City Council - Committee Of The Whole

okay and with that we move to Committee of the whole uh we have two agenda items the first is agenda Bill 24172 an interlocal agreement to be a part of wam County drug task force the Bellingham Police Department has a long history of participation in the watom County drug task force due to critical Staffing deficiencies the police department withdrew from the task force in 20120 and assisted only as a supporting agency without providing personnel this item proposes entering an interlocal agreement to resume Bellingham police's direct participation in the watom County drug task force and here to present is Chief merzig good afternoon Chief Rebecca merzig I've asked uh prosecutor Eric Richie to join me he also uh has led our executive or our board the task force board uh for the last several years so I thought he'd be a great resource if there was additional questions this is something we've been participating in for several years back into the 90s I believe and unfortunately had to pull out in 2020 due to staffing issues so we we are excited and um happy to be joining again questions comments from committee members uh council member Stone um thank you very much so just in reviewing the interl agreement I have a couple questions but I'll just start with um one so I know that in the data provided um in the memo there's no reference to marijuana and recognizing that marijuana is legal in the state of Washington however as an immigration attorney I'm well aware um right that it's

still not legal under the federal laws and recognizing that there's some right partnership and coordination with Federal authorities through this process I was just wondering if that's discussed at all or within the definition of Narcotics if that's right not included um or included so just some confirmation or clarification I I'm Eric Rich I'm the wam County prosecutor I'm also the chair of the Executive Board of the task force so anyway I want to thank you all for having me today uh I I want to address that briefly and tell you that we do not investigate marijuana cases not at all that's not something that this task force has done since it became legal council member Anderson thank you um I don't really have any questions I think the um information contained uh spells out pretty clearly why we need this um I am in support um primarily because we need to have these good Partnerships in order to deal with fentanyl in our community and in reading through this this really isn't about um an impass process really about the people who are using this is about the larger distribution and sale and transport support of Narcotics um in my neighborhood York we've had a couple of houses that were Major Distribution locations and um one of them was um part of an investigation and basically involved a couple of counties and it was when we weren't part of this task force and so having depend upon um the county coming in and assisting our Bellingham officers it took time and for the

neighborhood having to deal with the house next door and across the street and all of the activity that was happening on top of some of the limitations that our state legislation had where in the past when a vehicle had left that site they used to be able to do a stop um and find out that it had a lot of drugs in it um so some of those limitations also created a barrier for dealing with it um the one house that I'm thinking of it took probably six to seven months and I think if we were part of the task force our officers would have had a more Fast Direct response and a lot of this fentol wouldn't have been circulating in our community during that time that was leaving this particular house so um I'm in full support of this because we really do need to have all the tools available in order to deal with the fentol distribution that is hitting our community and being being part not being part of the task force currently I know that the task force does a good job but we really need to have a stronger involvement within our community in order to have that communication and basically boots on the ground to deal with it so I'm glad this is coming forward I know a lot of our special uh uh Services I'd like to see return like the downtown bike you know traffic a lot of the investigative but I think this is really for the limited Staffing I think this is really the best next step in our expansion of returning the services to the community so thank you for bringing this forward council

member Williams thank you council member husman I I sorry I move that we approve this interlocal agreement to be part of the wat County drug task force Motion in a second further discussion council member list well my reason for supporting this um is because I mean people often expect your police officers to go out there and just arrest someone because it looks like they're dealing drugs but it doesn't work that easily you need to build a case and that's what the drug task force does it builds a case not based on suspicion or what looks obvious to everyone or what even is obvious to a trained officer by something a prosecutor like you Eric didn't take to court um and I think that's important because I mean if you you look at these numbers last year 154 pounds of fentanyl which was over 33,000 pills um these are very deadly drugs we have one of the highest rates of drug overdoses and fatal overdoses um so we really need to go out to people Distributing these drugs selling these drugs that's what the task force does it goes after these people not someone on the street who maybe is overdosing but the people making those overdoses happen so we need that and we don't have that as police as a police department alone but we do as part of this this task force so it's critical uh it was I was a little bit horrified almost when we had to sto participating actively due to Staffing shortages not that we like gave up on the idea but we weren't active we didn't commit we're recommitting a

