City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] okay we're going to go ahead and get started this is the March 24th meeting of the uh Bellingham city council got some announcements to make here uh Bellingham city council meets all requirements of the state of Washington open meetings act uh on April 8th the city council will hold a public hearing to take comment on a proposed resolution to relinquish a surplus utility easement retained within uh vacated 15th Street between larby Avenue and larby Donovan alley and line of pedestrian easement on April 8th the city council will hold another public hearing on proposed agreements between Western Washington University and the City of Bellingham regarding the construction of a Coast Salish House of healing in the Sehome Hill Arboretum including a ground lease and amended interlocal uh cooperation agreement and then finally um I'd like to acknowledge before we begin that we are here and gathered on the traditional and unseated territory of the Lumi noac samish and seamu people who have cared for intended this land since time immemorial truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of Heritage and difference We Begin this effort to acknowledge what has been buried by honoring the truth we pay respect to their Elders past and present please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence displacement migration and settlement that bring us here together today and please join us in uncovering such truths at all

future events we call please Hannah Stone here olly Huffman here skip Williams here Lisa Anderson here Michael lillquist here Jas cotton here Dan HL here all council members are present thank you um our first item uh for tonight is a presentation from Bellingham Municipal Court uh stateof the court address uh Belling Municipal Court de uh judge Deborah Lev and commissioner Nicholas Henry will deliver a state of the Court addressed to the council the presentation will include a review of the mental health and domestic violence therapeutic courts and include a preview of the new Community Court being launched this fall the Court's new therapeutic Court manager will also be introduced during this presentation judge you want to take it away or M Charlene gonna okay it's all yours thank you but for his mentorship and encouragement likely I would not be serving as the elected judge of Bellingham for the past 22 years judge bobing you have my deepest gratitude members of city council mayor lond and other dignitaries and the public here present today and others watching on other platforms we present to you Bellingham municipal courts state of the Court 2024 as a preview I would like to give you an overview of what your court does these are cases that were filed in 2023 infractions as you see of 1100 plus gross and misdemeanors gross misdemeanors and misdemeanors filed 2140 and 84% of those cases were uh the defendants were eligible for a public defender qualified for a public

defender vender parking citations as you see 145 uh and total cases filed 17,7 190 in 2023 we are a court of limited jurisdiction have that oh I do have that I was going to do this we have we are a court of limited jurisdiction gross misdemeanors are the highest level of offenses that we here in our court maximum sentence being 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine examples are driving while under the influence of intoxicants assault in the fourth degree non and also domestic violence harassment theft violation of protection orders and minor imp possession or consumption of alcohol we also hear misdemeanors where the maximum sentence it's a lesser offense of 90 days in jail maximum and $1,000 fine and examples of those offenses shoplift disorderly conduct driving well licensed suspended third degree criminal trespass second degree we hear infractions those are not punishable by a jail term and violations of traffic statutes or laws or ordinances we hear Civil Appeals uh the hearing examiner on certain parking issues and then the watom Humane Society on Animal Control issues and offenses that are cited the hearings held the number of criminal cases as you see 10,708 the number of non-p parking infractions 429 the number of parking infractions 539 we heard a total number of hearings in 2023 of 11,676 cases between the two of us we do have specialized Court calendars that The Domestic Violence Court the mental health court also the wellness calendar uh used interchangeably and

Beyond an overview of our Domestic Violence Court it's the first specialty Court in Bellingham it was the first DV Court in this area I established this back uh Circa 2003 right after my first election and we have regular judicial compliance reviews which my research had indicated and other courts um have established that that makes for a difference um in changing behaviors we have a specialized probation office um officers within the uh District Court Probation Office that handle these cases and we provide a safe opportunity for victim input there were 296 DV cases filed in two 2023 in our court and if you're interested I can tell tell you how the numbers have changed over the years I'm sure we'll get to that and maybe questions and answers um I'm going to turn this over and introduce again to those that haven't already met uh the commissioner who presides over our Wellness Court commissioner Nick Henry good evening council members good evening mayor lond as well and other dignitaries here appreciate you giving us the opportunity to speak to you all tonight um as judge Lev noted I preside over our Wellness Court in Bellingham municipal it's a therapeutic court and it's a it's a unique Court we have right now I believe we have six members it kind of fluctuates it depends on just how many people get referred uh we recently graduated two members actually just within the last 45 days or so um several of you uh came to one of the graduations so we appreciate that um council

members actually the that particular graduate let me know that it was very meaningful to her that you that you came so just want to let you know that it was very much appreciated and we're going to continue inviting you all whenever we have new graduates as far as what we do in that court it's uh because it's a mental health court basically in order for someone to be eligible for it they have to have a diagnosed behavioral health issue so if someone has a diagnosed behavioral health issue and they have frequent run-ins with the criminal justice system so usually it's repeat arrest someone that we see over and over again they can be eligible for that court and what we do in that court is provide wraparound Services it can be everything from helping them find employment helping them with substance use issues of course helping them with their behavioral health issues uh they have to go to treatment for all of that stuff if recommended by their providers and um it's a generally a two-year program it can be as short as 18 months depending on you know everyone's different obviously some people make it through the program faster if they're doing really well and some people take the full 24 months and uh throughout that time we meet every other week we uh generally only impose jail as a last resort it really is more of uh as a therapeutic Court punishment isn't the goal the goal is changing the behavior and the goal is getting them to be productive members of our community uh which

