July 5, 2023 Dena Jensen

I am almost done listening to the Bellingham City Council’s 6/26/23 Committee of the Whole meeting. That’s the one where they were having discussions about adopting the state legislation making drug possession and public use a gross misdemeanor (which I’m going to talk about in a later post) and about the City Council’s “Resolution Affirming the City of Bellingham Values with Regard to the Proposed Ballot Measure for the Purpose of Providing Funds for Costs of Public Health, Safety and Justice Facilities and Services, Including Behavioral Health, Housing, Public Safety, and Criminal Justice Facilities and Programs.” 

The committee voted to recommend approving the resolution and Council Members would go on to approve that resolution 6-0 at the evening meeting. 

What I wanted to point out though is that at the end of what was around 6 minutes of mostly the Mayor just clarifying some amendments which had been made to the resolution, then right before the vote, Council Member Dan Hammill – who was chairing that meeting in place of the regular COW chair Michael Lilliquist – made the following statement (at around 21:30 in the recording https://youtu.be/jhiMrKObIwE?t=1287):

“I’ll just add one item here. I think it’s important to note that the first capital project out of this fund is the 23 hour crisis relief center. So it’s not a jail facility, it’s actually like a smallish hospital that would help provide for services for people who are experiencing behavioral health crisis.”

I have a few concerns about this. One big one is that I believe it is inaccurate. The capital project of the 23 hour crisis relief center is being funded by $9 million that 42nd LD Representative Alicia Rule secured from Washington State. (https://kgmi.com/news/007700-lawmakers-secure-funding-for-mental-health-crisis-center-in-bellingham/) so money for the development of the crisis relief center facility is not coming out the fund that the jail facility is coming out of. 

The Justice Project Implementation Plan projects that the County and its cities would “apply the first 4-6 years of the proposed new sales tax revenue to pay down the bond,” (and not to other projects during that timing.) The plan further states that the 30 year bond is to build a new jail and behavioral health treatment center (this center is not the same as the crisis relief center, and will be connected to the jail.) Therefore, while some of the ballot measure tax funds are noted as possibly going to the crisis relief center operational costs at some point, the implementation plan and ordinance do not provide for operations costs for the crisis relief center coming out of the sales tax fund before the jail does.

My concerns beyond Council Member Hammill’s statement being inaccurate, are that it seems to have been made to make folks see the County’s proposed sales tax from a perspective that could help sway votes in favor of it, and also that besides making the statement in this public meeting, Hammill may use it repeatedly to promote the tax while he is campaigning in the coming weeks and months leading up to Election Day.

It will be important for all of us to get accurate information out to voters about what things the sales tax will actually fund, and especially *when* it will fund them.