really will support this member Stone so with back to the Staffing um question so it mentions two positions right from BPD and I was just wondering those are are for clarification those are existing positions that will be reassigned and or whether this is considered one of our sort of specialty units right when we talk about bringing back specialty units um how that move will impact maybe our staffing in other areas yes this will be two positions uh ones that we are uh FTS that we already have that will be just moving over um some of our vacancies so we're able to do it sooner rather than later um it does you know it's a good problem to have to have to pick what Specialties come back when but I agree um with all of you after after the resolution from a couple weeks ago is that this is our most important problem and therefore it makes that decision um that much easier um I answer both of those what was the other one okay thank you so another um question was just about communication so I know in the press releases so that's on page 7 or 22 of our packet and talking about press releases and how that communication happens I just wanted some clarification because it mentions that the watom county sheriff it sounded like would be that watom County would be handling the that um those press releases for Bellingham Ferndale and watom County but then for the small cities and the tribes that would be it said made jointly and so I'm just curious if you have I don't know how much detail

you have at this point but how that communication takes place yeah so currently the the wam County Sheriff's office main Pio would handle those press releases but we all work together when it comes to big events um like that to where we're kind of hopefully jointly um putting those out if it affects depending on what what community it actually affects but um it's their primary responsibility but of course we offer support one last I think last sorry um so in the no discrimination section on page 11 page 26 of our packet there's some specific language right that seems to apply just to Bellingham and so that is with respect to um the it says Personnel are generally prohibited from enforcing Federal immigration law for RC W10 93160 um but it seems to speak right those three paragraphs specifically to Bellingham and I was wondering if there's any clarification about that RCW I would expect to being a state RCW pertain to all jurisdictions but the language within the inter local even though this is in inter local with multiple jurisdictions seems to only speak to Bellingham and I don't know if there's any thing to add to that or explanation for why that yeah I mean it does it's state law it applies it those things applied to everyone but we just wanted to make sure since we are entering back into this again that that was very clear from our end and in terms of Bellingham I don't have administrative oversight over any other departments so I wanted to make sure that that Bellingham

specifically was mentioned in there followup I guess just so on that point and I understand that obviously getting interlocal has been in place previously and then Bellingham sort of joining back in that makes sense um I guess that may provide peace of mind to right Billingham and how our right we say our tax dollars and our employees are handling themselves um but obviously personally I would hope right that then that is being followed by all jurisdictions who are Party to this inter local but I understand that broadening that language right may not be something that all parties are open to doing or maybe it doesn't seem to make sense to specify that if it sort of under the RCW already is is applicable but singling out Bellingham I guess gave me pause of like well then is that only applying to Bellingham and the other jurisdictions are not following so it's just that's what gave me pause for the question yeah understandable um so uh myself and a couple of council members and the mayor uh attended the all hands on deck watom opioid Summit um last week um that Summit the summit this year was focused on youth in particular and I thought it was pretty jarring to hear kids themselves say how ridiculously easy it is to get a hold of drugs right now um really really easy and um that's that's a big concern so of course many many prongs are needed to tackle our our opioid crisis but this seems to be one of them um tackling the distribution so um I I do have one question uh for the

chief uh is we've been just a supporting agency without Personnel since 2020 how uh Will adding to Personnel to the task force benefit um watom C or benefit Bellingham um what can we expect to see what what improvements will we see from the task force with that the additional Personnel excellent question ironically a lot of their cases were already in our city so I felt very guilty on a month-to-month basis of not contributing Personnel when most of their cases were being done inside of our city limits um adding two Personnel to their um to their their ranks is just going to be that Force multiplier right you can't you can only hold so many cases you have to prioritize your cases and having an extra couple people in there is would have I would imagine a significant impact if if Eric wants to add to that you know I do want to add to that and I'm sorry for twisting arm the way I have been over the last number of months uh we have been doing a lot of work that's been with inside the city limits of Bellingham and we've been feeling like we've been pulling a lot of uh a lot of weight there um so um but aside from that we're working really hard with Bellingham to make sure that we're addressing all the issues that Bellingham needs uh you know the wam County drug task force has uh been operating as a a way to stop the supply of drugs coming in from the community and or coming into our community and we we feel like we've been doing pretty well but I understand that Bellingham is

looking for additional things and and we will support all those programs some interdiction if you will um I know that there are some special projects that the chief would like to see happen and and the drug task force is is a an organization that's really good at investigating crime they've developed some incredible skills and they'll be able to provide a lot of support to other programs that you think are important such as retail theft and human trafficking we can step in as the drug drug task force to do that kind of work as well and that's been something that's been negotiated and and again we're we will do what Bellingham needs to make it a safer Community any further questions or comments okay that I'll call the question all in favor say I I I any opposed extensions right with that uh we'll the motion passes uh thank you Chief prosecutor for being here today for that presentation next we have agenda Bell 24173 the consideration of a letter in support of wcom County exploring year round shelter options during the watom County council meeting on June 4th 2024 County council members Buchanan Galloway and scanland introduced a draft resolution requesting the county executive prepare a proposal for the expansion of yearound shelter capacity and establish a homelessness shelter subcommittee of the watom County Housing advisory committee council member Lilo Quist has drafted a letter in support of these efforts and requests a council discussion and possible vote on sending the