frankly I think we've had a lot of success recently the couple of people that we've graduated this year I I feel really proud of and I think they're really going to do well moving forward so um that generally is the wellness calendar in a nutshell uh they are uh supervised by probation during the entirety uh of their time in the wellness court so they meet regularly with a specialized probation officer who does only a mental health case load um I think that's that's mostly it as far as the wellness court goes so that I think that Segways right into our upcoming Community Court and before we go much into the um objective of of establishing our community Court I want everyone myself included to uh recognize that our court would not be as uh efficient and running as well as it is without our amazing team our court clerks and such we happen to have our Chief Deputy clerk present here this evening Tammy Bennett who I'm can't say enough about Miss Bennett uh Tammy as we know her um she our court could not run the way it does without what she does for us and and for her um the clerks that she supervises so I just wanted to acknowledge that uh service that she provides um as far as our community court goes we are in the initial planning stages we um were contacted um to see whether we could collaborate with the Bellingham Police Department and watcom County Jail in support of Mayor Lund's recent executive order to see if we could assist those in need in our downtown core and um we

law enforcement came up and jail came up with a proposal that we could help these people um and so there's a general order that's already been established by the court uh I don't we call it the CBD uh emphasis nothing to do with CBD But Central business district emphasis is what uh law enforcement has used to as the term um and what happens is there if there's law enforcement contact with individuals um in the certain target areas of downtown where there's problems my understanding is they'll have that contact if uh there is an arrest they will bring them to the watcom county jail they'll book them and then uh after they have uh whatever um anal is they have as far as entering into the jail with medical services and such they'll be transported to the jail Alternative Center where there are available beds up to 8 or so and they'll be um heard on the very next court calendar at 8:30 in the morning uh if they're not for some reason heard on the 8:30 calendar following their arrest so they're not detained for very long uh but for 24 up to 24 hours there's a standing order that they can be released on their personal recognizance with a promise to appear at an outof custody arraignment on whatever charge they were booked on Meanwhile we're hoping we can connect have enough time to connect them with services so that they're not immediately back in the area doing the repeat behavior that initiated the arrest hopefully that makes some sense to you um but that's in support of the

mayor's uh executive order trying to assist those in need downtown without further Ado I would like to introduce you formally to our relatively new therapeutic courts manager Leticia Nunes and she can answer any questions you might have on our Comm Community Court um does that wheel maybe not I can just get up okay if you don't mind with me thank you let's gonna come forward because I wanted to give you a preview um connecting the unhoused and other defendants to Social Services unless you wanted to maybe speak to each of these points otherwise I was just gonna you can go ahead okay um minor nonviolent offenses are what we're targeting trespass shoplift theft things like that needs based evaluations will be conducted there'll be pre-trial supervision it's really along the same lines as the therapeutic court that we already have established for mental health court but this will capture those that don't have necessarily A diagnosed uh behavioral health condition um we're hoping to rapidly meet the needs and resolve cases without jail and we're in the planning stages now we are very fortunate to have Ley Nunes as our therapeutic courts manager she comes with experience and a lot of practical Knowledge from uh her service down and Gadget and maybe you want to tell them a little bit more about your experience sure so I come from scet County I'm a lifelong C I was a lifelong citizen um from scet County I recently moved up here since taking the position here with the city of

Bellingham Municipal Court um I began my journey down in scet County I did about 13 years with the probation department starting off as the office assistant working myself up as the probation specialist um up there um I then jumped over to District Court taking on the community Court coordinator for scet County um they have five Community courts one each municipal court and in each and their District Court um and I did that for three years and then I learned of the opportunity up up here in Bellingham um the reason for coming up here I just looking for a new start um not that I wasn't happy down in scet um but I've been very well welcomed and I'm super excited to be a part of this team and help build this program here for the city of Bellingham and kind of leave our our thumb print on something new and trying to better the citizens here of of Bellingham and I'll add that um right now let's working on uh some grant writing and funding one of our initial steps and um just a heads up to council and the mayor that part of the AOC Grant application requires a letter um of support from city council with each individual council member signature thereupon and a letter of support from the mayor so we're going to be discussing that more you know uh in Greater detail the application is not yet released be coming in the spring in the spring which I think officially is here I believe it's not weatherwise but it'll be coming out in a couple months probably so we'll be talking with you

about that but I just wanted to give you a heads up that that is one of the requirements of the AOC uh Administrative Office of the Court's Grant application any questions while let is sitting next to us otherwise we can wait till the end well miss Nas I don't wasn't quite here to grill you just yet but you so you work with five different Community courts down in scet yes that is correct so so what I guess I'm saying is um You probably have some pretty realistic expectations about the degree of success we can't expect every single person who's given this alternative path to responsibility to succeed we have a pretty good rate with our our current Community Court can you tell us what you think think um a realistic rate of success would be and then maybe what an aspirational rate of success might be you know it's really hard to determine that at this moment I think I'm getting familiar with the area um as far as with Community Court down in scet County we were sure to give what we call the risk and needs assessment with the individual they always had a moment to obviously first uh speak with their attorney we only wanted those individuals that were actually going to participate and really wanted to attempt to make that change obviously our rate our so we started out very very low level thefts and and shoplifting um obviously you want to start out slow to be able to really capture what what the individual and what the need is here in the in the county around the city um so it

it's just really hard to kind of Base that we had some pretty good numbers but it varied based off of the Courts for example the city of Bellingham we had a large number of individuals participants in there but obviously we also had some bench warrants because depending on their situations um obviously they're worried about you know where they're what they're going to have their NE for their next meal or where they're going to sleep so it at at this moment I mean I can look further into it kind of talk to our teaching courts as far as like Spokane and Olympia and kind of see what the what their rates are and kind of talk to back with scet and see where their numbers are now and get back to you can I follow up on that well what I guess I'm hearing is that we could play it safe and only accept good candidates and have a high success rate or we could in a certain sense broaden it and take on more cases knowing that we'd have more successes but also a few more failures is is that sort of what you're saying it that it really depends upon how much risk we're willing to take in terms of accepting people into the program it's it's um can I answer yeah you can go ahead I think a lot of it is going to depend on the resources that are available and we want to make sure that those resources are directed to those who want to be in the program because those who don't want to be in the program just like in any court session there's going to be probationers that want to succeed and there's

