January 13, 2024 Dena Jensen

Just after the New Year, on January 2, 2024, during the Bellingham City Council’s reorganization meeting, where Council Members take on their committee, board, and commission assignments, the Council took the unusual step of holding their first public discussion of a completed draft ordinance to suspend the City of Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board (IAB). There was no option provided for open public comment at this meeting, and a translator, having only been sought out related to a request for one, was not available. The discussion that day was for information only, with potential to revisit the ordinance on January 29.

Council Member Hannah Stone stated there will also be further discussion of the suspension of the Immigration Advisory Board at the next meeting of the IAB, which is being held at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, January 16, 2024. The agenda is not yet available on the meeting materials page for the IAB. However, a draft copy of the ordinance to suspend the board is. Options for open public comment are currently unknown.

The IAB, established by an original ordinance in November of 2019, is the first government-created body in the City of Bellingham for the purpose of, among other things, seeking to “support community involvement in and discussion of regional issues and decisions about our city’s future as it relates to immigration.” 

A couple years back in May of 2022, the IAB provided the City Council with a presentation advising the City to move forward on developing an Immigrant Resource Center to help foster such involvement and allow community members to receive services critically needed by immigrants in Bellingham and the surrounding areas, in turn, helping to fulfill the purpose of the board.

Screenshots of the IAB’s Propost for City Funded Immigrant Resource Center included in City Council Committee of the Whole meeting materials for May 9, 2022

At one point in the Council discussion of suspending the IAB on January 2 this year, City Council Member Michael Lilliquist had talked for a couple minutes about how he had been wanting advice and input from the board on specific City projects which he said he had not received. After that, the Council Member provided his recollection of impediments to the Immigrant Resource Center moving forward:

“I’m also as frustrated as anybody on progress on an Immigrant Resource Center. I mean, several years ago I voted and said yes to the idea, and a couple years ago I voted yes to another motion which was to bring us a business model, an operational model, a budget, so we can fund it. And I also moved with some other Council Members to actually budget some money ahead of time before the IRC was even formed to basically put down a place-marker, to say I believe in the IRC. Let’s get it moving forward. Well it’s not moved forward yet.” 

According to public records responsive to a request I placed with the City in December, it was as early as December 7, 2023 that the process was being initiated to draft an ordinance for the purpose of suspending the IAB. A list of recitals were subsequently assembled expressing what appear to be concerns of the City that could have been addressed with the IAB while the board was operating the four years prior, or any time in the future while the board continues to do its work.

Also included in the records was an email chain in which a draft copy of the suspension ordinance was attached.  On December 29, 2023, Council Member Lilliquist had responded to an email from fellow City Council Member Stone that was included in the chain, and asked a question: “Would it make any sense to mention the proposed Immigrant Resource Center, or more specifically the lack of progress towards that end?” 

He went on to say something similar to what he would end up saying at the Council reorganization meeting this month, however with some details making his remarks more pointed:

“The Council asked the IAB to flush out its ideas, but that never happened, as far as I can tell, and to make up for the lack of progress, the administration proposed (and council agreed) to expedite the work with a hired consultant to assess the need and bring forward a workable proposal. My point is, the lack of progress on one of the IAB’s signature ideas is both disheartening and telling.” 

Having followed the work of the IAB over the last four years, I had a different recollection of how things have been evolving with the Immigrant Resource Center. So I went back to meeting materials for the City Council and their committee meetings for 2022. Four different meetings that year, May 9, October 24, and November 7 Committee of the Whole meetings, and the November 14 City Council Special Meeting, which was a budget workshop, contained elements relevant to Council Member Lilliquist’s claims about the IAB and the Immigrant Resource Center.

At that November 14 budget work session, relying on the input and work of the IAB up to that point, Council Member Kristina Martens introduced a budget amendment to fund an Immigrant Resource Center. Additionally, Mayor Seth Fleetwood had submitted an alternate proposal at that same meeting for the administration to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for hiring a facilitator to oversee the process of creating an Immigrant Resource Center.

Arguing against the Mayor’s proposal initially, Council Member Lilliquist voiced a fairly accurate timeline related to the IRC:

“Several months ago, going back two years, we asked for members of our community to discuss community needs, and they answered. And then several months ago, we asked the administration to develop a more specific embodiment of the general idea: a budget, an operating model. It seems like we’re going backwards if we set an RFQ for a facilitator who will then, do what? – reach out to members of the community to determine the unmet needs and then come up with an operational model and the budget that goes with it? We kinda tried to already get there and we haven’t succeeded. Maybe this [the Mayor’s proposal] will be a better way, but it’s a longer way, okay, and that’s kind of frustrating for me.”

Sometimes our minds play tricks on us, and sometimes in impactful ways. Therefore, it’s valuable to have materials we can refer back to for the purpose of enhancing our recollection.  In 2022, fresh from two presentations by the IAB, and one by the administration from whom Council Member Lilliquist had requested those resource center models, he was clearly aware that advice from the community had been provided regarding which of their needs an Immigrant Resource Center was essential to address. This information had been brought to the City Council by the IAB in May and November that year.

