City Council - Special Meeting

City of Bellingham City Council Special Meeting: Public Comment Session Minutes November 29, 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 Hollie Huthman, At-Large Police Department Administration, Lt. Claudia Murphy Announcement of Upcoming Public Hearings Bellingham City Council meets all requirements of the State of Washington Open Meetings Act. 1. On December 6, 2021 at 7:00 PM there will be a Public Hearing on the consideration of staff initiated amendments to the Infill Housing Toolkit provisions of the Bellingham Municipal Code 2. On December 6, 2021 at 7:00 PM there will be a Public Hearing on An Ordinance Renewing the Grant of a Franchise to Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC to Operate and Maintain a Cable System in the City of Bellingham; Setting Forth Conditions Accompanying the Grant of Franchise; and Providing for City Regulation and Administration of the Cable System. A complete copy of the Proposed Ordinance will be Furnished upon Request Public Comment Session There was a minimum of 38 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 24 attendees elected to speak publicly. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 1 November 29, 2021  Included below is a list of speakers and a summary of the topic(s) addressed during their comment periods: 1. Dena Jensen – land acknowledgment, request for public comment sessions to be recorded, request for public comment sessions to be held during City Council Regular Meetings, need services and shelter the people in our community who are unsheltered, please reach out to the broader community for help and encourage engagement, community meeting at Nooksack Valley High School on November 24th is a good example of shared community engagement. 2. David Stalheim – retired land use and housing planner, recent unprecedented weather events and support from City staff, City has outdated street vacation policies and procedures, questions regarding the street funds – how much has been collected and how have the funds been spent, contacted the City with questions but never received any response, notices for public hearings are merely a save the date because no support documentation is provided, support documentation is not provided until the meeting packet is published online the Wednesday before the meeting, the window for review is extremely limited, need 10 days for review. 3. Kyle Morris – concern related to the amount of trash found in and along the City’s water corridors, volume of trash found in the creek and creek beds is increasing, highlighted concern related to the encampments located on Woburn and Racine, need enforceable policy to avoid encampment creation along the banks of water corridors, related criminal activity is also of concern. 4. Dr. Richard Tran – as of October 25 King County is requiring proof of vaccination for everyone ages 12+ at outdoor events of 500 or more people, indoor recreational events or establishments (such as restaurants and bars), the WA civil rights council says this is a violation of discrimination laws pursuant to RCW 49.60.030. 5. Matt Bryant – spoke to local clean up efforts related to trash removal from critical areas and shared photos from Girard and Cornwall (March 2021), Dupont and Girard (July 2021), Cornwall and State (September 2021) and Racine and Woburn (November 2021), the volume is beyond what he and other volunteers can handle, assistance from the City is needed. 6. Rachel Lindsay – concerns regarding BPD officers who have been released from employment due to the vaccine mandate, cuts to BPD service units (for example – bike, traffic, BHO, anticrime, neighborhood outreach, etc.), reports problems with the vaccines, data shows that vaccines don’t prevent infection or spread, reference to Nuremberg Code and bodily autonomy. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 2 November 29, 2021  7. Dam Pham – vaccine requirements for children 5-11 years of age are not currently in place but they are coming, analogy between the vaccine and trick-or-treaters being told by a stranger that candy is safe but must eat it there and cannot take it with you, reliance has been solely on health experts to guide policy, blind eye to conflicts related to financial interests, must be guided by conscience. 8. Ken Domorod – there is no scientific or legal reason to keep council chambers closed, downtown venues have opened for live events with certain precautions in place to permit large crowds together screaming and cheering, hypocrisy to argue that it is not safe to return to chambers, use BPD as enforcement arm for vaccination mandate to make it safe like private businesses have done. 9. Susan Prosser – [internet connection was poor which impacted audio quality] concern about firing of city employees, need to stand up and say no because the firings are unconstitutional, reference to the Nuremberg Code and the need for a sanctuary city to protect community members from the mandates, concern about vaccination mandates for 5-11 year olds because there is no track record on how the vaccine will impact children, need leadership to stand up and say no, orders of the mayor and governor are unconstitutional and it is not a legal defense to say you are just doing what you are told. 10. Markis Dee Stidham – CDC recommends allowing people to shelter in place, community members are unwilling to go to the Lighthouse Mission, people are wet and left with nothing, must develop solutions together, emergency winter shelter and warming shelter are needed, county says to ask the city, public comment is to hear from the public, opens doors to chambers. 