others that just say send me to jail for 30 days I'm not going to do all this stuff and if I don't send them to jail because I normally don't the first time they say that I'll say no that's too easy we really want to see you at least make an attempt I don't know what the rate is but many times they're back you know with further violations so I think that's a difficult thing to answer at this point and right now lety is connecting with services and providers and also trying to get us some funding so once we have the software and S such we'll be able to track those things but I don't want you to misunderstand that we're only going to offer this to people we think will be successful because first of all we don't want to be in a position to necessarily decide make that determination but what we want to do is the risk needs assessment so that we can provide to those people who do want this alternative does that make sense it does I I personally I would um er on taking a chance with people if there's no real public Danger let's give it a chance because there is always the fallback form of accountability if they if they succeed but totally agree with you shouldn't play it safe if it means we can turn people around totally agree with you we're not going to take an approach where playing it too safe but we are going to take a realistic approach where we want to have those services available and we don't want to stretch them too thin so that's why I think L's mentioned we're going to

start small and build from there so we can see what we can do to help people moving on to thank you so much moving on to probation I just want to give you an overview of what probation means uh to the community and to our court the average number of probation cases supervised per month is over 500 we have by the way in my opinion the best probation department and officers in the state of Washington I might be biased but we have an unbelievable service um provided to to our um clients the services do include both pre-trial and postconviction monitoring where're able to keep people out of custody as long as we can ensure that the community is safe and we have those safety measures through our pre-trial supervision and we'll get into that in just a moment the postconviction obviously uh on certain cases people are subject to probation monitoring post conviction they do case management they uh assess for ALC they don't assess they provide alcohol drug treatment domestic violence treatment scram and Smart Start are some of those precautionary um uh devices that we can order again to keep the community safe oh my goodness we have a typo I'm so sorry anger management and MRT you know me in typos oh my goodness that's that falls on me because I edited uh community service is another option and they monitor restitution that's a big responsibility in probation monitors I ignition interlock device verification when a person is released from the court session and ordered to have some of

which is statuto order uh required an ignition interlock device installed on their car we can order it but probation monitors to ensure that it's been installed license plate surrenders for those that should not be driving we order their them to uh relinquish their license plates to the probation department uh until they can show a valid licence and other requirements by do and they also very importantly coordinate the firearm surrender to the Bellingham Police Department because as you can imagine there's quite a protocol and officers don't want people showing up at the police department with weapons in their hands that wouldn't be a good idea so there's a protocol and probation is our intermediary that um takes care of that for us all right if I may backtrack very very briefly before I move on to the next topic council member Lil Quist I just wanted to let you know one more thing in regard to your question about you know who the Court's going to let in to Community Court a big part of that is also buyin in particular from the city attorney's office because they have a large role in determining what cases What charges they're willing to let enter Community Court and so we're working with the city attorney's office on that and I think we do have their buyin But ultimately as with any therapeutic Court they actually have the final say on who enters the court and who does not so it is going to play they're going to play a large role in that okay um moving on uh we have we

contract with a company called friendship diversion services and they provide a number of different services to the court uh that help keep people hopefully out of custody um Darlene our court director is going to go into some of the numbers here in just a minute but basically what fds does is they provide active GPS monitoring they provide electronic home monitoring and they also provide scram scram is a 247 alcohol monitor device so basically it is an ankle bracelet much like an electronical monitoring bracelet but what it does is it actually monitors the sweat coming out of you know the person wearing it for alcohol consumption and as you might imagine that's very useful in DUI cases for example where we don't want someone consuming especially if they've had multiple prior DUIs oftentimes it can be used in domestic violence cases many domestic violence cases start with substance use and then it unravels from there so it's a tool that we have to ensure compliance with court orders and to ensure the safety of the community that these people aren't out there consuming and operating motor vehicles and whatnot the active GPS device is very important for domestic violence cases in particular uh often times almost well I won't say all the time but very regularly the court enters no contact orders in domestic violence cases and particularly if someone has an egregious history or if there's specific facts that indicate to the court that this person would be a danger to this

protected party we can use an active GPS bracelet to ensure that they don't go within you know it can be 500 feet it can be 1,000 ft of this party and so it's it's another tool that we can use to have this person not be sitting in the jail but ensure the safety of this protected party and essentially if the the person wearing the bracelet goes within the let's say it's 1,000 feet they go within 1,000 ft of this residence or whatever area we've protected with the bracelet it will go off it will let fds know and then fds in turn will let law enforcement know so they can send someone directly over to pick this person up if they're in violation of the Court order and then lastly the electronic home detention it's it functions very similarly to the active GP GPS bracelet but instead of keeping someone out of an area it does the opposite it keeps them in an area so if we have someone on pre-trial release who normally we would impose bail and you know they'd be stuck sitting in jail if they can't post that bail what we'll do in lie of that is order electronical monitoring they will order or rather fds will come attach it prior to their release from custody and then they have to essentially stay at home uh while they're quote in custody as opposed to being in the jail and not only does that keep people out of custody but it helps the community tremendously because lets people keep their jobs they can go to work while they're on electronic home monitoring obviously you can't go to

work when you're in jail you can you know if you have children you can take care of child care you can take them to school you can take them to a doctor's appointment stuff like that so it allows people to safely remain in our community while also holding them accountable for uh the issues that brought them before the court in the first place our court director is going to uh give you an overview of the numbers costs I put a page in your packet that does have these numbers in it and I just wanted to briefly explain the first three years 216 17 and 18 cost of scram was included in that um we didn't use it very much at that point and so the cost that we actually paid and what we would pay wam County jail if those people were still in jail was included but after 2018 at some point we really started using scram as a pre-trial measure quite a bit more when somebody's on pre-trial they don't pay anything for it that is simply on the um City because there are statutory limitations to what we can charge and so there's no cost to the defendant for that but we didn't want to includ it in the cost for Wacom County Jail we only included from 2019 on those that were strictly on GPS jail bracelets and so honestly these prices are low because many of those that were on scram were on pre-trial supervision keeping them out of jail um over covid during that time our cases were very delayed and it would have been um we never would have kept people in jail that long on pre-trial cases as we did

