Candidates running for Whatcom County, Port of Bellingham and Blaine school district positions answered a variety of questions during an election forum on October 14 at Birch Bay Bible Community Church. In total, 16 candidates participated. Here’s a sampling of what they said.
On the moratorium on fossil fuel exports at Cherry Point:
“Thank you for that ad for BP,” said Natalie McClendon, candidate for Whatcom County Council district 5 position, after a more than two-minute-long question in which moderator Terry Terry detailed taxes paid by BP and other businesses at Cherry Point, what those taxes funded and charitable giving by BP and praised the company as a job creator. “I personally don’t think how much a business pays in taxes is relevant to how we govern our county.”
“Asking refineries to have a permit for a change of use … if you build a church, you need a conditional use permit, if you build a dog kennel, you need a conditional use permit, so a refinery can also go and get a conditional use permit,” said Satpal Sidhu, candidate for county executive.
“Nothing has been said, not behind closed doors, about shutting down the refineries. I think if you look at the authors of these amendments, they’ve been very vocal about their intent to destroy the refining of fossil fuels in Whatcom County,” said Ben Elenbaas, candidate for Whatcom County Council district 5 position.
“You expressed it well that these industries have been extraordinary community partners over the last half-century-plus,” said Tony Larson, candidate for Whatcom County executive. “Absolutely ridiculous to think that these comp plan amendments aren’t harming these businesses substantially.”
How important is experience for a sheriff candidate?
“Public safety is mission critical to everything we do. Your sheriff, as chief law enforcement officer in the county, needs to be prepared to provide the necessary leadership and required resources to keep our county safe, but also to direct activities in critical incidents,” said county sheriff candidate Bill Elfo. “I’ve been a police chief, I’ve been a prosecutor, I’ve been a city attorney, I’ve earned incremental levels of responsibility, so I know law enforcement upside and down, backward and forwards.”
“My challenge to the sheriff is in business development, business management and taxpayer crisis management,” said Joy Gilfilen, county sheriff candidate. “I sat on the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force that was largely created because I made some complaints to the council and public officials about why we were trying to build a jail that didn’t have a proper needs assessment. At the end of 10 years I ended up talking to 79 people in the Whatcom County justice system who had gone through the jail to understand what the problem is. Mass incarceration, I think, is at the root of the problem and we must fix it.”
What is the solution to the jail problem?
“We can move the sheriff office out of basement of jail and free up program space,” Gilfilen said. “We can move nonviolent people out of the main jail downtown and move them into the work release facility so we can do reentry, recovery and different kinds of assessments so that we can actually minimize the impact on nonviolent people from being housed with violent criminals.”
“There’s been multiple studies of the jail … that affirmatively conclude that it needs to be replaced,” Elfo said. “Whatever we do to that existing building, it does not have space to take care of behavioral health issues, mental health, substance abuse and medical issues.”
How can the Port of Bellingham help bring economic development to Birch Bay?
“Under my watch and a couple other commissioners we gave direction to hire economic development director Don Goldberg,” said Bobby Briscoe, candidate for Port of Bellingham’s district 3 seat. “I believe that the Port of Bellingham can work with the Birch Bay area. We will work with them tirelessly and try to help in any manner that we can.”
“I worked with the tourism industry in Alaska for about 10 years so I deeply feel the issues that you have,” said Anthony Distefano, the other port district 3 candidate. “One thing I’ve noticed looking at all tax rates – tax rates, with exception of state and school, have been going down consistently for the last 10 years. I’m very concerned about that because it seems like what we might be doing is, we might be sending off our economic development to the state.”
On the need for an elementary school in Birch Bay:
“The board has wrestled with this issue because it’s true that there’s a real need for a school here in Birch Bay,” said Charles Gibson, school board district 4 candidate. “However, to have a fully operational school here in Birch Bay, we’re not talking $3 million – that doesn’t even come close. It was $27 million when I first came on the school board. I’m told now, by people who should know, that it would be more than double that amount to have a fully functional school here in Birch Bay.
“When I think about a separate school I can think about that from a mother’s perspective and wanting my kids to be able to see their school right there in their community, not a long bus ride away,” said Tana Perkins Reneau, district 4 school board candidate. “As an educator, with how important it is that we’re a team and work together – I would get worried about the isolation of those teachers, the collaboration and team building.”
“We want to do the process correctly and we want to do it right the first time. We understand that we need a Birch Bay school, but it’s not going to happen overnight,” said Todd Berge, candidate for school board director district 2.
“There’s a lot of things to figure out,” said Dougal Thomas, the other district 2 school board candidate. “Where’s the money going to come from? Not just the money to build the school but the money to staff the school. We’re going to need a principal, we’re going to need support people, we’re going to need teachers, we’re going to need supplies, we’re going to need to keep the lights on – there are all kinds of factors that have to be considered in order to do that.”
View the full forum on The Northern Light’s Facebook page at bit.ly/2ppHXcO.
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