Video captures of the November 7, 2022 IAB presentation to Bellingham City Council Committee of the Whole; Click here to access that presentation on YouTube

After discussion of one of those IAB presentations to the Council’s Committee of the Whole on November 7 – a week before budget session proposals for the IRC ended up being made – Committee Chair Stone noted they were behind schedule and was ready to move on to other agenda items. However, she acknowledged IAB member Dr. Tara Villalba, who had presented for the board, and who offered the following parting remarks:

“At what point then do we engage in this programmatic? Who decides what the program is that will get funded or won’t get funded? How do we make sure that the IAB is part of that process? That’s our question.

“Because it keeps going back between Mayor and City Council’s offices and at what – we have to push Council [Member] Martens to get us in front of you to make sure that you – all of you hear what we’re trying to say.

“Because in May we had a list of the things – in May – we had a list of the things that we thought an Immigrant Resource Center should address or could address for the needs of our communities. We did that back in May.

“But it doesn’t look like it got to everybody, because it sounded like, oh this is the first time that you’re hearing what are the things that we can handle in an Immigrant Resource Center.

“So I want to make sure that we do eliminate the opportunities for miscommunication so that we’re – you know, we’re together on this – in this process because right now it seems like we have to fight for every single opportunity to be heard by either the Mayor or the City Council, to go on record.

“We have our meetings once a month, but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere, that’s our frustration. And so we ask for this time, because there’s no – we don’t know any other – like, as an immigrant, I literally don’t know any other way to bring it to you except here in this chamber. This is the only place.

“So that’s what we’re, like, trying to hold you guys to be, like: what do we do next to come up with that programming priority so that we know that there is a way to do it, because what I’m hearing is: the City doesn’t handle immigration; the City doesn’t handle tenant’s rights; the City doesn’t handle accessing these, and these services don’t exist for a reason. And we’re saying, we need it in our communities.”

Council Member Lilliquist called out to Dr. Villalba as she was walking away from the podium, saying, in part:

“Just to be very clear, we can either approve the budget next week, or two weeks after that, or a month after that, or two months after that. There’s nothing that stops the city council, to approve a budget whenever the proposal’s ready. 

“So, I know we’re trying to finish all this up by the usual annual calendar, but that is actually not a barrier for us to overcome. We can fix that at any time, as soon as we’re ready. 

“I think the Council has made it very clear to the administration that in continuing to try to come up with an operational model, that the IAB has to be – what do I say? – not just in the room, but, like, you know, kind of the primary partner at this moment.

“So, sounded like you wanted reassurances that you – the IAB won’t be out of the process. I’m trying to offer my assurances that you should not be out of the process, and I think I’m not speaking out of turn for anyone else up here.”

Now, with suspension of the work of IAB members looming, it seems like it is up to all of us to ensure the City makes good on Council Member Lilliquist’s assurances. 

There has been no talk during the officials’ public exploration of suspending the IAB that is related to what the board has accomplished to date, such as protecting the City from liability for any potential violations of the Keep Washington Working Act, increasing public engagement through encouraging public comment and engagement throughout each IAB meeting, or helping to advance language accessibility for non-English speakers, which had been nearly non-existent for City of Bellingham meetings and materials before the existence of the IAB.

There has been no recent awareness apparent among City Council Members of frustration among IAB members which had been expressed in mid-May of 2023 that the City had not been bringing current City projects and Council agenda items before them over the years for their advice.

We can all engage in the effort to make sure the Immigration Advisory Board will remain an essential asset to immigrants in City of Bellingham actions by attending the Immigration Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday, January 16 at 6:30 p.m., either in person at 2221 Pacific St, Bellingham, WA 98229 (use entrance on Carolina Street), or online using this link: https://cob.zoom.us/j/83082047463?pwd=L9bAgKqPpwUnfkPrKMVzhUIsY8piLP.1

Below is contact info to use. We can call for City officials to reject the ordinance to suspend of the work of the Immigration Advisory Board, and for a recommitment from officials to make active efforts to support the progress on the Immigrant Resource Center and to find effective ways to seek their advice on City actions with potential to impact immigrant communities:

1st HANNAH STONE
210 Lottie Street Bellingham, WA 98225 360-778-8211
hestone@cob.org

2nd HOLLIE HUTHMAN
210 Lottie Street Bellingham, WA 98225 360-778-8216
hahuthman@cob.org

3rd DANIEL HAMMILL
210 Lottie Street Bellingham, WA 98225 360-778-8213
dchammill@cob.org

4th EDWIN H. “SKIP” WILLIAMS III
210 Lottie Street Bellingham, WA 98225 360-778-8215
ehwilliams@cob.org

5th LISA ANDERSON
210 Lottie Street Bellingham, WA 98225 360-778-8217
laanderson@cob.org

6th MICHAEL LILLIQUIST
210 Lottie Street Bellingham, WA 98225 360-778-8212
mlilliquist@cob.org

At Large JACE COTTON 210 Lottie Street
Bellingham, WA 98225 360-778-8214
jacotton@cob.org

MAYOR KIM LUND

210 Lottie Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
Phone: (360) 778-8100
Fax: (360) 778-8101
Email:mayorsoffice@cob.org
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