during covid and so anyway we just felt that it was trer to the cost to just calculate the GPS rather than add the scram in there but even with that you can see the actual amount that we made in fds payments for both programs was a little over $2 million since we started in 2016 the amount that the city would have paid had those defendants been in jail um and that doesn't include the scram people from 2019 on was over $9 million and while the commissioner addressed what really is amazing and how it helps our community for people to keep jobs be able to go to work be able to go to school it's also notable the costs of jail has gone up and for a person to be in jail um there right now for 2024 it's $172 a day plus a $116 booking fee that's one time plus a $13 daily Capital fee towards the new jail one day on a bracelet ,550 so you can see how those costs comes in and I don't like to put a lot of emphasis on the cost but we all know it's realistic we would be paying a lot more if these people were in jail and in custody as well as everything that it helped save our community people going to jail lose their social services they lose all kinds of things and so they're able to keep those programs as well which helps other um organizations that we work with thank you okay on to the fun stuff law Day program so we do have we've been doing the law Day program I think last year was the 20 year anniversary so I guess we're at 21 it's coming up we uh have eighth graders I think probably

about 800 of them total or so and these are are the schools that have participated we have three of those schools you see up there participating again this year and uh it's uh coming up in April and that was I law day officially is May 1st it didn't work with the school curriculum I guess with the testing and all so they requested if they could do it in April so we have our April dates for law day and uh I sent out an email just today I think to all of you uh just to save the dates and um we also had to accommodate their schedule so it's going to be a little wonky as far as watching we want them to be able to see a court session most of them have never seen a court session but we also like to present programs or introduce dignitaries of the city and that sort of thing it's really fun and they come up with some great questions in the past we've had Bellingham Police Department we've had the can9 officer with his partner you know drug sniffing or whatever we've had the officer goggles with the with the with the goggles you know to have them experience what it might be like to have you know to be um investigated for a DUI it's just been a really great program and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the schools and they keep wanting to do it every year so that's coming up we hope you can join us for one all however many you can do that we have brought the court criminal justice awareness into the schools Co kind of that came to a screeching halt um but we hope that we

can continue some of those programs let's see I want to bring to your attention uh the building concerns you're all probably pretty much aware that uh the facility that we're in is not serving the public the way it should be and we're actually uh according to the Washington law um as you can see we're we're required provide a suitable place for holding court and then of course the city is responsible for paying for that um you know we don't have a safe and secure Courthouse this community deserves better and we've been in discussions I hope we can have some ongoing discussions I know that there is interest in providing this community with a better Courthouse um than what we have and uh we'll just leave that for the future as far as discussions go I think we're probably running out of time but um if I can just have your Indulgence a bit longer I just wanted you to understand that our court is it's not just anecdotal we are definitely experiencing a higher case volume and more egregious extreme fact scenarios than I I've seen in the last 20 years 22 years and actually four years as commissioner before that so over 25 years it's for example today out of custody DUI add-on cases nine from the weekend commissioner Henry had another six or so in custody so we're talking 15 DUIs over this past weekend and it wasn't by my calendar a holiday weekend the last weekend was one of whatever St Patrick's Day weekend was 11 DUIs in my courtroom I don't know how many you had that morning but

we're seeing an increase so our court director pulled up the numbers and it's real two for example 2016 92 DUI cases filed 2023 354 so same with DVS domestic violence cases and the thing is these are just extreme cases um unbelievably extreme cases fourth fifth six lifetime DUI charges crashing into buildings crashing I mean just they're extreme I don't know how else to explain it but domestic violence cases those are pretty much on par we're looking at 300 filed in 2023 three I just wanted to bring your attention to it mostly for my own benefit seeing the numbers as like oh okay it's not just me you know these cases are real and they're getting very very serious within our city limits so questions did I miss anything I don't think so I think we hit the high points we hit the high points Council questions um I'll I'll take a okay I'll go here um I wanted I saw one of your um one of your um charges for was for dwls third which is driving law license suspended in the third degree do you still prosecute that as a standalone charge okay so that would be uh the city attorney's office um we have I still we still see them filed but I believe the current policy has been not to prosecute okay but that's my understanding changing so the numbers will be going up again I'm sorry I'm I'm on fil not not Prosecuting I do realize that that is Mr department so and um my understanding our understanding is that they're going to be uh process or proceeding with uh prosecution on those cases okay

thank you uh cquest then Anderson so the way you describe it is um we we currently have the the the wellness court for people who get in trouble with the law but they have a diagnosed mental health condition and that's seen as the underlying problem that needs to be addressed um but the new Community Court you wouldn't have to have an underlying diagnosis but you might have similar repeated run-ins and it's the idea that there again is an an underlying condition that underlying condition may not be a mental illness but it may be some other dysfunction in their life um but otherwise they seem very similar the reason I'm I'm asking this to clarify whether that's true or not but also go back to the Genesis of this idea it had to do with the fact of Prosecuting a drug open open drug open drug possession right and there the underlying condition was clear you're addicted yeah you may be committing crimes but your underlying condition is you're addicted and the underlying treatment really is a treatment of the addiction how much do you foresee that uh addiction um to um substances might be sort of like a common or maybe the most common feature of who might be candidates for the community courp I think you've definitely hit the nail on the head it's likely going to be those that have substance abuse disorders that will be um again dependent on what the prosecutor decides would be the ones that would be eligible for Community Court and we could provide those get them engaged with