letter to the County Council and County Executive council member lest yes first of all thank you for letting me uh draft this letter I know that we all in support of increased efforts here as well as across the way to address homelessness um our primary emphasis as I say in the letter has really been on housing um supporting permanent affordable housing um supporting interim housing um and less so on shelter as the the biggest shelter in the community has always been privately run um but more and more both the city and the county are seeing uh unfilled needs for Sheltering and I thought that we might want to support the county in going a little further and looking at year round Sheltering um last winter they stepped in very directly and strongly to set up a severe weather shelter um I think that experience has taught them a lot and so part of the discussion going on across the way is just how much effort would be if it if uh a yearound shelter now became the County's responsibility um that's an active discussion across the way the County Administration has some concerns and questions for its own County Council I I didn't want to get into that particular issue on so you in here in the letter I say that we're not supporting a particular model uh that that debate is going on across the way and I didn't want to us to overstep on that in addition to talking to members of the County Administration I also got some feedbacks from County council members um based on that discussion it

became really clear to me that we I I had left out um something was important to mention so you have before each of you uh I had inserted one more sentence into the letter recognizing that the severe weather work the the county uh Health Department stood up um with that I'm um going to go ahead and move approval of the letter for uh council president Hamill's signature and hope there's a second and a discussion second there is a motion and a second forther discussion coun McCart thank you yeah maybe just a procedural question here but um feels a little weird to vote for Dan to sign something when he's not here um so I'm just curious if there if there are any other options that we've utilized in the past or that's just something would follow up with the council president at a later time well Holly could certainly off sign as Council portm Bon so the the question following up to you um uh council member cotton is are we adopting the letter or are we adopting a motion to direct direct uh council member Hamill to maybe use this as a draft to come up with his own version of this are are we adopting this letter as gospel or are we just authorizing council member Hamill to come up with either this one or something else thank you I think uh procedurally unless somebody with more experience um having sat on boards that voted for motions and also with city council even if council president was a uh declining vote it's the will of council to have representation of the letter going

forward and that is typically would be signed by council president so it's not so much that um it's a matter of the process we are a if we vote for this because we support the intent then as council president they represent the will of the board going forward um it would be much like if um say you know three people voted to not support a letter going to the state but for did from Council then it could go forward representing the majority vote of council um so I I I see it as if we decide to vote for this it could be the protemp if we want it signed today um under representation or it could be delayed for um when Dan comes back to be able to sign it yeah Al Mar City attorney I I agree with the council member Anderson's explanation of the signature of the council president I also believe that the motion was specific with regards to this letter not uh authorizing the council president or proem to um come up with a letter so I think the motion was specific to this letter CC member Stone yeah so in that respect I mean with respect to the content of the letter self similar when the motion first came up to draft a letter to send to the County Council and executive um I guess my question remains to some degree the the purpose of the letter and what we're hoping to um accomplish with that partly because the sentiment and granted I read things with right my own lens from where we're sitting right sounds a bit as though this hasn't been done in the past and should have been and there's

an opportunity to move forward with this now and we think yes you should you know move forward with that action and and um provide additional shelter at the county level right and think about the discussion at the county I believe that the County council members who brought the resolution forward are already supportive and there may be other members of the County Council who are not supportive right they haven't taken a vote yet and the hope is to Garner support from the community to support you know a majority if not unanimous vote from the County Council to move forward and part of my concern is right who are we speaking to and is that going to have a positive right impact and are we speaking to those who maybe aren't already supportive or is what we're saying going to maybe have the opposite effect where I don't know I'm just questioning how it's right received and what we're hoping to accomplished because some of the um yeah some of the statements again and part of it's maybe my own perspective too and thinking yes we want you know to move forward with this um yeah with this important important work and I know that they're recruiting you know and soliciting feedback from and that's why they had a discussion and not a vote initially or soliciting feedback from from the community um at large so I'm just wondering if there's anything that we can add or tweak that would help to move that discussion in a positive right direction and Garner additional support versus only you