11. Mary Stidham – imperative to bring public comment period back to regular meetings with all council members present, difficult to describe the COB as progressive, if COB was progressive there would not be people on the streets because Base Camp has 10% availability when people are unwilling to go to the Lighthouse Mission, January 28th there was police power to remove Camp 210 and COB has made no progress to serve the most fragile community members, must keep the most vulnerable on our minds at all times, only as wonderful as how we treat our most vulnerable. 12. Misty Flowers – open chambers, a progressive community would want to hear from all constituents, concern regarding restriction of free thought (William O. Douglas), November 23rd WA DOH launched new Digital COVID-19 Verification Record system, don’t understand why there are still outbreaks if the protocols of masking, distancing, and vaccines work, if the pandemic were a true health emergency then everyone would be doing the same thing to promote safety and healthy, Dr. Noack murdered after publishing information against the vaccine. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 3 November 29, 2021  13. Natalie Chavez (on the line with Helga) – vaccine mandate is an unconstitutional infringement, another federal court has blocked Biden’s vaccine mandate, locally we are losing employees due to Mayor Fleetwood’s vaccine mandate, email from HR asking if they “intend to be fired” is offensive, these employees deserve a thank you for their service. 14. Jean Purcell (on the line with Helga) – December 3rd BPD officers will be fired for a personal medical decision but the vaccine cannot prevent COVID, transmission, or death, the mayor has made a mistake and the tide has turned, call to rescind the mandate, move the community toward healing, and correct this injustice. 15. Shean Halley (on the line with Helga) – how to know if you have been brainwashed: irrational beliefs, obsessive actions, worship, sacrifices and offerings, intolerance of dissenters. 16. Melissa Wisener (Gragg) – everyone has lost everything, people are struggling to access services, local government was unprepared and the community is on its own, call for FEMA and the National Guard, need to count the number of houseless community members to secure support and additional resources. 17. Jude Gray – nurse for many years, neighbor is an RN at the hospital who was vaccinated but had a breakthrough case so we know how well the vaccine works, there are many people who cannot be vaccinated, there were heartfelt comments this evening but the city council does not listen. 18. Rob Viens – small business owner with 40 years in craft, claims a medical exemption and therefore not vaccinated, due to vaccination status barred from many local performance venues, highlighted the inconsistency in mandates in different states, must focus on what will unite the community. 19. Cynthia Thompson (RN4life) – ER nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital, friend was fired from BPD, too many people are losing their jobs, when will this end, seeks to have a respectful conversation in chambers. 20. Sara Rose – legal update regarding COVID, experimental vaccination and use of coercion, section 802 of the Patriot Act defines domestic terrorism as an act intended to intimidate or coerce, referenced a 22-page order issued November 12, 2021 by the Fifth Circuit to reaffirm its initial stay of OSHA’s coercion of employees, vaccination is an intensely personal decision, say no to illegal mandates. 21. Des – didn’t need a budget cut to see less cops on the street, call for BPD and CBP to stop working together, on January 28th the presence of more cops hurt the community, the health of the creek beds matter and that is what people need to be sheltered, need for secular low barrier options and services for people on the streets, call to work with local nonprofits like SOS, need better resources for translations, stop the sweeps and City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 4 November 29, 2021  open emergency shelters, the weather is bad in this area, need more comment options, need a workgroup to address these issues. 22. Hannah Ordos – 45-year resident of Whatcom County, opposed to mandates and in favor of medical freedom, educated about COVID and weighing the risk of altering the immune system versus relying on the immune system, medicine is not perfect and just because there is a shot to give doesn’t mean we should, shout out to the three vehicles with BPD officers who came to help evacuate people from Everson but does not know their names. Lt. Claudia Murphy confirmed that one of them was Corporal Elmendorf. 23. Heather Katahdin (HK) – support for those who are losing their jobs, appreciation for their service, people have gone 11 days without running water, community meeting at Nooksack Valley High School on November 24th was an awesome example of coming together as neighbors, appreciation for the comments shared this evening. 24. Gwen Hunter – call to provide shelter for those who are unsheltered, father lived in a boxcar, shall not judge or hurt people who are freezing cold and wet, wonderful people have been working for a long time to try and help but people cannot survive in this environment unsheltered, listen to Markis Dee and watch his videos, granddaughter is 3 years old and has a friend who is in the hospital on a ventilator, thank you for upholding the protocols, use your power to help. Lt. Claudia Murphy confirmed that community members can report trash through the cob.org/encampments website. Brief response from Council Members regarding public comment. Adjournment There being no further comments, the session adjourned at 8:42 PM. Next public comment session will be held on Monday, December 20, 2021. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 5 November 29, 2021