those Services even if they're not committing offenses of uh possession or use of um thefts shoplifts all of these other nonviolent offenses generally there's they can be attributed to addiction because they're selling the the stolen goods or they're you know it's is to support whatever addiction they might have so I see that as a large number of those that would be entering into Community Court would you agree yes thank you uh council member Anderson I just keep going through my head The increased number of the DUI and it's quite shocking and in my head I mean my thoughts I'm like what has changed and has is there any ability to do that analysis is it are a lot of them uh alcohol um is it drugs um is it uh prescription overthe counter or marijuana like legalized um or just you know throw it in a hat and it runs in thirds um CU I'm if it's alcohol then there's that potential that you know and by age do we work harder with the university um and start working on that messaging for youth to not do the drinking and Dr driving if it's you know marijuana then what kind of educational Outreach do we start working on with our dispensaries and our our shops to make sure people know not to do that and I'm just trying to think that there's a catalyst for such a huge increase and I'm you know wondering if that could be identified so that we could start to provide a solution because it's not tenable to have that level coming in I mean we're going to have a DUI Court pretty soon and that's

all you're going to be able to handle so preventative but it's hard for me to think on a legislative or an Outreach level how do we even address this as a city if we're not too sure or I'm not sure yet what the the data says is the group to focus on do you know well I mean that there's a lot to be said about what you've just said um and also a DUI court is not something that's that hasn't been considered already we're not going to take that on until we get Community Court established and well running but I can't answer why this is happening other than just the overall societal concerns that you know we're all experiencing Nationwide we are seeing more do I with fentel involved many more I would say many more that said I still think alcohol is probably the biggest one to answer hopefully part of your question um alcohol DUI seem to be up across the board and as judge Lev said egregious alcohol DUIs we're talking I think most people know the legal limit is a 08 we're seeing 3s fours extremely high bac's and they're coming through somewhat regularly just a follow-up comment with legislation looking at bringing that level down lower um for being a DUI I think they were considering the point 05 I don't know if that passed um but we could actually see more of this but would it be through our Police Department we'd be able to find out based on the citation what the percentage of what type of DUI was issued whether it was fentol alcohol or some other kind of intoxicant well we I mean

we review for probable cause and we review the police reports uh to determine probable cause in that there is that some of that information uh so we could I mean I suppose we could try to tally up you know even though we're trying as hard as we can to just get through the case load but the also the thing is you've got refusals you've got blood tests we're waiting over a year for results from blood tests right now so I'm not sure how accurate but you know you bring up some really really valid points and it seems to me there might there must be some way that we can do that Outreach or preventative something because it is get I think it's getting out of control um I you I'm not going to make a request without resources but if there is a way um for that data to be compiled or tracked so that we're educated on where to target preventative initiatives I think I mean if we hear the same thing next year and the year after and the year after then eventually um in a way we're being negligent and addressing the elephant in the room and and that's trying to prevent what's happening versus responding to it so I don't know if it's through the police department or through the courts um intern something I think that data would be incredibly important for us to be able to lower your business one uh difficult I'm I'm sorry to interrupt you no if if I may one difficulty I do want to at least point out is the easiest way I think to track uh bac's drug tests is usually if someone uh wants if they

are convicted of course not everyone is but if they are on the judgment and sentence we actually have to indicate what the BAC level was or if it was a refusal or if it was a drug DUI but the one issue I see with that is it's very common when cases resolved if it's resolved through a plead deal that the City attorney will offer uh let's just let's just say it was above a 0.15 they'll offer it as a no test which is not actually what happened but that's how it gets noted in the system through d well so it's not going to be an accurate reflection of what the DUI actually was that happens very commonly so it's probably would it probably would have a large effect to skew the numbers and just a further understanding of that is they that's part of their negotiations and the court has nothing to do with that but um they get the the prosecutor gets the same result as they might it was if it was indicated as a 0.15 without going to trial or you know so they negotiate the case so that they still have these mandatory minimums but there's just a reflection of no test versus a 0.15 so more accurate data would be through the prosecutor's office because they see the charges first I hate to put any more work on the process iiz they have three that that's something that city council I'm sure you recognize they have three prosecutors that handle all of these cases that we're talking about three prosecut computers I mean I would not make a request without re but you know we'll give it some more

thought because it really does make a lot of sense you know um and we can do what we can do to help with resources yeah go ahead mayor I'll just add to council member Anderson's concern that we have a monthly Tri Branch meeting and so we'll continue to have this conversation and ways that we can approach getting more information to address this concern C member Stone so brief follow up on the the DUI question just when you were mentioning that there are multiple right when you see multiple infractions repeat offenses um at some point does that elevate to a felony where than it goes to district court or all all of those staying in unity Court do you want me to take it sure I'll take it so um in order to become a felony it has to be four dys within a 10-year Peri period so one two and three DUIs all within a 10-year period will wind up either in our court if it occurs within the city of Bellingham or in wam County District Court if it occurs out in the county once it reaches a fourth within 10 years it would get sent hypothetically to Superior Court that said I've this is just anecdotal but they their prosecutor's office doesn't always accept them uh sometimes they'll just kick them right back to us and we'll have a fourth DUI that's still charged as a gross misdemeanor I would say generally they do take them but it's not a guarantee follow one followup just unrelated to DUIs um but when we were looking at criminal versus you know civil infractions and the different types of

Courts right and bringing on another Community Court um are there other things that might fall under the jurisdiction of Municipal Court for example right some community members were looking into a a housing court or right something that was going to be um sort of looking at how to address some of its landlord tenant and some of its other types of concerns either with respect to our own um laws or regulations here within the city and then if there were civil right matters to be worked out but that was sort of special to Bellingham and our um Bellingham municipal code is that the type of thing again with resources it might be down the road um but that would be yeah fall under your court or would that be something sort of more with an profit that would have to be handled separately I mean I can give you the best answer I can I'm not sure it's going to be great so landlord tenant issues fall under the jurisdiction of Superior Court almost exclusively so we're not going to hear pretty much anything that's landlord tenant related as far as if you're talking about you know building codes and stuff like that within the city of Bellingham then or for example you know recently through the voter initiative there was a rental relocation bill that was passed right and so if there was a um attendant who was looking to enforce that locally yeah I I do think now this is to be blunt I don't think that this is the be all end all answer but I think that would be a superior court issue Alan

