October 28, 2023 Dena Jensen
It’s closing in on a year ago since Whatcom County’s Justice Project evaluated their needs assessment process according to a toolkit provided by the Local and Regional Government Alliance on Race and Equity.
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October 26, 2023 Dena Jensen
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2023, 05:00:11 PM PDT
Subject: We are behind in supplying capacity with our emergency shelter options for this cold weather season
Dear Whatcom County Council:
I am glad for your new Facebook page and saw your post today regarding the Severe Weather Shelter that Whatcom County will be operating. I am also grateful for the hard work of Whatcom County Health and Community Services to help provide some safety for people who have no other options but to live outside this winter. It is encouraging that Whatcom County has transcended the misguided 2021 recommendation for the County to *not* operate sheltering options after that year.
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October 18, 2023 Dena Jensen
[Editors Note: I submitted this commentary to Cascadia Daily News two weeks ago on October 4, 2023, after they had published a three-week string of guest commentaries praising the 2023 ballot measure sales tax to build a new Whatcom County jail. After 2 more weeks of pro-jail-tax commentaries and finally, two jail-tax related ones today, one for it and one that opposed the tax, I noticed on the two published this morning there was an editor’s note on both, saying CDN would not be publishing any more guest commentaries about the jail tax, “with most relevant issues seemingly covered.” So here’s mine right back here in my own publication with issues related to the tax that seem relevant to me.]
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October 13, 2023 Dena Jensen
A little further down in this post I am going to include images, links, and text related to the Public Disclosure complaint I filed against Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu on September 25, 2023, citing a potential violation of RCW 42.17A.555, for supporting or opposing a ballot proposition during a public meeting.
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October 11, 2023 Dena Jensen
This week there have been at least a couple of presentations of Washington State University’s independent review of progress on addressing the recommendations and strategies in the 2017 Vera Institute of Justice report. One was given to the Incarceration Prevention Task Force (IPRTF) at their special meeting held on Monday, October 09, 2023 at 9:00 a.m., and one to the Whatcom County Council Committee of the Whole at their meeting on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, at 2:15 p.m.
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September 28, 2023 Dena Jensen
We can try, right? And keep trying. Because even when we fail, we learn.
If elected officials and those leading the charge in the political campaign to promote funds to prioritize building a new jail – and in a few years a few new services don’t make amends for inaccuracies in media assertions that can marginalize and discredit, not only people they have worked with on the Justice Project, but an array of voices promoting an end to injustice against themselves and/or their communities, then we discover a bad sign, on top of others, regarding at least some of those pro-new-jail political action committee (PAC) members and the project they are pushing. It helps offer another confirmation to our sense that there is some bad faith in the mix, and to an increasing degree.
October 22, 2023 Dena Jensen
🟥🟩Comparison of our County Executive’s remarks, one month apart, related to the amount of funding from the 2023 ballot measure sales tax that was to be made available for non-jail projects.🟥🟩
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September 18, 2023 Dena Jensen
At their September 12, 2023 Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee meeting, committee members Barry Buchanan and Carol Frazey, along with County Council Member Kailey Galloway received a report from District Court Probation. Notes from the report using language that is fairly close to that used by presenters are included further down in this blog post.
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September 17, 2023 Dena Jensen
It’s unfortunate and disappointing that ballot measure sales tax proponents Peter Frazier and Stephen Gockley are making some misleading and inaccurate assertions such as the ones below from sections of their September 15, 2023 guest commentary, “Voters can have both: a safe jail and more treatment,” in Cascadia Daily News:
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September 14, 2023 Dena Jensen
From a recently closed Whatcom County Request for Proposal (RFP): “The County and the City would consider making additional funding available to support the operation of a continuous Winter Shelter, if necessary.”
“…if necessary”??? What kind of language is this after years of brutality to many community members otherwise left to sleep outside during winter?
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noisy waters northwest 
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