July 24, 2024 Dena Jensen

For the last six and a half months, the majority of my research and writing time has been focused on matters leading up to and including the Bellingham City Council’s February 2024 suspension of their Immigration Advisory Board’s meetings.

It may look a little like a lonely obsession at this point. There isn’t much material in local media or public government conversations about the sidelined body which had 8 of its 12 seats filled at the time meetings were halted, with 7 of those 8 positions being filled by people of color.

Yet, here I am still talking about it on this blog. After all, our nation does have one of its two presidential candidates who has vowed to launch “the largest domestic deportation in American history.”

Plus, I sent another email to Bellingham officials last Monday, the day before what would have been the July meeting date for the IAB, which always met on the third Tuesday of each month. July’s is the sixth cancelled meeting since IAB meetings were suspended.

What appear to be sparse and elusive conversations that some Bellingham officials are having about the Immigration Advisory Board are not publicly being shared with most of the rest of us. For example, from recent public records I received, Bellingham City Council Member Michael Lilliquist had sent an email late last month to Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund. He was inquiring about the status one of the IAB’s pressing recommendations, an Immigrant Resource Center, the planning of which Mayor Lund told her interim deputy administrator to hold off from moving forward while Council Members were still deciding whether to suspend the IAB.

Council Member Lilliquist closed his email about the Immigrant Resource Center, saying:

“What is the status of that work?

“When might the IAB resume?

“I am asking because the lack of news on this front may itself become the news. Thanks in advance for whatever information you can provide.”

Mayor Lund sent back an email an hour later, saying only, “Let’s discuss today.”

With City Council meetings on break until August 12, 2024, we’ll likely not hear their public discussions about anything happening at least until then. That date would be exactly 6 months after the final vote to suspend the IAB.

Enter the Bellingham Police Chief

Looking back, it had actually been a surprise to me when Bellingham Police Chief Rebecca Mertzig had given testimony during Council deliberations this January about whether they would suspend the Immigration Advisory Board. Even more surprising were the Police Chief’s grievances against the IAB that hadn’t previously been publicly voiced.

To my knowledge, Chief Mertzig had never interacted with IAB Members, even though a presentation by her to a few of the the members had been tentatively arranged to take place in August of 2023 by the City’s interim deputy administrator. It never occurred however, and City officials have never explained the true reason why.

I placed two records requests, in March and May of this year respectively, to help ascertain if Chief Mertzig had ever emailed IAB members during her two years serving in her position. No email records were returned to me responsive to either of those requests.

On the other hand, Immigration Advisory Board meeting records do show at least two occasions in October of 2021 and February of 2022 where IAB Members had contacted Bellingham Police Department officials to seek information to help them with their work. This is on top of them receiving a presentation during one of their meetings from former Bellingham Police Deputy Chief Scott Grunhurd and What-Comm 911 dispatch’s former Deputy Director Gregory Erickson in December of 2020. Additionally, former Mayor Seth Fleetwood and former Deputy Administrator Brian Heinrich were communicating with Bellingham police related to the IAB’s work.

Meanwhile, records responsive to a different public records request of mine included a couple of my own emails to City officials about the IAB from earlier this year which Bellingham Police Chief Mertzig had forwarded with her commentary to Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund.

My email to City officials last week addressed one of those two emails in which Chief Mertzig contemplated responding to my email remarks pointing out inaccurate statements that she, Council Member Hannah Stone, and Janice Keller (who the Mayor’s Office announced last week has been chosen as one of two Bellingham Deputy Administrators) had made about the Immigration Advisory Board. I’m including a copy of that email at the end of this blog post.

Back in January this year, not only had Mayor Lund brought Chief Mertzig to speak before the City Council about the potential suspending of IAB meetings, but the Bellingham Police Department took the atypical action of posting Chief Mertzig’s remarks made during that Committee of the Whole meeting on their Facebook page.

I looked through BPD Facebook posts going back from today’s date through the date of Chief Mertzig’s appointment on June 2, 2022 and there was only one other post about any testimony or presentation she had ever given to Council Members. That post was on February 27, 2024, and in that case BPD had only provided a very brief description of what the presentation was about and a link to where people could listen to it from a meeting recording; whereas, her testimony supporting suspending IAB meetings was posted in full.

Grievances vs. evidence

There were a number of things Chief Mertzig had asserted in that testimony of hers which were inaccurate or misleading according to my knowledge from closely following IAB meetings over the last three and a half years. Near the very end of her remarks, Chief Mertzig had expressed that she was unable to support the Immigration Advisory Board in its “exclusionary model” and therefore, she supported the board’s suspension. This was following her stating earlier in her remarks that she had been “forced to engage in these meetings via recordings.”