Mariner City attorney those those would be landlord tenant matters that would be in Superior Court okay Council any last questions for the uh members of the Court can I just say one thing to follow up council member Anderson's uh Point um we've always been very enthus Astic about bringing any programs into the schools and maybe we can resurrect that and start educating uh at a very early age you know some of this information so that we could maybe prevent some of it from happening who knows but we'd certainly be open to that with or without [Laughter] resources we'll just go there and if they listen that's great okay judge commissioner team um thank you so much for coming and uh sharing with us this evening appreciate it thank you all for your time appreciate it thank you Mary are you ready for your your report okay uh good evening good evening to council good evening to the members of community and staff that are here tonight uh I want to begin mayor's report this evening by acknowledging that there has been a lot of community engagement about a photo of me with Bellingham police on a downtown Patrol and as mayor it is foundational to the good government that I'm engaged in to spend time with every Department in this community understanding the work that they do advocates for the unhoused and vulnerable members of our community gave feedback that the voices of these populations are not being Incorporated in City actions and I've heard this feedback and in addition we

continue to hear positive feedback about the actions um that the city is engaged in and this came through loud and clear in a 4-Hour ride along that I took last week with the fire department it also came in loud and clear during an all women's luncheon that I hosted last week and what might have been a first for City Hall we packed the mayor's boardroom with all women a robust conversation ensued and it was focused on the community minded actions we can continue to take to support our downtown both Holly and Hannah represented the council as women who work and are engaged in business in our downtown commercial Corp there were members of the mayor's office present and several other women-led small businesses were represented and overall I look forward to sharing more with Council and this community on our progress as we continue uh this afternoon and we'll hear more in this summary about the committee of the whole but I strongly encourage the community to watch the presentations from this afternoon's Committee of the whole I think it provided one of the most clear um overviews of the existing Partnerships and the collective collaborations between the city and the county health and Community Services Department our Wacom County Partners shared a great deal of thoughtful and comprehensive information and data about our response systems work particularly focused on the Grace lead and art programs as well as we received an annual report from the health department as a whole and it

was particularly heartening to hear about the successes of our community's investments in these Public Health approaches to Public Safety and we also heard today that my Administration has been and key City staff have been working closely with the County's executive team to develop and iterate on an improved interlocal agreement surrounding the Justice project agreement and to underscore some of the Justice uh project agreement key points included that early in the development of the agreement we thought that all of our tax dollars would go to the jail itself in the first four to six years and as it stands now in our funding partnership agreement Bellingham will have about $950,000 in the first year to support the Justice project implementation plan strategies these strategies include increasing Behavioral Health Services supports for children and families increasing housing and homelessness prevention incarceration prevention measures and coordinated response systems like Grace lead and art our city dollars will be an important long-term inv Investments and incarceration prevention that will benefit the entire County and grow further after years 4 through six are met and as mayor one of my top priorities is to coordinate the city's partnership with the county and other agencies in this essential work and in the weeks ahead I expect to come back to council with a proposal for additional City staff that will be dedicated to supporting coordinated solutions to advance

health-based approaches to well-being and Community safety and On a related matter I wanted to share my support to council um for our community's efforts to address the fenal crisis and towards that end today I provided a letter to accompany the Lumi nation's request for federal funding of an urgently needed secure withdrawal facility the lumination is experiencing devastating and ongoing effects from the fenal and opioid crisis and it is disproportionately harming our local tribal communities and across the country and I stand behind their efforts to lead on this matter and lastly uh and I said this at the end of old and new at the committee of the whole but the port of bellingham's Commissioners today voted unanimously to terminate ABC recycling's lease with the port the port's actions today pertain only to ABC's Waterfront shipping operations so my Administration will begin working immediately to understand how this packs impacts ABC's plans for their proposed Marine Drive operations where the city has stepped forward to take a co-lead in the environmental review and we will also work with Council to understand how this impacts your directions to staff to modify our existing noise ordinance and on the whole I view this as a positive development for our community it is certainly a positive develop vment for staff time were hundreds of hours from our City's legal community and Planning Development and the mayor's office time has been allocated to this matter and all of us

look forward to working with Port leaders to engage with the potential tenants that are to follow and lastly I would like to say that I am grateful for the ports actions today that led to this vote and I look forward to working alongside Port leaders to advance a mindful vision for our working Waterfront and that's the end of mayor's report tonight thank you mayor that will take us to our uh Council standing committee meetings and the first one this morning at 10: a.m.

was Public Works and natural resources that's chaired by council member Hannah Stone thank you president Hamill so this morning I was joined on the public works and natural resources committee by council members Anderson and Lila Quist um initially there were two items before public works but one of those items agenda Bill 2449 um which was noise variants for wurn Street sanitary sewer replacement Paving that has been tabled was pulled from the agenda today due to just a change in scheduling from the contractor and will be rescheduled for a future meeting in April um likely the 8th or or 15th um so the item before us then was agenda Bill 2450 this was a contract award for the electrification of Transportation Phase 2 es 567 this is Bid number 10 n b-224 the electrification of Transportation Phase 2 project consists of the installation of 38 electric vehicle charging stations with 71 plugs at 20 locations throughout Bellingham level two Chargers level 3 DC fast Chargers and solar powered Chargers are being installed work will include new electrical conduit concrete work and site restoration the city publicly opened four bids on March 6th 2024 Summit Construction Group Incorporated is the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of 1 m583 3.70 the project is exempt from state sales tax per RCW 82.8 point8 one6 the engineers estimate for the Construction contract is 1, 7186 the contract includes an apprenticeship requirement note also that phase one of the

project installed eight chargers at six locations for a total of 16 plugs so the total project cost for both phase one and phase two is an estimate to be $3.5 million so this has ended up higher than um initially anticipated but the cost of the phase 2 Construction contract um is again $1,583 3.70 and the Washington State Department of Commerce is is providing a $1.5 million Grant with the balance of the Project funding coming from the Transportation fund um this morning there was a motion um to award the contract to Summit Construction Group Inc and ISO move second motion has been made by the chair of the um of the Public Works committee and seconded by uh council member Anderson any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries uh 70 great with that it was end of committee and I will send it back to you okay thank you the next committee this morning was Parks and Recreation and that is chaired by council member skip Williams thank you president Hamill um I was joined at this meeting but uh with uh council member cotton and council member Huffman uh we had two items on our agenda the first was aend a bill 2452 which was the introduction of a house of heal a house of healing lease agreement and an amendment to an interlocal cooperation AG interlocal cooperation agreement for for this the SE home heel um Arboretum uh between Western Washington University and the City of Bellingham Western Washington

