City council appoints Gill as new at-large councilmember

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Blaine City Council unanimously appointed Sukhwant Singh Gill as the newest council member during their February 1 special council meeting. 

“We must find the best ways to function during the pandemic,” Gill said during his interview. “We need to support the promotion of tourism including highlighting places and focusing on better lodging and businesses that will draw tourism, which will increase city revenue.”

Gill takes the at-large seat of former councilmember Alicia Rule, who resigned following her election as 42nd legislative district state representative.

Gill has been a Blaine business owner for over 25 years and owns the Shell gas station on D Street, where he gave away milk and bread to families in need at the beginning of the pandemic. Gill is also on the Blaine Tourism Advisory Committee and has been president of Guru Nanak Guru Sikh Temple for three years.

Gill said he moved to the U.S. in 1993 from India, where he worked as a paymaster for his city’s electrical department. From 1995 to 2001, he owned a gas station across the street from his current Shell station. Gill then owned a dollar store in the Cost Cutter shopping mall, and another in Lynden, but in 2018 he jumped back into the gas business and bought Shell and an Exxon station. In 2018, Gill bought Big Al’s Diner and plans to open the Blaine Mart on 2nd Street in the coming weeks, he said.

Gill said he is semi-retired so he will have time for council responsibilities and has no conflicts of interest while serving as a councilmember.

When mayor Bonnie Onyon, on behalf of council, asked his approach for handling controversial or complicated issues, Gill said he would listen to stakeholders on all sides and to discuss with councilmembers and experts to find a beneficial solution that would cause the least amount of harm to Blaine residents.

Thirteen people applied to the position but only five – Sharon Somers-Hill, Sheli Moore, Kerena Higgins, John ‘Calvin’ Armerding and Gill – were selected to be interviewed during the February 1 public session.

After public session, council convened in executive session to discuss applicants’ qualifications. When councilmembers returned, they were given three options: To appoint a candidate, interview more candidates for the vacant position or take no action and pass on the appointment responsibility 90 days after Rule resigned to Whatcom County Council.

“This was a very difficult choice to make,” councilmember Eric Davidson said. “These people were phenomenal. I’d be happy to serve with any one of them on city council.” 

Councilmember Charlie Hawkins said he hasn’t seen a double-digit number of applications in over the decade since he’s been involved with council.

“This means to me a great opportunity to serve my city and my community,” Gill said.

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