The Editor:
A recent letter to The Northern Light inaccurately reported that sheriff’s office expenditures represent 65-70 percent of the Whatcom County Council’s total budget and called for a reallocation of funds to other needs. Total sheriff’s operations, including jail and emergency management, is 16.44 percent of the total county budget. The sheriff’s office also receives limited state and federal funding to support programs such as sex offender registration and tracking, and boating, international border, forest area and DUI patrols. Total law and justice expenditures (criminal and civil courts, probation, prosecution, public defense and similar programs, sheriff’s office) represent 57 percent of the county’s general fund budget.
The current budget authorizes 89 deputy sheriffs (5 positions are vacant and “frozen”) that provide direct law enforcement services to a community of 94,986 and additional services to 225,743. The commissioning rate of deputies to citizens is far below the rate of any city and services are provided over 2,150 square miles that has many geographical challenges. Countywide responsibilities include enforcing civil court orders, search and rescue operations, court security and the operation of a gang and drug task force. Mental health and crisis negotiation deputies assist those in behavioral crisis and, where possible, divert them to treatment rather than jail. Neighborhood and resident deputies focus on densely-populated unincorporated areas. Last year, deputies responded to 44,408 incidents. Deputies often work alone in remote areas where backup can be over an hour away.
The sheriff’s office has a responsibility to provide appropriate medical and behavioral health services to those ordered incarcerated by the courts. The cost of providing these services escalates every year.
We were instructed to prepare a budget that provides very significant reductions due to the county’s non-receipt of anticipated tax revenues resulting from Covid-19. This will have very significant impacts on service delivery. We will likely need to re-evaluate or reconfigure some of our most popular programs. Our deputies will remain loyal to their duty to the public service and commitment to the preservation of life and ensuring community safety. We will continue to ensure the prudent use of taxpayer funds budgeted to our office.
Bill Elfo, Sheriff
Bellingham
The Editor:
Thank you for covering the removal of the #BLM signs from H Street plaza. The Northern Light’s July 16 article included excerpts of a letter we sent to city manager Michael Jones that summarized an earlier phone conversation that we had with him. Although not informed that this topic, or our letter, would be on the city council meeting agenda, we learned from the July 16 article that this topic was indeed discussed in council, and that our letter was included in the discussion.
The article implies that we are advocating for a “public expression zone.” In reality, after researching the issue, we, too, concluded that creating such a space would be challenging. This conclusion is reflected clearly in our letter to Mr. Jones. We respectfully wish to clarify our position on this topic.
Our letter to Mr. Jones concluded with three suggestions: Explain to the public what happened to the H Street plaza signs, recreate the display in an acceptable, designated location, and solicit input from relevant community stakeholders in ongoing decision making. The last suggestion is most important on a go-forward basis. We learned through decades of experience in medicine and business that when important issues are being discussed, a key question to ask up front is, “Who is not at the table right now whose input could be of value?” Actively soliciting input in advance from affected individuals and key stakeholders – and truly listening to, and considering, their input – can only help Blaine become a more inclusive and respectful community.
William Marsh and Elaine Alpert
Blaine
The Editor:
A comment on slavery: The word comes from the slavs of Eastern Europe. Slavery continues to exist in many parts of the world today. In more ancient times, wherever wars enslaved, capturers were taken and made slaves. Indians had slaves. African tribes defeated their rivals, kept slaves themselves, and sold others to Europeans or Muslim traders. Greeks and Romans had slaves. I can’t think of a part of the world that has not had slavery, and there should be no shame in one’s ancestors having been enslaved because most of us probably have slave ancestors somewhere, if we go back far enough.
Your article on the BLM discussions was of interest. It should be identified as a Marxist organization, however, like Antifa and other groups, with more information, people can make their own decisions about agreement or disagreement. These groups do have websites. BLM seems to be mainly about police killings, which are increasingly rare, plus one should remember that policemen are of all races and creeds like the rest of us. I am more concerned with the level of killings caused by rival gangs and drug lords in the large blue state cities, which have been under democratic local governments for many decades. Apparently, these city governments have done a terrible job in public school education, allowing school choice, providing employment and business opportunities and in keeping people safe. Following the money is probably a place to start looking for the
reason.
I thought our governor’s recent school statement sounded quite racist. Does the decision to allow minority students to start first imply that they are less than other students? I would imagine that students of all ethnic backgrounds have a similar span of learning abilities around
disabilities.
Lucy Chambers
Blaine
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here