University in the city of Bellingham with funding from the state are part are partnering to create the construction of a Coast Salish louse House of healing building we received a very detailed overview of the project and the proposed lease agreement and the amendments to the existing interlocal agreement both between the city and and Western from Nicole Oliver Parks and Recreation director who also pointed out in her presentation that Western is the only University without a a facility of this kind on the western side they in the whole state I5 Corridor so the project includes parking and outdoor facilities on approximately two a a uh 2 acre portion of a city-owned parcel within the Western Washington University Arboretum there was no previous Council action regarding this project and the fiscal impact to the city is $1 a year for 75 years as you have heard at the beginning of our meeting this evening there will be a public hearing scheduled for April 8th 2024 regarding this this project and community members wishing wishing to find out more about this can review the video of this morning's meeting or contact the Parks and Recreation Department so this item was for information and uh discussion and no further action was uh taken by the committee our second item was uh agenda Bill 2451 and it was the Greenways annual report for 2023 in accordance with the Bellingham uh Municipal Code 2.204 a Greenways report is to be presented to the city council annually the report was

presented by Neil Shaner chair of the Greenways advisory committee Peter Gil Park Planning and Development coordinator in Lane Potter park design and development manager Mr shaner's presentation focused on the Greenways committee's efforts to make their work more engaged and effective in areas such as uh review of the property acquisition program and development Trail connections and way finding climate resiliency which is a new item that is going to be addressed with our green waste funding Equity definition and Equity meaning it at least in the discussions that I've been involved in equity meaning uh the geographic areas of the city make uh uh making sure that one city does uh one part of the city doesn't get more than others that may need the resources more the development of uh Community Gardens and um um Urban trees mapping programs now the green Wass committee I think for the first time has had the is developing these as sub uh committees for the overall committee to work in I I don't believe that's ever been done so um so that's kind of a new shift uh Peter Gil discussed uh the 2023 Levy fund revenue and expenditures as well as program areas such as property acquisition parks and Trail maintenance and the stewardship program Lane Potter discussed the Greenways 2024 funded pending projects in part such as the pier at uh little Squalicum Park the 100 Acre Wood Phase 1 development Boulevard Park Shoreline Improvement Salish Landing phase one and the Woodstock Farm fencing

and cultural resources management plan the details of the re of their of their report has been reviewed by the Greenways advisory committee and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and will be posted with the previous year's reports at c.org ggv Department Parks Greenways that's a long title but anyway this this was also for in information and discussion and no further action was taken by the committee so there being no further business before the committee this after uh this morning the meeting was adjourned thank you council member Williams that takes us to the committee of the whole uh we have several items uh this afternoon the first was a wam County Health and Community Services response systems division presentation on diversion programs uh program data and Collective impact this the the three programs that we discussed were the lead program The Grace program and the alternate Response Team um the second item that we um and that was presented by malora Christensen who is the response services manager the second item we had was Wacom County Health and community services update an annual uh presentation um there's a lot of information with that one that was presented by director um Erica lottenbach and then the third item was the Justice project uh agreement update which is the um jail and Behavioral Health Services and with a lot of financial information I'm going to Echo the mayor's thoughts when she did did her mayor's report that there was so much information this

was two hours plus uh worth of meetings this afternoon for me to try to effectively summarize it would be um it just would not work so I would encourage folks that are really interested in these top topics about how um diversion and prevention happens you got a little bit little taste of it tonight with the with the courts um this really goes into a lot of depth um with diversion and how the health department is a a partner and all the and a lot of the work that we do um when it comes to behavioral health and mental health illness and then um the Justice project was uh that was Tyler schroer who's the deputy executive uh over in the executive's office and then give me just a second here shift okay and then the next item was an ordinance of the city of Bellingham Washington amending the 2023 2024 by an Neal budget um amendment number 11 um the ordinance that's in the packet here um amends that uh but B anal budget by adding expense Authority and positions it adds 2.6 full-time equivalent custodial positions to public works for the new downtown public restrooms due to open later this year and budget Authority in planning and Community Development for interfund charges related to restroom operations and it also provides funding for the golf course to purchase some equipment and the afternoon um the committee moved approval and I say we move second uh motion has been made by the chair and has been seconded by council member Williams any further discussion on this one see none all

those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 7 Z okay next item was consideration of a request to initiate the review process for a potential annexation of approximately 146 Acres located in bellingham's northeastern Urban growth area known as the Britain Road Northern Heights annexation per RCW 35.13 125 a meeting must be held by the city council to determine whether or not to initiate the review process for the proposed annexation Council must determine whether the city will accept reject or geographically modify the proposed annexation whether the city will require simultaneous adoption of zoning regulations and whether the city will modify the Assumption of all or any portion of the city's indebtedness if Council chooses to initiate the review of the annexation request approval of the resolution in the packet starts the review process now this action does not constitute final approval of the annexation the council will hold a public hearing prior to a final decision on the proposed annexation at a later date following a thorough review of the proposed annexation by the city's inter departmental annexation team this afternoon there was a mixed recommendation to uh move this forward and I so move second motion been made by the chair and seconded by council member Williams uh any discussion on this one okay seeing none all those in favor signified by saying I I opposed okay uh extensions recusals motion carries 61 uh next item was an

