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

Posted on by
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

Continue reading →

Port Commissioners Bell and Shepard’s disrespect for public process at 5/15/18 Port Commission meeting / Facebook post, Sj Robson

Posted on by

Discussion of Zuanich Point Park event

Click the graphic to listen to the Port of Bellingham Commission discussion and vote on the Summer’s End Music and Arts Gathering Event that will close down Zuanich Point Park to public access on 8/17/18

May 16, 2018  Sandy Robson

NWNW Admin’s Note: I am adding links to video clips of the 5/15 Port of Bellingham Commission meeting where the material discussed in this post of Sandy’s took place. Watching the video can help reader’s have a clearer sense of how it was that public process was overridden.  – Dena Jensen  Continue reading →

Video Links offered for sections of Whatcom County Council meetings / Noisy Waters Northwest

Posted on by

video links county council meetings

Click the graphic to view the Linked Agenda for the May 8, 2018 Whatcom County Council committee and Council meetings. The Council meeting is the part of the agenda that offers Video Links

May 16, 2018  Dena Jensen

I just noticed this morning on the Whatcom County Council Linked Agenda for their last Council meeting (May 8), a new type of link was added that will make checking on a specific part of the meeting in which you are interested, or that you need to go back and find later, a whole lot less daunting. Plus, if you want to share that part of the meeting for any reason you can just copy that link and drop it in your post or share it from the YouTube page.

Continue reading →

Expanding Whatcom County’s outreach to Cherry Point UGA stakeholders / Letter to Whatcom County Planning Commission and Whatcom County Council, Dena Jensen

Posted on by

cherry-point-aquatic-reserve-workgroup-members

October 28, 2016  Dena Jensen

Dear Whatcom County Planning Commission and Whatcom County Council:

I am writing today because there has been discussion by both the planning commission and county council about collaborating with stakeholders at Cherry Point regarding the proposal and alternatives for the Cherry Point UGA section of the Land Use Chapter for the 2016 Comprehensive Plan Update. So far, in what I have heard about this collaboration, only the businesses/industries at Cherry Point have been mentioned, especially in terms of outreach from the planning commission or council. Continue reading →

Surly Citizens Object to Backroom Deals / NorthwestCitizen, Guest writer, Anne Mackie

Posted on by

At the height of the objections to the rule breaking by Vargas.

Anne Mackie guest writes about the Monday, Oct 17, Bellingham City Council meeting.  She is a community leader who lives in the York neighborhood.

Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:27 pm // Guest writer, Anne Mackie

What does it look like when a special interest group has your City Council president in their back pocket? It looks like what transpired at the October 17 Bellingham City Council Public Hearing on the Comprehensive Plan.

Rumors of a “crowd control problem” at city hall Monday night circulated on police scanners. As someone who was there, I can say the only control problem was emanating from Council President Pinky Vargas who violated meeting rules to accommodate her friends in the real estate and building industry. […]

Read Anne’s complete article on NorthwestCitizen here.

Continue reading →

Our question to Whatcom County remains: Where are those documents? / Public Comment to Whatcom County Council, Sandy Robson / Commentary by Dena Jensen

Posted on by

county-gpd-document-page-on-091416

GPT Project Documents listed on  Whatcom County’s GPT webpage as of 11 a.m. September 14, 2016, after the Whatcom County Council meeting on September 13, 2016.  Click the graphic to see if it has perhaps been updated with more records.

September 14, 2016 Sandy Robson

“Beyond that I want to go on record, most of all what I was writing about – I felt was really important  – is that our county administration, Jack Louws and his administration, have refused to put correspondence and documents related to the GPT project on the GPT page of the county website. They had two documents, only, on there for the entirety of 2016 until myself and a few handful of people started writing them on – I believe it was July 29th – and asked them: where are those documents?

Continue reading →