That allegation conflicts with the fact that, while in June 2020 Council Member Stone had supported a request from one of their members at the IAB’s first meeting that Bellingham’s police chief at that time participate as a Zoom attendee rather than as a Zoom panelist, any member of the public could and still can watch the meetings live on Zoom.

But on top of this – noting first that law enforcement agencies are not a protected class according to the U.S. Constitution – all City boards, committees, and commissions have a finite number and representation of members allowed to fully participate. Officials evaluate and make final decisions on what those will be. Subsequently, some applicants for positions are chosen to be appointed. Some are not. In terms of membership, Chief Mertzig’s assessment makes all of those bodies subject to being identified as exclusionary models.

Throughout the three and a half years they were allowed to meet and work together, a variety of immigration matters were addressed by the IAB. Among those, board members have regularly scanned for potential life-changing dangers posed to local immigrants by federal immigration enforcement policies and practices related to those agencies’ connection with the Bellingham Police Department, which oversees What-Comm 911 dispatch. What-Comm, in turn, is responsible for responding to requests for assistance from both federal and local enforcement agencies.

Amidst the board’s numerous purposes stated in their establishing ordinance, is that of analyzing City data to determine compliance with our state’s Keep Washington Working Act. Among provisions in the act, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office states that: “KWW prohibits local LEAs [Law Enforcement Agencies] from providing any ‘nonpublicly available personal information’ about any person (including those subject to community custody) to federal immigration authorities in a noncriminal matter—such as a civil immigration matter—except as otherwise required by state or federal law or a lawfully issued court order.”

Throughout the IAB’s existence, some Bellingham officials have continued to periodically emphasize to board members and others in the community that their City’s police force actually has little to do with interacting with federal agencies like Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

However, in terms of facilitating calls from CBP for assistance from local law enforcement agencies or calls from local law enforcement agencies to CBP for assistance, BPD’s What-Comm dispatchers interact with and go on to connect those two types of agencies together frequently. In fact, IAB Member and immigration lawyer Holly Pai reported to fellow members last August that according to the American Civil Liberties Union and the University of Washington Center for Human Rights the high number of interactions in Whatcom County is not normal for any county in Washington, even other border counties.

IAB minutes indicate that by December of 2021, IAB Member Liz Darrow had provided Governor Inslee and the ACLU – not to mention Bellingham officials – with examples of potential KWW violations that had been identified by the board during the year and a half the board had been meeting. IAB Members found these examples located in the Federal Contact Data the City of Bellingham has been providing to the IAB.

About 5 months later, thanks to data brought to their attention by the IAB, the ACLU – along with the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project, and Columbia Legal Services – sent a May 12, 2022 cease and desist letter to the Bellingham City Attorney, among others. The letter noted numerous instances of potential violations of the Keep Washington Working Act which, in addition to other things, included a portion of the contract between What-Comm, Whatcom County, and City of Bellingham. The letter led to officials taking some meaningful actions which could at least partially address the potential for future violations.

A claim of compliance

Meanwhile, it was during the Bellingham City Council’s January 29, 2024 Committee of the Whole discussion of suspending IAB meetings when BPD’s Chief Mertzig stated that, “Since 2019, we have documented 2350 contacts with Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, and Immigration Customs Enforcement, all of which have been in compliance with the Keep Washington Working Act.”

In contrast to Chief Mertzig’s assertion of City compliance with KWW since 2019, the May 2022 cease and desist letter from the ACLU and others had listed some of those examples of potential violations of which they were aware.

Furthermore, on the second page of Bellingham’s Office of the City Attorney’s July 27, 2022 response to the cease and desist letter, Assistant City Attorney Michael Good had expressed the City’s agreement that using CBP for interpretation services would be a violation of the Keep Washington Working Act:

“Your cease-and-desist letter also demands that What-Comm stop using CBP for interpretation services. The City agrees that the KWWA prohibits the use of CBP for interpretation services. In response to your cease-and-desist letter, What-Comm and the Bellingham Police Department have updated their policy manuals to prohibit contacting or using CBP for interpretation services. Additionally, all What-Comm employees have been provided a training on utilizing approved and contracted interpretation services for interpretation services.”

Select examples given in the cease and desist letter showed BPD’s dispatch employees contacting CBP in a couple different types of situations requesting language interpretation:

o 10/26/21: Blaine resident called 911 to ask for help for friends that crossed Mexico to Texas and needed rescue – dispatch transferred to CBP station in Texas based on need of language line.

o 6/29/21: At the request of Lynden PD, 911 dispatch contacted CBP dispatch to ask if a CBP agent was available to translate for a Spanish-speaker.

