City Council - Special Meeting

City of Bellingham City Council Special Meeting: Public Comment Session Minutes November 15, 2021, 7:00 PM Mayor Seth Fleetwood Contact: (360) 778-8200, ccmail@cob.org Council Members Hannah Stone, Gene Knutson, Daniel Hammill, www.cob.org/council Pinky Vargas, Lisa Anderson, Michael Lilliquist and All meetings are held in the City Hall Council Chambers at Hollie Huthman 210 Lottie Street, Bellingham, WA, unless otherwise noted. Call to Order Council President Stone opened the Public Comment Session at 7:00 PM. Roll Call Present: Council President Hannah Stone, First Ward Council Member Lisa Anderson, Fifth Ward Council Member Michael Lilliquist, Sixth Ward Mayor’s Office, Janice Keller Police Department Administration, Lt. Claudia Murphy Announcement of Upcoming Public Hearings There were no upcoming Public Hearings reported. Public Comment Session There was a minimum of 26 people in attendance at the Public Comment Session. Attendees who wished to address the Council were given 3 minutes to share their comments. A total of 14 attendees elected to speak publicly. Included below is a list of speakers and a summary of the topic(s) addressed during their comment periods: 1. Dena Jensen - land acknowledgement, November 10, 2020 marked when the first tent went on the lawn at City Hall as part of the Bellingham Occupied Protest later known as Camp 210, November 12, 2021 close to the one year anniversary was Po Poets/Poverty Skolaz event in Bellingham, City and County have recently stated that no additional government shelter is planned no matter how bad the weather, call for warming shelters, Deport Market warming center provided shelter for people who had been trespassed from Base Camp, don’t discourage or discredit work of community members. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 1 November 15, 2021  2. Ebony Campbell - one year anniversary of Camp 210 and nothing has changed, no shelter provided, the cycle of harm is repeated, elected officials chose not to create solutions because never loved or cared for someone who is unsheltered, shameful. 3. Jen Durant - disappointed that the Council is standing behind the vaccination mandate and businesses requesting to see vaccination cards, actions are discriminatory, the mandate doesn’t make sense because you can catch COVID and spread COVID if you are vaccinated, the mandate is about money for corporations, need conversations about how to create a healthy lifestyle without the discrimination, referenced Resolution 1734 from the City of Enemclaw, WA (https://www.cityofenumclaw.net/DocumentCenter/View/6670/Res- 1734---Covid-19-Vaccine-Verification-Discrimination) and hopes Bellingham can do the same. 4. Debbie LaBounty - reviewed the “point in time” count and has watched the City meetings, credit for Samish Commons and Gardenview Tiny Home Village, City requested a proposal for safe parking but there was no response, wants to consider City surplus property for possible locations (2 Lots on A Street, 2 Lots on B Street, 1 Lot on Girard), wants to consider possible partnerships with businesses. 5. Natalie Chavez - on November 1st the Rabbinical Court in New York City issued a decree in opposition to the mRNA COVID shot after hours of testimony, a ruling by the Rabbinical Court is considered God’s law and is strictly followed by the Jewish community. 6. Mary Gibb - heart felt thoughts and prayers to the many traumatized by the flood, this is a true State of Emergency, please reach out to neighbors in Everson and Sumas, the Governor’s State of Emergency has been in effect for 600+ days while red States without similar mandates have lower case levels and people are not forced to stay home and lose their jobs, vaccinations are personal decisions, natural herd immunity happens when people get sick and then get medication and treatment through consultation with their doctor, call on Council to push back on firing by leadership. 7. Dana Briggs - if it is true that there will be no additional shelter available then we need as much information as possible about who has been turned away from available shelter options (no space, trespass, etc.), being outside in the past 24-48 hours places people in danger of hypothermia irrespective of any temperature thresholds set by the City or County, what does it take to develop temporary no-traditional shelter arrangements during the floods, there is a double standard, no difference between a tent, mobile home, or traditional dwelling when someone is displaced. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 2 November 15, 2021  8. Misty Flowers - need honest conversations beyond vaccinated versus unvaccinated, open chambers so we can meet in person, treat each other with respect. 9. Jennifer Sanders - Brandywine Kitchen has a new policy that requires proof of vaccination for 12+, sent an email to the business owners and shared the correspondence during public comment session, the policy is dividing the community, whether to vaccinate your children should be a choice based on risk and benefit analysis not based on political or social pressure, fully vaccinated have similar peak viral loads and can spread the virus, asymptomatic individuals can spread the virus. 10. Dam Pham - 15 years old when South Vietnam was taken over by restrictive policies based on lies, escaped in 1979 and reunited with mother, recognizes tyranny, all in the name of pandemic / “scamdemic,” hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens entered the country infected with the virus, there was a bill to require vaccinations for illegal aliens but it was not passed into law, all of the testing and mandates are lies with purpose at all government levels to purge the nonconforming through coercion. Technical difficulties: Zoom meeting timed out and attendees were able to rejoin a new session using the same link. 11. Dr. Richard Tran - chiropractor in Bellingham since 2010, appreciate council members who show up to public comment but don’t represent the full council, sessions are not recorded, reopen chambers to provide an opportunity to listen to other people and hear their perspectives, division in the city and the nation with more than half the states bringing forward lawsuits against the Biden administration, sessions don’t have to be broadcast on YouTube but please reopen chambers. 12. Sara Rose - why is the Council supporting the firing of employees who want to make health care decisions different from the Mayor, September 2021 article in European Journal of Epidemiology found no discernable connection between vaccination rates and transmission of the virus, November 2021 FOIA request with CDC found no documented cases of someone who was never vaccinated then contracted COVID and recovered and then transmitted the virus, discrimination based on religion is a violation of law. 13. Susan Prosser - thank you for listening, good points made by speakers this evening, victims of the floods are in a true state of emergency, pandemic is not an emergency, the pandemic is about control, the mandates are unconstitutional, reconsider the mandates, end the division, and bring people together, whether or not to get the jab is a personal decision, the vaccination is experimental and has adverse effects, chambers need to reopen to meet in person and solve problems City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 3 November 15, 2021  together, sent an email to Council earlier about a small town in California that was declared a “Sanctuary City” acting against the unconstitutional mandates. 14. Hannah Ordos – was going to speak about something else but spent the last 4-5 hours in Sumas helping evacuate families from their homes, there were no government entities helping and no one asked about vaccination status, no one asked about vaccination status when people showed up in boats and tractors to help, no one cared about vaccination status, what was important was that people showed up to help, the vaccine isn’t helping prevent the spread of the virus, the biggest public health failure is that we don’t talk about personal health and wellness. 15. Mary Gibb (duplicate speaker) - Question regarding available emergency services in response to the present weather emergency. Brief response from Council Members. 16. Susan Prosser (duplicate speaker) - Thank you for the dialogue. Adjournment There being no further comments, the session adjourned at 8:05 PM. Next public comment session will be held on Monday, November 29, 2021. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 4 November 15, 2021