Whatcom County Council 2022 searchable meeting minutes / Noisy Waters Northwest

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January 22, 2023 Dena Jensen

This post continues to build on a project of assembling local government meeting minutes into year-long batches that can be searched for material like terms or actions of the members of the body that is meeting.

This election year there are lots of Whatcom County and municipal positions to be filled. So it seems like a good time to make the resources we have to observe existing government officials’ positions and actions more easily accessible and effectively useful, when possible.

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Bellingham City Council searchable 2022 meeting minutes / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the screenshot to access the City of Bellingham City Council meetings page on the COB website

January 15, 2023 Dena Jensen

So, let’s say you want to find out what Bellingham City Council Members might have talked about during their meetings last year or how Council Members voted on a particular motion. Whether it’s the electrification of government buildings, providing new homeless services, moving forward with an immigrant resource center, offering open public comment periods again at their regular meetings, etc. – other than looking in each agenda or set of minutes individually, or watching each meeting, you don’t have much of a way to know. So here’s a little bit of help toward an easier way of finding clues about that.

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Request your ballot for the Whatcom Conservation District Board of Supervisor Election / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the screen shot above to access the information and a button to request your ballot for the Whatcom Conservation District Board of Supervisor election

January 13, 2023 Dena Jensen

Request your ballot! The low-key Whatcom Conservation District Board of Supervisor election is always a big deal for the well-being of our community.

You can request a mail-in/drop-off ballot for the election to beat the February 7 deadline right now! A ballot must be requested in order to vote and you can either mail it in any time after you receive it, or drop it off on the 3/21/23 Election Day at the WCD office in Lynden. Here is a link to a page to access the “Request Ballot” button to submit your request and review detailed information about the election: https://www.whatcomcd.org/board-elections

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‘Try to bring the numbers down with change’: Whatcom County justice stakeholders highlight need for services / Noisy Waters Northwest

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January 6, 2023 Dena Jensen

The latter portion of this post contains the more detailed remarks, which included the statement in the graphic on this post, that were made at the 12/15/22 Justice Project Stakeholder Advisory Committee meeting by the Director of Whatcom County’s Public Defender’s Office Starck Follis. 

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Whatcom County Council seeks to lighten workload by cutting back on community voices / Letter to Whatcom County Council

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Click the screenshot of a 12/2/2022 memo from Whatcom County Council Member Carol Frazey to access the document on the Whatcom County website

December 5, 2022 Dena Jensen

In this post is an email I sent last night regarding tomorrow’s 12/6/22 Whatcom County Council Committee of the Whole meeting. The COW agenda says Council will be discussing general meeting rules. It is left to community members who have some experience on where to find more details, to learn that apparently this discussion is to be solely focused on limiting our time to speak at their meetings. It would have taken very few extra words to say that on the agenda. Here is the link to the memo for the meeting: https://whatcom.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11493559&GUID=01A69383-70BC-41D5-A732-01A369E4CD18

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Update on previous email related to information and activation for accessible severe weather sheltering / Letter to Whatcom County officials

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November 27, 2022 Dena Jensen

Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2022, 07:30:34 PM PST

Subject: Update on previous email related to information and activation for accessible severe weather sheltering

Dear Whatcom County Health Department, Whatcom County Council, and Whatcom County Executive Sidhu:

Below my signature line, I am including a copy of the email  I sent you earlier today regarding information on the County website and various social media pages related to severe weather shelters being available. 

I wanted to write again on a related matter having to do with the recording on the night by night shelter hotline, at 360-788-7983.

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In pursuit of justice: who all is breaking the rules? / Noisy Waters Northwest

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November 6, 2022 Dena Jensen

Included in this post are some important points to consider regarding questions and input for the Whatcom County Justice Project (jail and services) Town Hall Listening Session on November 15th at 6:00pm. Click here to join via Zoom or attend in person at 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham, WA 98225.

I spent the time-changed hour “early” that I woke up today thinking about moldy kitchen and bathroom ceilings in the Whatcom County Jail, and encampment sweeps happening in Bellingham when our one 24/7 emergency shelter in the County is full. I thought about how legal codes and laws are being broken by officials month after month and year after year. 

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Displacement creates a stronger need for increased emergency sheltering options / Letter to Bellingham and Whatcom County officials

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Click the screenshot of a NEWS webpage on the website of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to read the statement from USICH Director Olivet, “Collaborate, Don’t Criminalize: How Communities Can Effectively and Humanely Address Homelessness”

October 31, 2022 Dena Jensen

On Friday of last week, I had posted on Facebook about a recent article in Cascadia Daily News, “Bike lanes to displace homeless campers on Cornwall. At the time of my post, I was just responding to information in the article. Since that time, I have had a chance to listen to a recording of the Bellingham City Council Members’ October 24, 2022 Committee of the Whole discussion of the proposal to eliminate parking on portions of four Bellingham streets, including the section of Cornwall Avenue that is near the Bellingham waterfront.

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Services needed to address more regular occurrence of severe smoke events / Letter to Whatcom County officials

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October 18, 2022 Dena Jensen

Keep sharing the things you learn and observe with our officials that will help result in more and better services for our community members who are in crisis or are in danger of being so.  

Here is an email I sent this evening to the Whatcom County Council and the County Executive:

Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2022, 05:31:04 PM PDT

Subject: Services needed to address more regular occurrence of severe smoke events

Dear Whatcom County Council, and County Executive Sidhu:

I have been watching the rapid increase today in poor air quality due to wildfire smoke. I am including a couple screenshots. 

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Calls for action regarding 2022 plans for Whatcom County severe weather shelters / Letter to the Whatcom County Council

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Click the image of a screenshot of a chart that is included in the Whatcom County Coalition to End Homelessness 2022 Annual Report to access the chart in the report on the Whatcom County website

October 14, 2022 Dena Jensen

I sent the following email to the Whatcom County Council this afternoon related to the presentation on severe weather sheltering that was given on September 27, 2022 by the Whatcom County Health Department Human Services Manager to members of the County Council’s Committee of the Whole at their meeting that day. Here is a link to a transcription of that presentation along with some highlights from it: https://noisywatersnw.com/2022/10/05/transcript-update-from-the-whatcom-county-health-department-on-severe-weather-shelter-plans-noisy-waters-northwest/

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