know speaking to those who are already in support if we perceive that there may be some division there council member lqu well I think there's probably four or five different purposes this letter can serve um I think our our silence on a major issue would itself be kind of noteworthy and needing explanation um as you say the county has actually sought public support and input and I would think that uh input from the city council one of the most or city of Bellingham one of the most significant Partners is significant and and we they deserve to hear from us um saying nothing I think again would require more explanation than saying something um I think we're all I'm also tried to add a little bit of substance to the discussion nothing too surprising nothing new um some of the language was was uh offered by the mayor having to do with taking evidence-based approaches there's language in there about making sure that uh any shelter options does with the national Li to end homelessness suggest has always been a best practice which is you don't just shelter someone for the night but you use that Sheltering overnight as an opportunity to try to connect them to services to get to move them into something more more another form of stable housing that's nothing new but I think sometimes these best practices deserve stating out loud so that's another purpose that this letter can serve um I don't know if there are some truly um oppositional voices on the County Council um the way I was

reading the situation is that there was uh more an active debate about the how rather than the idea itself um I think this letter will have a positive constructive impact and it's also I think important that we pass it then send this letter soon probably under Pro council president proem signature um because they're going to meet on this matter at their next meeting which I think is a week it's prior to our is it tomorrow or then well it's prior to our next meeting though so this is this is our opportunity to speak with uh speak with one voice so I think there's I think there's I've only mentioned several reasons I can think of probably other adjacent reasons why we might want to speak rather than remain silent um so I I would hope for your support uh Jackie lassard pointed out that I didn't realize that the letter that you handed out with the red text you should amend the letter in the packet to reflect that uh the change that you made in in the motion if you do end up voting on this letter um if yeah uh I I moved that we approve this letter but you're right there's actually a letter a sentence that was inserted I mentioned that sentence but I didn't specifically say it was in my motion so if there's some way we could include that additional sentence in the motion I would appreciate it sure so I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to amend to in the fifth paragraph towards the bottom of that paragraph uh inserting a sentence after it says the county efforts have been

heavily devoted to Services coordinated entry case management support of Housing Programs to add in sense which is notably the health and human Serv undertook the direct operation of a severe weather shelter using internal staff resources for the first time in the winter of 2023 20124 again I mentioned that that was a significant new undertaking significant new undertaking by the county and I think it deserved mention okay there is an amendment on the table uh further discussion about the amendment council member Anderson sorry not about the amendment but I just wanted to voice why I'm supporting this I I do agree well one you can never really prevent or fully address a communication that maybe someone doesn't want to take it as intended um that will be on them but the county did ask for um or solicited wanting input and we are a very important partner with the county when dealing with or providing shelter I'm hoping a lot of our other partners are taking this opportunity to send letters of support for their consideration I do think if we do not voice support for this move um Silence has its own communication so I think um there's good content in this letter um it is not um I can't pull any negative like you should have been doing this 10 years ago or anything kind of statement this is just a very positive um we support their actions and consideration um it doesn't obligate us um financially as being part of that support that can perhaps come later um depending on their

decision making um I appreciate council member lilus bringing this forward so we don't individually all have to write something um representing our self I'd rather represent us as an entity because I think there's more power behind that um so I'm not taking any negative takeaways in sending this and I do think um timing is critically important because they'll be meeting in a week um to consider so I would like to be able to have this to them in a day or two if that's possible so that they'll have it in their packet and be able to read it and um know that we're supporting them further discussion about the amendment okay V on that then all in favor of the amendment as read by council member liquis say I I any oppos okay uh further discussion about the original motion council member Stone no I guess um I would propose then an amendment if in timeliness wanting to move this forward to amend the letter to have President protm Huffman's um signature at the end so that it could be signed if approved today and delivered to the county second Mr Mariner do we need a or is it just do we need a motion or is it just default that I as Council uh protm can well it's it's it's okay to do the motion yeah okay we have a motion in a second any further conversation all in favor say I I any opposed okay that passes any further conversation about the amendment to authorize the letter seeing none I'll call the question all in favor say I hi hi hi any opposed abstentions all right that passes um

moving on we have old and new no okay seeing none we will move to Executive session um we have see do I need to read each item for executive session yes okay we have uh litigation with crem approximately five minutes we have potential potential litigation with chaplain approximately 10 minutes potential litigation with chaplain 10 minutes uh litigation with chaplain for 10 minutes and uh labor relations with Monahan for 10 minutes so we will call that 60 Minutes um and I will be back if we need to add more time that we're J to Executive session to [Music]