City of Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board needs your support! / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the graphic text to access the January 2, 2024 Bellingham City Council regular meeting agenda


December 30, 2023 Dena Jensen

Remember when Whatcom County officials suddenly shut down the Homeless Strategies Workgroup? The threat of a similar action now looms over the IAB. 

Please bear witness to the Bellingham City Council Meeting this coming Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. where Council Members will be discussing the draft of an ordinance “Suspending All Future Meetings of the Immigration Advisory Board (IAB) and Its Subcommittees Until City Council Adopts an Ordinance Rescinding the Suspension.” 

Here is a link to the agenda: https://meetings.cob.org/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=3121&doctype=1

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Whatcom jail campaign season is over, but what will be its legacy? / Letter to the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force

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Click the image of the Wikipedia webpage on Dog whistle (politics) to access the information on the Wikipedia website

November 11, 2023 Dena Jensen

Below is the email I sent to the Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force today:

Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2023, 12:06:47 PM PST

Subject: Whatcom jail campaign season is over but what will be its legacy?

Dear Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force:

It seems apparent that a majority of voters have agreed to an increase in sales tax to fund a new Whatcom County Jail and the other projects noted in the ordinance for the tax associated with Proposition 2023-4. Now that Election Day has passed, I wanted to make sure you were aware of an action the YES! Safe Jail, Healthy Outcomes Political Action Committee took near the end of their campaign to support the sales tax. 

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People of under-represented communities and their advocates continue in struggle for services over jail / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image containing pages from “No New Jail in Whatcom County” to access the complete September 2023 online zine.

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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Whatcom County is falling behind in providing winter sheltering options / Letter to the Whatcom County Council

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Click the screenshot to access 2023 Winter sheltering information on the Whatcom County website

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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Whatcom jail locks up more unserved BIPOC people: Vote no on a 2023 tax for an unplanned new jail / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the screenshot of a section on page 14 of the 2023 Whatcom County Justice Project Needs Assessment to access the information in the full document.

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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Satpal Sidhu responds to PDC Complaint regarding 2023 ballot measure to fund Whatcom jail / Noisy Waters Northwest

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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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Sales tax for new Whatcom jail requires working against incarceration reduction recommendation / Noisy Waters Northwest

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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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Whatcom County’s 2023 pro-jail PAC lets their inaccurate allegations stand/ Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the 9/28/23 screenshot to access https://www.facebook.com/VoteYesSafeJailHealthyOutcomes where this 9/15/23 post can be found
Click this 9/28/23 annotated (red oval) screenshot to access the Local Media Coverage list near the bottom of the https://www.yeswhatcomjail.com home page

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.

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Comparison: sales-tax constant for Whatcom Executive is we may have too many funds for behavioral health services / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Image of a chart used by Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu’s remarks at the June 12, 2023 Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force

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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What County Council Members were told last week about Whatcom County’s District Court Probation / Noisy Waters Northwest

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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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