New, improved, easier: Searchable Meeting Minutes starting with 2023 Bellingham City Council & committees/ Noisy Waters Northwest

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August 15, 2024 Dena Jensen

After falling behind last year in keeping up with Searchable Meeting Minutes, I recently put on my thinking cap and managed to figure out how to create new and improved ones that are much easier and faster for me to put together and without the funky formatting of the previous ones I have posted. Searching them is still simple and direct, while I believe the minutes will be much easier to read; easier to tell the difference between which set of minutes is for which date; and easier to browse through if it’s not a specific phrase, word, number, or name that you are looking for.

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All hands on deck to support immigrants too / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the annotated screen shot of a portion of the August 5, 2024 Riveters Collective newsletter to access the original and complete newsletter on a browser

August 11, 2024 Dena Jensen

Last week, the Riveters Collective, an organization which “promotes effective progressive civic action in Whatcom County and neighboring communities,” sent out a newsletter containing a call to action to contact Bellingham officials requesting a progress update this month regarding the Immigration Advisory Board. Contact information was provided where people can reach officials.

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Evidence update on Immigration Advisory Board information void and Police Chief remarks / Noisy Waters Northwest

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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.

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‘Things are trying to suppress it, right?’: 2021 Camp 210 sweep letter from Immigration Advisory Board, a year-long timeline / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image of various annotated pages of Bellingham Immigration Advisory Board minutes to view a selection of individual pages

June 19, 2024 Dena Jensen

“Things are trying to suppress it, right?” That was a remark made by a Bellingham City Council Member to the City’s Immigration Advisory Board members back in 2021. The context and specific timing will be made clear later in this post, but the question evokes an atmosphere of oppression that too many members of marginalized communities dwell within.  

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Send your input now as Whatcom County seeks to improve homeless sheltering services / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image of the first page of a Whatcom County draft resolution to expand year-round shelter capacity and create a shelter subcommittee to access the full document on the Whatcom County website

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen significant action from Whatcom County Council toward activating more resources to increase County-managed homeless sheltering capacity. Although some strides had been made by Whatcom County government in activating their own emergency severe weather shelter in 2023/2024, the impact of that critical effort was dwarfed by the increase in people who found themselves living outside when the rain, snow, ice, and winds struck during that time.

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More flaws in case made against Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board / Noisy Waters Northwest

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May 20, 2024 Dena Jensen

When government officials make a statement claiming something happened, when information available in public records shows it didn’t happen, it’s a reason for concern. When such instances of faulty statements start to stack up in the officials’ process of targeting a group focused on removing dangers from a specific marginalized community, I’d say there’s good reason for folks to be as alarmed as they can be about it.

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Public safety should mean safety at work too / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the graphic to access the article “Whatcom County paid $225K to settle sexual harassment complaints” on the Cascade PBS/Crosscut website

April 20, 2024

Hopefully none of us will ever become numb to instances where government officials, business owners, or any other kinds of organization leadership minimize harassment of employees in the workplace, and/or try to conceal that harassment. The victims of the harassment pay a heavy price that can plague them in numerous ways for years and perhaps for life.

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Still no movement from Bellingham toward dignity for Immigration Advisory Board members / Noisy Waters Northwest

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March 27, 2024 Dena Jensen

During her Mayor’s Report at the March 11, 2024 Bellingham City Council meeting, Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund had announced that at the next City Council meeting the Administration was going to bring forward a Boards and Commissions Expectations document “to establish clear expectations about the important work that these groups do.” At Bellingham’s City Council meeting this week on March 25, that did not happen.

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That’s not a fact: one recital in the ordinance to suspend Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board / Noisy Waters Northwest

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March 22, 2024 Dena Jensen

We have passed the second month now that community members, who have been serving on Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board, have not been allowed to meet to continue their work to request and analyze data to determine compliance with the Keep Washington Working Act, along with facilitating community involvement and discussions on regional immigration issues. 

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Introduction – An imposition of indignity: the tale and trail of Bellingham’s immigration board suspension ordinance / Noisy Waters Northwest

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February 23, 2024 Dena Jensen
[This introduction was corrected with information on March 20, 2024. The corrected section is noted below within the relevant section of the introduction to this series. It is placed in brackets, in italics, with the date that the correction was made.]

It took less than one minute at the end of the Bellingham City Council’s February 12, 2024 regular meeting for Council Members’ final consideration of an ordinance to suspend the City’s Immigration Advisory Board. The ordinance was approved 6-1, with recently elected, first-term City Council Member Jace Cotton casting the only dissenting vote.

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