ordinance relating to the Waka Museum and repealing Bellingham Municipal Municipal Code chapter 2.39 uh this chapter establishes that the Wacom Museum Foundation a Washington nonprofit corporation shall operate the Wacom Museum since 2009 the city of Bellingham and the foundation have been parties to an operating agreement that contains substantially similar requirements to BMC 2.39 more specifically reflects the current relationship between the city and the foundation and clarifies each party's obligations on December 28th 2023 the city and the foundation entered into a new operating agreement with a term ending on December 31st 2028 among other things the 2023 agreement contains Provisions regarding the composition of the foundation's board of directors these Pro Provisions in new agreement are inconsistent with BMC 2.39 to effectuate the agreement it is therefore necessary to repeal BMC 2.39 and this afternoon the council voted to do just that and I so move motion's been made by the chair and second by council member Lilo Quist any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signified by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion carry 70 uh next item was inter agency inter agency agreement with Department of Commerce uh climate planning Grant the Washington State Department of Commerce has made several grants related to growth management available to cities like Bellingham Bellingham was approved for this climate planning grant for $525,500 motion's been made

by the chair and second by council member B Williams any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions motion carries 70 just a moment here old and new business Michael I'm gonna call this old business because it has to do with a a public comment we received at our last meeting and all Al some emails the city council received um and they there was reports of basically serious mean and dangerous activities or actions taken by Bellingham City police against a homeless individual who was wheelchair bound taking away that person's belongings it was said leaving them behind to freeze and according to some version of the story to die actually by freezing um I of course was horrified and worried sick and want to know what was actually the case um um and if there was a problem I really wanted to be known so I looked into it and I asked the city admin City Administration to look into it and the results are quite reassuring um there was an individual involved the individual is uh still alive um but more importantly not only do we did I were we able to track down the incident and see the reports but I was able to actually witness the body cam footage by the police officer and what I saw was quiet and respectful interaction kept at a distance no personal contact no touching of belongings and an offer of help um the help was initially declined um the uh officer then contacted and asked if the alternative Response Team could show up and we just

heard about the alternative response team this is the unarmed behavior health professionals we can send when we don't need to send law enforcement so the officer was set there originally on a call but realized quickly that the alternative response team was better again offers were made of assistance to the individual the individual declined those offers but upon further inquiry I think a return visit um the person actually accepted help and was taken by our EMS system to the hospital I don't want to see anything more about the individual they have privacy rights um but I wanted to make it very clear that if there are allegations of mistreatment of individuals homeless or otherwise by the police I take them seriously and I also was very grateful that we had the body cam camera footage and the information to determine that those were rumors that were not true what I saw was reassuring what I saw was Qui calm respectful and helpful um I thought that was worthy of saying publicly because those allegations were also made publicly I see Chief Mar is here I don't know if you need to say anything I wanted to more than that get us my personal report on what I witnessed when I viewed the body camera footage well you've given me the mic so I'm going to have to take an opportunity here um I would also Echo uh the encouragement to watch this afternoon's um presentation about the art team this is one of those success stories that malora Christensen spoke about but didn't get to expand upon

she gave us a lot of Statistics this afternoon and um after seeing that presentation twice and having a chance to reflect on them um it's I think it's really important to convey you know anytime you see statistics that say that jail numbers and days in jail are down and and encounters with law enforcement are down as a result of these systems yes they're helping the individual but I see those numbers as victimization going down those there's that there's criminal activity involved there and that means that people aren't being victimized um so from the law enforcement perspective there is a lot of intersection with public health and Public Safety and we're seeing this alternative response and this partnership really have a lot of value for the city this case is one of those examples I too was horrified by the allegations but I also know that that's not my department well always look into it but that doesn't reflect the character of of my officers and and so it was nice to see Not only was it not true but quite the opposite um a lot of very compassionate and Humane officers deal with those kind of calls every single day I I know that that body camera footage was shared uh with the person who with the email to the city I assume anyone else can view that body camera footage too I believe it does not show faces uh it keeps privacy and I also believe we we don't keep those videos forever we have retention rules we actually erase it if someone did want to would that be appropriate

how would they do that that case number is 24 b as and boy 11167 they can do a public disclosure request we would redact any personal or medical information that didn't qualify for public disclosure and that's how they could obtain a copy of that okay thank you very much any other items for old and new uh this afternoon uh during the Justice project agreement update council member liquis volunteered to be on the financial oversight committee for that project and ISO move second motion's been made by the chair and second by council member Williams any further discussion you volunteered sir and you get to implement yeah seeing down all those in favor signify by saying I I exensions recusals motion carry 70 okay that'll take us to the executive session report we had three items for uh consideration this afternoon the first was potential property acquisition with Mariners staff provided information on a potential property acquisition this was for information and discussion no action was taken second also uh potential property acquisition also with Mariner staff provided information on a potential Lake Wacom Watershed property acquisition totally 1.29 Acres with two potential development units and so now I I'll entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to close the real estate transaction described in the city's executed P purchase and sale agreement with the property owner Leslie Prasco with a purchase price of $515,000 and with closing to occur on or around April 10th 2024 move

approval second uh motion's been made by council member Anderson and second by council member Huffman any discussion on this item n and all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 70 last item was also a property potential property acquisition also with Mariner staff provided information on a potential property acquisition this was for information and discussion and no action was taken uh consent agenda move approval second motions made by council member Williams second by council member Huffman any discussion on this seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carry 70 final consideration of ordinances agenda Bill 24039 an ordinance at the city council of the city of Bellingham Washington authorizing the issuance of one or more series of limited tax General obligation bonds and the aggregate principal amount of not to exceed $26 million to finance costs related to acquiring designing constructing developing improving equipping and Furnishing City facilities delegating authority to approve the method of sale and final terms of the bonds and approving other matters related there to move third and final third and final by council member hofman second my council member Williams roll call please Hannah Stone hi Holly Huffman hi Skip Williams hi Lisa Anderson hi Michael lillquist hi jce cotton hi and Dan haml hi motion carries 70 okay