Therefore, based on this alone – while also noting there are numerous other potential KWW violations identified by the IAB and legal experts – it would seem Chief Mertzig’s assessment that all contacts with Customs and Border Protection since 2019 were in compliance with the Keep Washington Working Act isn’t accurate. And while it’s true that City violations of the Keep Washington Working Act have not been established in a court of law, there is the evidence in BPD’s data logs that they exist.

Moreover, there is also evidence in IAB meeting recordings that other assertions by Chief Mertzig at the January 29, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting weren’t accurate. And some of that is what I had written to Chief Mertzig and other Bellingham officials about, which led to Chief Mertzig contacting Mayor Lund in order to express her possible desire to respond.

Below I am providing the email I sent last week in response to what Chief Mertzig said in her email to Mayor Lund, since it continues to raise alerts that the disruption of Immigration Advisory Board meetings was never warranted on many of the grounds that City officials used to justify that action. Yet, not only does the Immigration Advisory Board currently remain silenced, City officials remain silent regarding if and when the work of the board may resume and the fate of one of the board’s significant recommendations, the Immigrant Resource Center.

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Sent: Monday, July 15, 2024 at 04:16:38 PM PDT

Subject: Regarding BPD Chief Mertzig’s 5/29/24 email to Mayor Lund

Dear Bellingham City Council, Mayor Lund, Police Chief Mertzig, and Interim Deputy Administrator/Communications Director Keller:

Tomorrow marks the 6th meeting date that Immigration Advisory Board members haven’t been allowed to meet. 

I am writing related to an email for which I am providing a link, that was sent by Chief Mertzig to Mayor Lund. I received it among materials responsive to a recent public records request of mine related to the Immigration Advisory Board. Chief Mertzig’s email was in regard to an email which I had sent you all back on May 19 of this year and which was included with her email. There are some points made in her email about some points in mine that I wanted to address with clarifying information.

But first, upon noting that there is reason to believe officials had time to communicate about 5/19/24 my email, I want to start off by saying that it is unfortunate that I did not receive a response from any of you, including Chief Mertzig. I do think community engagement is essential to solving issues critical to community well-being.  Responding to community members expressing their input and concerns is a means to dialogue and to solving those issues. Of course, it is still more important to me that you are engaging with IAB members, and I hope that is being prioritized.

From reviewing City records, I am familiar with the fact that the City of Bellingham invests significant resources in developing and telling the City’s story about events surrounding dangers to marginalized communities. I suspect a large percentage of people believe at least some, if not all, of that story. However, if false information that also contributes to marginalizing community members is woven into any of that story, it imperils the actions you take and good intentions you have to make strides that meaningfully address dangers to them.  

As a community member who does take some time and effort to review documents and other records which also tell a version and significant portion of the City’s story about their actions regarding such dangers, there are certain things which I am able to verify. Conversely, there are others which I cannot verify in cases where City actions and discussions are not documented or recorded. This email of mine today is regarding a case where there is information I can verify through a document and a recording.  

In my 5/19/24 email to all of you that Chief Mertzig was referencing, one of my statements was about former Bellingham Police Chief David Doll’s attendance at the first Immigration Advisory Board meeting on June 23, 2020. My statement was that no one at the meeting ever told Chief Doll he was not welcome. Relevant to that, Chief Mertzig had made this statement at the 1/29/24 Bellingham City Council Committee of the Whole meeting: 

“The City of Bellingham values its police department, yet the Immigration Advisory Board began its first meeting by telling the former Chief, David Doll, that he was not welcome and kicking him out of important dialogue.”

As I had shared with you in my 5/19/24 email, in the first IAB meeting audio recording you can hear that the IAB didn’t begin the discussion of Chief Doll’s presence at the meeting until the meeting was half-way through.

In the 5/29/24 email to Mayor Lund from Chief Mertzig, she had stated that Chief Doll had “stated unequivocally that he did not ‘feel welcome’ at the first meeting and was asked not to attend future meetings.”

For me, there is a distinct difference between stating that Chief Doll did not feel welcome at the meeting, and, on the other hand, stating he was told he was not welcome. I was not seeking to characterize feelings as either accurate or inaccurate. I do, however, have a way to determine whether or not it is accurate to say he was told he was not welcome at that meeting. I have listened a number of times to the entire first IAB meeting recording from June 23, 2020 and have transcribed the portion of the meeting where the discussion about Chief Doll’s attendance occurred. In my 5/19/24 email to all of you I provided a link to the meeting audio, as well as a copy of the transcribed discussion from that meeting. 

