June 8, 2023 Dena Jensen

Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood has signed on to each one of the Small City Caucus letters posted on the Justice Project comment webpage and sent to Whatcom County Council Members regarding their county’s Justice Project so far. All three letters have emphasized the building of a new jail over behavioral health services, but none so clearly as the one dated June 6, 2023, or with the amount of alarming and detailed proposals.  (As of the date of this post, there is not an active link to the letter on that comment webpage, but the letter is listed there and a link to the letter was found elsewhere on the Whatcom County website.)

A future where punishment is replaced by restorative justice and services looks bleak in the face of Mayor Fleetwood uniting with small city mayors – who have supported policies that are damaging to marginalized communities and our environment – in wielding collective influence to expedite increasing jail capacity, adopt provisions that will trigger even more jail expansion, while slow-walking any proposed social services.

Meanwhile, it appears that County Executive Satpal Sidhu is likely on the same page with at least some of the requests and priorities expressed in the mayors’ June 6 letter, as apparent in the Executive’s May 23, 2023 Memo about his perspective on funding sources for the Justice Project.

Link to the full June 6, 2023 letter sent by all Whatcom County mayors which was included in the meeting materials for the June 6, 2023 Whatcom County Council meeting: https://whatcom.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12068695&GUID=CEB232AE-CCCF-4D70-9CA9-0C067CAB75A2

Link to the letter sent by all Whatcom County mayors to the Whatcom County Council on April 7, 2022: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/66119/2022-04-18—Small-City-Caucus—WC-Mayors-New-Jail-Letter-

Link to the letter sent by all Whatcom County mayors to the Whatcom County Council on July 14, 2022: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/69166/2022-07-14—Mayors-of-Whatcom-County

Here is one set of the bullet points from the June 6 letter (sadly, there’s more very concerning proposed policy in the full letter too):

“• The estimate for a 440-bed facility at I5 and Slater Road came in at $137 million. We would like to first discuss the size of the new facility. The current situation in the county is untenable. We have been under booking restrictions for years now and petty crime is on the rise. We think the new corrections facility should be sized for current use if booking restrictions were removed. We feel this number is higher than 440 beds. We are willing to fund virtually any new correction facility, but one thing we need as cities is capacity. We feel it would not be wise to specify the size of the facility in the ordinance, rather to size the facility based on demand and need.
Related to this, we would like an instrument in the ordinance that would automatically generate expansion of beds if the facility reaches capacity and booking restrictions are imminent. We would like a clause that states that if the facility is at 85% capacity (defined as full by national standards) for 6 of the past 12 months, then two new pods will be added to the existing correction facility increasing the beds by approximately 80. If we size our initial build correctly, we do not see the need for more capacity for at least 10 years. We know that Skagit County has a similar policy. Their correction facility is not at capacity and will likely not be at capacity for years, but the foresight of having an automatic capacity increase would make the sales tax proposal more palatable to the cities.

“• We must plan now for the funding of the new correction facility. The cities expect the estimates to increase before the construction begins. We know that a bond of $150 million cannot be covered by the current county share of the proposed 0.2% public safety tax. We also know that the cities will receive 40% of the new tax for internal public safety needs. We, as cities, will commit a portion or nearly all of our sales tax proceeds for 4-6 years to drive the bond amount to something under $100 million. For this contribution, the cities expect no booking restrictions and no capital fee associated with the per diem.

“• We support the need for increased behavioral health spending. However, we urge the council to prioritize spending on the new correction facility over new behavioral health system programs in the first few years. If we, the cities, contribute to fund the correction facility for 4-6 years as outlined above, then in a few years, between $3-5 million per year or more than 20% of the county’s public safety tax revenue, can be used for behavioral health services. We thus ensure the maximize funds over time for both necessary needs.”

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Contact information to offer feedback to government officials:

City of Bellingham

Mayor email: Seth Fleetwood <mayorsoffice@cob.org>
Phone: (360) 778-8100

Entire Bellingham City Council (for the record): <ccmail@cob.org>
Individual Bellingham City Council Members contact information:

Hannah E. Stone <hestone@cob.org>; 

Hollie A. Huthman <hahuthman@cob.org>;
Michael W. Lilliquist <mlilliquist@cob.org>; 

Daniel C. Hammill <dchammill@cob.org>; 

Lisa A. Anderson <laanderson@cob.org>; 

Kristina Michele Martens <kmmartens@cob.org> 

Edwin H. “Skip” Williams <ehwilliams@cob.org>

Seth Fleetwood (Mayor) –  

Hannah Stone (1st Ward) – (360) 778-8211

Kristina Michele Martens – Office Phone: 360-778-8214
Cell Phone: 360-303-2514

Daniel Hammill (3rd Ward) l – (360) 778-8213 

Edwin H. “Skip” Williams – 360-778-8215

Lisa Anderson (5th Ward) – (360) 778-8217

Michael Lilliquist (6th Ward) – (360) 778-8212 and 360-920-2684 

Hollie Huthman (At-Large) – (360) 778-8216 

Whatcom County

Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force Email: IPRTaskForce@co.whatcom.wa.us

Whatcom County Executive:
Satpal Sidhu <ssidhu@co.whatcom.wa.us>;
Phone: 360-778-5200

Whatcom County Council:
Entire Council (for the record) <council@co.whatcom.wa.us>;

Individual County Council contact information:
Barry Buchanan <bbuchana@co.whatcom.wa.us>; 

Todd Donovan <tdonovan@co.whatcom.wa.us>; 

Carol Frazey <cfrazey@co.whatcom.wa.us>; 

Kaylee Galloway <kgallowa@co.whatcom.wa.us>

Tyler Byrd <tbyrd@co.whatcom.wa.us>; 

Kathy Kershner <kkershne@co.whatcom.wa.us>; 

Ben Elenbaas <belenbaa@co.whatcom.wa.us>

Kaylee Galloway 

Phone: 360-489-9192 and 360-778-5023

Todd Donovan  

Phone: 360-483-8474 

Tyler Byrd

Phone: 360-778-5021

Kathy Kershner  

Phone: 360-220-7535 

Ben Elenbaas

Phone: 360-778-5025

Barry Buchanan  

Phone: 360-224-4330

Carol Frazey

Phone: 360-778-5024

Whatcom County Health and Community Services Department:

health@co.whatcom.wa.us

Phone: 360-778-6000