WASHINGTON COMPUTER STOLEN DURING BREAK-IN AT CITY HALL The Bellingham Herald / Local / City waited to rekey buildings

BELLINGHAM — Police and numerous city employees knew that a master key to the city had been lost, but did not re-key more than half a dozen city buildings until more than a week later, when City Hall was burglarized.

Internal city staff e-mails obtained by The Bellingham Herald through a public records request show that a planning department laptop was stolen in the burglary. The crime led the city to re-key buildings including City Hall, the Police Department and the Bellingham Public Library.

The keys were lost Nov. 26, according to city e-mails. City staff discovered Dec. 3 that someone had accessed the planning and finance departments at City Hall sometime over the weekend. Bellingham Police Chief Randy Carroll said after the incident that no police report was filed before the burglary.

According to locksmith receipts, rekeying cost the city more than $2,000.

In an e-mail on Nov. 28, Interim Chief Administrative Officer Linda Storck told several city employees, including Mayor Dan Pike and Bellingham Police Department Chief of Operations Todd Ramsay, that a maintenance worker had dropped the keys between City Hall and the library.

“When this has happened in the past, everyone just held their breath and hoped nothing would happen — and nothing ever has happened,” Storck wrote. “Rekeying a building from a master on down is expensive…please be aware of any strange occurrences for the next few weeks. Hopefully (the keys) will show up.”

City Accounting Manager Kipp Drummond wrote Dec. 4 to city staff that the stolen computer was valued at about $3,500.

The computer contained “various planning documents and reports,” along with GIS software that could not function unless connected to the city’s network, the e-mail said.

“There does not seem to be any private or confidential information involved or anything that wasn’t backed up or available elsewhere,” Drummond continued, noting that nothing appeared to have beenstolen from the finance department.

In the days following the burglary, Carroll would not say whether anything had been taken during the burglary.

In an e-mail to city staff on Dec. 5, Carroll said a reporter had contacted him to ask about the burglary. “My response was two-fold: first the safety and security of the assets of the citizens of Bellingham in their papers, securities and properties is paramount in these types of situations; second, who is the Bellingham Herald that I should notify them immediately about this type of incident. This is an open and active investigation into a potential criminal matter that does not fall under the disclosure laws of this state at this point in time.”

Mayor Pike said after the burglary that no databases containing public information had been breached, and said the issue could have been handled better with the press.

“There are many lessons learned here, and we will be reviewing our procedures in the future,” said city spokeswoman Janice Keller of protocols for reporting potential security breaches. “We will be looking at different security options for City Hall.”

Reach Cat Sieh at cat.sieh@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2236.