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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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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Whatcom Democrats pass resolution to support city funded immigrant resource center / Press Release, Community to Community Development

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Over a dozen strings of multi-colored origami butterflies, created as part of the community-wide Migration Makes Us Stronger campaign, brighten the picture window of the ideal shop in downtown Bellingham. Photo Credit: C2C

September 30, 2022 Community to Community Development

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 09/30/2022 

WHATCOM DEMOCRATS PASS RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT CITY FUNDED IMMIGRANT RESOURCE CENTER 

As city council prepares to draft the 2023-2024 biennial budget, community demand for immigrant resource center grows 

On Saturday September 24th, The Whatcom Democrats voted 58-0 to pass a resolution encouraging the city of ellingham to fund an immigrant resource center. This comes as Mayor Fleetwood is preparing to propose a biennial budget to city council on October 24th, 2022. 

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Regarding Bellingham Police Department officers using text messages to conduct agency business / Letter to Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood

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The images above display screenshots from Bellingham Police Department Lieutenant Claudia Murphy’s body cam video recordings in late 2021 related to her work enforcing City of Bellingham parking code for recreational vehicles

August 4, 2022 Dena Jensen

There is an August 1, 2022 post here on Noisy Waters Northwest related to the subject of this email sent today to City of Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood. As of the time of that post, I had not yet received a response from the Mayor or Bellingham City Council President Hannah Stone regarding questions I had about Bellingham Police Department officers being advised, back in January of 2021, to delete their text messages weekly. Here is the link to that post: https://noisywatersnw.com/2022/08/01/waiting-for-answers-regarding-bellingham-police-department-texting-practices-noisy-waters-northwest/

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ACTION ALERT AND UPDATE CONCERNING NONCOMPETE CLAUSES PREVENTING GROCERY ACCESS IN BIRCHWOOD / Tina McKim

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Click the screenshot of a COB.org image link of Bellingham City Council President Hannah Stone to access contact information for members of the Bellingham City Council

June 17, 2022 Tina McKim

OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

In an absolutely infuriating and heartbreaking twist, we just learned today that the new deed on the former Albertsons/ current Big Lots space STILL has extensive non-compete clauses preventing a grocery store from going into the Park Manor Shopping Center.

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Regarding permitted RV encampment parking / Letter to Mayor Seth Fleetwood and Bellingham City Council

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Click the screenshot of text from the Fox 13 article, Olympia the first to permit free RV encampment parking on public street.

May 27, 2022 Dena Jensen
Here are a couple quotes from the Fox 13 article, Olympia the first to permit free RV encampment parking on public street.

“Olympia law says if an RV stays in one spot for more than 24 hours, it can be ticketed and towed. A requirement of the Ensign Road permit is for its occupants not to move—unless they plan to leave the area permanently.”

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Part One – The race to displace: reviewing parking enforcement videos for obstacles to services for those in crisis

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Edited body cam still frame in black and white of a car with rear door open showing the car interior and a person in jeans and socks laying under a long sweatshirt on the back seat. There is some graffiti on the door and seat-backs and one white athletic shoe next to the person on the seat. Some identifying material in the original image is removed.

April 22, 2022 Dena Jensen

Preface

On March 14, 2022, a presentation was given on RV parking code enforcement by Bellingham Police Department’s Public Information Officer, Lieutenant Claudia Murphy to Bellingham City Council’s Committee of the Whole. This presentation was given about three and a half months after City of Bellingham had initiated rigorous parking code enforcement following the lifting of the statewide ban on evictions.

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Weeks, and weeks, and weeks of parking and sheltering predicaments / Letter to Bellingham and Whatcom County officials

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Screenshot of Bellingham Police Department Lt. Claudia Murphy’s 12-30-21 body cam still frame showing a road and parked vehicles covered with snow, blue sky overhead, sun low toward the horizon, and the silhouettes of a person in a hat with their dog

April 10, 2022 Dena Jensen

Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2022, 06:06:37 PM PDT

Dear Bellingham City Council, Mayor Fleetwood, Whatcom County Council, and County Executive Sidhu:

Over the last week or two, I have been reviewing body worn camera recordings of Bellingham Police Department’s Public Information Officer, Lt. Claudia Murphy related to City of Bellingham’s increase in parking enforcement during the current pandemic. 

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Regarding RV parking enforcement and equity in Bellingham / Letter to Bellingham City Council

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March 15, 2022 Dena Jensen

Click the screenshot of text describing the IChange Justice podcast, “One Crisis Away from Homelessness” to access the description and podcast on Google Podcasts

Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2022, 06:25:35 PM PDT

Subject: Regarding RV parking enforcement and equity in our community

Dear Bellingham City Council:

Yesterday I was able to listen to most of your March 14, 2022 Committee of the Whole meeting, and your entire discussion related to the “Update on RV’s and the 72 hour Rule.”  

First, I would like to mention the part of the committee discussion on enforcing parking code for RVs where Bellingham Police Department Lieutenant Claudia Murphy responded to Bellingham City Council Chair Hannah Stone talking about the challenge of packing up camping gear increasing in relation to how often people might have to do that. It was apparent in the discussion that most of the community members undergoing code enforcement were living in their RVs as their primary shelter. 

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