank
Estimated value: $2.8 million ($400K/acre × 7 acres)
Gain: $2,790,000 (27,900% return)
Notice the Pattern?
Before Mahaffie buys: Properties are WET, WORTHLESS, UNBUILDABLE. After Mahaffie buys: Properties are VALUABLE, DEVELOPABLE, PROFITABLE
What changed? Not the wetlands. Not the regulations.
What changed was who controlled the knowledge and who controlled the permits.
Who Holds the Value?
This is the critical question that exposes the entire system:
If these properties were genuinely worthless due to wetlands:
Why did they sell for 2-3x within 18-30 months?
Why is one now worth $2.8 million as a mitigation bank?
Why were permits approved in 21 days?
If these properties were actually valuable despite wetlands:
Why were the sellers convinced they were worthless?
Why did they accept 50% of assessed value?
Why did no other buyers emerge?
The answer: The value isn't in the land. The value is in KNOWLEDGE + CONTROL.
Knowledge = Understanding what's actually required to developControl = Having the authority to approve or deny permits
When the same person has both—when the regulator becomes the investor—property values become whatever that person says they are.
Beckwith and Dierdorff (Castlerock seller) were told their properties were problems. They believed it because the expert—the county planner—said so. They sold at distressed prices because they had no reason to doubt the assessment.
But Mahaffie knew differently. He knew exactly what was required. He knew exactly how to navigate the system. He knew exactly which applications would sail through and which would die in purgatory.
He didn't buy properties. He bought the power to define their value.
The $10,000 Investment That Became a $500,000 to over a Million Dollar Mitigation Bank
Let's talk about what Mahaffie did with 8366 Blaine Road—the property Dead Goat bought for $10,000 in April 2019 and the curious timing of the purchase.
In 2017, Royal Emerald Motors started the process of building on their property on Blaine Rd (just down the street from Mahaffie's 8366 Blaine Rd). They hired a company to prepare a wetlands and critical areas report to submit to Whatcom County Planning.
The county REJECTED their plan, and for the next three years Royal Emerald Motors struggled to get its project through planning.
Going back to 2019, as far as we could tell, Mahaffie hadn't bought/sold/owned any properties in Whatcom County by this point.
But for some reason, which cannot be explained by any other common-sense metric, in 2019, Mahaffie just "drove around and noticed a sign that made it look like it had been for sale for a while" and decided to make an offer, according to the "investigation."
Between 1/1/2019 and 12/31/2022, there were a total of 366 properties that had 5-10 acres, which were SOLD, PENDED, were ACTIVE, CANCELLED, or EXPIRED during this time in all of Whatcom County. Of these, 43 were in Blaine.
Seems weird for a guy, or in the case of his "girlfriend", who both live in Skagit County and (at least Mahaffie) work in Bellingham, to randomly be looking for property in Blaine, and not point out that it just happens to be in an area that his planning department was in the process of using wetland issues to slow down the permitting process.
If you can't build on it, make other people pay to NOT build on their properties.
The Royal Emerald Motors Deal
In 2022, after having their wetlands reports rejected, somehow .67 acres of "wetlands" were found on the property where before there were none. Having no other choice but to mitigate, Mahaffie approached Royal Emerald Motors to use 8366 Blaine Road for off-site mitigation. They would "enhance the wetland" on Mahaffie's property to mitigate impacts from their development elsewhere.
In exchange, Mahaffie would sell mitigation credits to allow the wetlands to be mitigated on Royal Emerald Motors' lot.
The Math
Mitigation credit market rate: ~$400,000 per acre. 8366 Blaine Road size: 7 acres Potential value as mitigation bank $500,000 to over a million dollars.
Mahaffie's investment: $10,000
Return: 27,900%
And this is just Royal Emerald Motors. Once established as a mitigation bank, the property could sell credits to multiple developers over time.
The Vertical Integration
Here's the conflict that should alarm every property owner and developer:
Mahaffie or any planner who reviews wetland determinations for development projects
Mahaffie or any planner decides which projects need off-site mitigation
Mahaffie or any planner who owns a mitigation bank
Developers who need mitigation buy from Mahaffie's or another planner's bank
Mahaffie or other planner(s) profit(s) from their own regulatory decisions
Royal Emerald Motors needed off-site mitigation. Where did they end up going? Mahaffie's property which was right down the street! Talk about luck!
This is the TEXTBOOK definition of conflict of interest:
You regulate what people must do
You sell them what they need to comply
You profit from your own rules
When the county hired an investigator to look into this, Mahaffie claimed his "supervisor knew about it" and said it wasn't a conflict of interest. We'll address that claim—and expose how the entire investigation was designed to protect the county rather than find the truth in our next article.
For now, just understand: When you control both the regulations and the compliance market, you're not a public servant. You're a racketeer.
Planning Departments—Accountable to No One
This isn't just about the corrupt Whatcom County Natural Resources Planner Matt Mahaffie. This is about a system that enables this behavior and then protects it.
Planning departments have extraordinary power:
They determine what can be built where, by whom
They control timelines (21 days vs. years)
They choose which applications get scrutiny
They decide which wetland consultants are "credible"
They influence which properties are "difficult"
They effectively control property values
But planning departments have almost no accountability:
No external oversight of individual determinations
No statistical tracking of approval disparities
No requirement to disclose financial interests
No meaningful conflict-of-interest enforcement
No penalty for being wrong (or deliberately misleading)
No mechanism for property owners to challenge without expensive appeals
This creates an environment where corruption is inevitable:
Put a human being in a position where they:
Control something valuable (development rights)
Face minimal oversight
Can profit from insider knowledge
Know they're unlikely to face consequences
What do you think happens?
Some will abuse it. Not all. Maybe not most. But enough.
And when abuse happens, the system protects itself:
Hire a friendly investigator ✓
Accept the accused's explanations without verification ✓
Never interview victims or witnesses who contradict the narrative ✓
Characterize obvious conflicts as "policy allows this" ✓
Conclude "no evidence of wrongdoing" ✓
The Mahaffie case isn't an aberration. It's a natural consequence of a system with enormous power and zero guardrails.
Conclusion: The Control of Knowledge
Two sellers—Beckwith and Dierdorff—owned properties assessed at a combined $300,067. Both were told their properties had serious wetland issues. Both accepted roughly 50% of the assessed value. Both watched as Mahaffie flipped their properties at prices at least 3x what Mahaffie paid within 2 years.
Combined:
Sellers received: ~$130,000
Mahaffie's profit on Castlerock: ~$149,000
Mahaffie/Kratzer's profit on 8358 Blaine: ~$140,000
Potential value of the 8366 Blaine mitigation bank: $500,000 to over $1 million.
Total value extracted: $1+ million
From a $110,000 investment spread across three properties.
The wetlands didn't change. The regulations didn't change. The properties didn't change.
What changed was who controlled the knowledge of what's possible and who controlled the permits.
That's the power of planning departments. And when that power operates without accountability, without oversight, without consequences for abuse, this is what you get.
Not environmental protection.
Organized theft disguised as land use regulation.
Next in this series: "The Investigation Cover-Up—How Whatcom County Hired a Lawyer to Protect Itself, Not Find Truth"
For the complete investigation, visit
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