Reviewing either the meeting audio or the transcription, it is also evident that no one at that meeting asked Chief Doll to leave that specific IAB meeting. Chief Doll being asked to leave that first IAB meeting was something that City Communications Director/Interim Deputy Administrator Keller had mistakenly stated at the 1/29/24 Committee of the Whole meeting.  He also wasn’t told at that meeting that he should not attend future IAB meetings. 

During the remaining months of David Doll’s service as Chief of the Bellingham Police Department, the IAB was meeting virtually and did not meet in person. 

Five different original IAB members and the Council Liaison at the time, Hannah Stone, weighed in that night during the second hour of their very first meeting with a variety of perspectives about Chief Doll’s unexpected attendance. Most who spoke voiced support for Chief Doll being present as an attendee, rather than as a panelist. Some voiced concern for the safety of immigrants to speak freely regarding dangers they faced and how police sitting with board members in the Zoom meeting might negatively impact that. Some members also brought up the value of being able to seek information from law enforcement officials when needed. 

Additionally, closely following the discussion about Chief Doll’s attendance at the meeting, Council President Stone went on to ask IAB members how they would like other City officials or staff to attend the meetings, either as panelists or attendees.  IAB Member Danielle Siedlecki expressed that she liked the idea of them coming in for a period of time and presenting, with the IAB having time to go over that with them, and then having them step out [of the panelist role] after they are done. 

Council President Stone then verified with Janice Keller if that would be able to be done, which Keller confirmed would be possible. Keller expressed it would need to start as of the next meeting, since she and another staff member were performing hosting roles for Zoom during that first meeting. 

In the last few minutes of the meeting, an IAB member again expressed concern for the community and their sense that they could and would safely communicate with the IAB if either federal immigration enforcement or local law enforcement officials were monitoring the meetings. However since he understood these were public meetings, he finished his remarks with affirming he was agreeable to them being part of the public but not part of their committee.  

If anyone made a request of Chief Doll to not attend future IAB meetings anytime after that June 23, 2020 meeting, it was not documented in IAB meeting minutes, and I have no recollection of it being discussed in IAB meeting recordings through December 2020, to which I have recently listened. Chief Doll had announced his retirement in December 2020 that would take effect on January 4, 2021. So it appears this was not publicly discussed, and that it wasn’t an action the board voted to take.

Of course, if it is the case that there are records of the IAB agreeing to take the action of requesting Chief Doll to not attend future meetings, I request to be provided those records. I made a similar request to you all a few months ago in March, for any records that outweighed material in other records I had pointed out to you which indicate that some officials’ statements about the IAB or its members are untrue. So far no City officials have provided me with such records. Therefore, it’s disturbing to me that City officials are not publicly correcting the errors they have made in an official document and public meeting which mischaracterize some actions of the IAB and its members. 

It may appear to you all that the inaccuracies in City officials’ statements that I pointed out in my 05/19/24 email are trivial, or even ridiculous as Chief Mertzig described some of them. But to me, it’s worthy of scrutiny and remedy to have had numerous untrue statements made by officials in one of their meetings which were used in support of some officials taking the position that police need to be “at the table” with the IAB and an ordinance to suspend their meetings. If officials are taking action that impacts marginalized community members, it seems reasonable to expect those actions to be based on the most accurate information possible. The less accuracy there is, the greater potential there is for harm. For people who are already pushed to the edges of our community by mischaracterizations and misperceptions, adding to that push is something that should be promptly remedied, and moving forward, vigorously avoided. 

Sincerely, 

Dena Jensen

Birch Bay, WA

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This email was sent to the following addresses:

To: ccmail@cob.org <ccmail@cob.org>; Daniel C. Hammill <dchammill@cob.org>; Jace A. Cotton <jacotton@cob.org>; ehwilliams@cob.org <ehwilliams@cob.org>; Hannah E. Stone <hestone@cob.org>; Michael W. Lilliquist <mlilliquist@cob.org>; Hollie Huthman <hahuthman@cob.org>; Lisa A. Anderson <laanderson@cob.org>; mayorsoffice@cob.org <mayorsoffice@cob.org>; rkmertzig@cob.org <rkmertzig@cob.org>; Janice L. Keller <jkeller@cob.org>

Cc: G. CC. Immigration Board <immigrationboard@cob.org>; WREC <wrec@chuckanuthealthfoundation.org>; council@co.whatcom.wa.us <council@co.whatcom.wa.us>; Satpal Sidhu <ssidhu@co.whatcom.wa.us>; IPRTaskForce <iprtaskforce@co.whatcom.wa.us>; phab@co.whatcom.wa.us <phab@co.whatcom.wa.us>; Cascadia Daily News <ronjudd@cascadiadaily.com>; Robert Mittendorf <robert.mittendorf@bellinghamherald.com>; Denver Prett <denver.pratt@bellinghamherald.com>