My Priorities

It has been an honor to serve our community over the last decade. I have talked to countless community members about the challenges facing our local Bellingham and Whatcom County communities. I want to see government that works for all people. I am focused on the solutions needed for today and for generations to come which means keeping working families safe and healthy through economic, climate, and community resilience.

Economic Resilience

I understand first hand the importance of small businesses to our community and our economy. We have seen local businesses and their workforces struggle with increasing costs, economic pressures, and adapting to the changing times. We must build economic resilience by supporting our local workers, small businesses, and downtown Bellingham revitalization. Too many people live paycheck to paycheck. The County can play an important role in fostering a vibrant local economy that supports living wage jobs so people can afford to live, learn, work, and play here in Whatcom County.

That is why I am working on policy that promotes local work for local workers. Over the next decade, Whatcom County will be investing more than $200 million in critical infrastructure and facilities. Projects funded by our tax dollars should reflect the community's values and be supporting local workers, which in turn supports our local economy.

Furthermore, we must promote long-term economic vitality in Whatcom County by carefully considering land use zoning and regulations that balance the needs of local businesses providing living wage jobs, nearby residential neighborhoods, and protecting the environment for generations to come. Whatcom County needs a sustainable solution to preserving industry that is consistent with our values and compatible with our neighbors. As industry evolves, I will fight to retain living wage jobs without harming our environment and natural resources.

Climate Resilience

I am a co-author of the Whatcom County Climate Action Plan, and as a councilmember have worked from day one to put this plan into action. To combat climate change, we must address climate resiliency in Whatcom’s built and natural environments. This includes water quality and quantity, salmon recovery, protecting and restoring marine resources, planning for and mitigating future hazards like flooding and wildfire, protecting agriculture and forest lands, and smart growth including sustainable development, transportation, infrastructure, grid modernization, and renewable energy.

In August 2022, Whatcom County Council approved my resolution establishing Council's priorities for the 2025 Comprehensive Plan Update, which we are actively working on at this time. This involves updating our land use, zoning and development regulations, allowing for sustainable growth and development, decarbonizing our buildings, investing in renewable energy, expanded transmission capacity and grid modernization, utilities like broadband, multi-modal and zero-emission transportation and infrastructure while ensuring protection of our natural resources and ecosystems (water, marine habitat, and shoreline), working farm, forest, and resource lands, and mitigating climate vulnerabilities and natural hazards such as floods, wildfires, and rising sea level.

Additionally, one of the greatest natural climate solutions we can invest in today is conserving our structurally complex, older growth forests which capture and sequester carbon, enhance ecosystem services, wildlife habitat, wildfire resilience, and healthy watersheds. We can do this while balancing the needs of our local timber industry and economy, keeping jobs in the woods and a local supply of sustainable building materials. That is why I sponsored a budget amendment to fund the development of a forest management plan for Lake Whatcom Park, created the Forest Resilience Taskforce, expanded the Forest Advisory Committee, supported the Stewart Mountain Community Forest, and have worked to improve the County's working relationship with the WA State Department of Natural Resources in the co-management of our forest lands.

Protecting Water Resources and Salmon Recovery

Clean water and clean air are both critical to a healthy environment, our well-being, and our economy. Access to clean, safe drinking water is a right, and ensuring this should be a priority in any decisions made by the County. This means protecting Lake Whatcom by preventing runoff of harmful pollutants like phosphorus, fecal coliform, and heavy metals. As a member of the Lake Whatcom Policy Group, I have been working across jurisdictions to strengthen our 2025-29 Lake Whatcom Management Program Work Plan, including adding Climate Action and Forestry Management as two new program areas. As we work to implement the work plan, I am working on policy that would strengthen our County's phosphorus neutral development code and establish a private stormwater inspection program.

I fully support the Nooksack adjudication and making sure there is enough water to support our communities, local agriculture, and restore healthy populations of salmon in our streams and rivers. Right now we are facing a time when there is not enough water. Honoring tribal treaty rights and protecting water resources is one of the most important steps we can take to conserve water and combat climate change. In 2023, Whatcom County Council approved my ordinance to protect chinook salmon populations in the South Fork of the Nooksack River by prohibiting watercraft between June and October. Whatcom County has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the tribes to ensure we prioritize removing county owned fish passage barrier culverts and have been investing in riparian restoration and salmon recovery education and outreach through partnerships with Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, Whatcom Conservation District, and Whatcom Land Trust.

We can do more together. I am committed to working with the tribes, federal, state, and local partners to address water resources and salmon recovery issues in Whatcom County. Making investments now will benefit the health of our community for generations to come while reducing future costs.

Housing and Homelessness

A solution to homelessness is housing. We must think across the entire continuum including shelter, transitional housing, permanently affordable, workforce, supportive, and market rate housing, and zoning and land use policies that incentivize the kind of sustainable growth and development we want to see in Bellingham and Whatcom County. We have phenomenal housing partners and projects already in play made possible by various local, state, and federal funding sources. The need is far greater than funding resources, and the County cannot do it alone. We absolutely need the cities, state, federal and tribal governments to partner with us and leverage both public and private investments.

I am grateful the County Council has passed several resolutions I co-sponsored including:

Recognizing affordable housing and homelessness are a public health crisis,
Supporting the use of Economic Development Investment funds for affordable housing, which can support land acquisition and development of affordable housing up to 120% AMI, and
Supporting the expansion of year-round shelter capacity in Whatcom County, which also set the goal of functional zero homelessness within ten years

Council also recently passed an ordinance addressing permit review timelines which I worked on alongside various stakeholders and the planning department to find a balance that will work well for supporting more housing development without compromising critical areas.

My upcoming priorities and efforts include:

Updating the Whatcom County Comprehensive Plan to ensure housing needs are being met for all economic segments of our community in all parts of Whatcom County and its seven cities,
Updating the Whatcom County Plan to End Homeless, which will guide our goals to end homelessness and where to focus our resources and investments,
Continuing our efforts to expand year-round, seasonal, and severe weather shelter capacity including county run shelter and partnerships with non-profit and faith-based service providers,
Continue to support the expansion of tiny home villages such as those successfully operated by Road2Home and HomesNow,
Support short-term rental regulations and registration requirements, and
Continue working to improve the planning and permit processes to incentivize sustainable development and ensuring development agreements incorporate community benefits.

Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform

Everyone has the right to feel safe and secure. Unfortunately, Bellingham and Whatcom County are experiencing a public safety crisis - people no longer feel safe; we see rising crime rates, have an overcrowded jail and an overburdened criminal-legal system.

Since voters approved the public safety tax in 2023, Whatcom County has been working hard to implement the Justice Project. Over the next ten years, Whatcom County must build a new humane and trauma informed jail and behavioral care center, and invest in services and criminal-legal system reforms that encourage incarceration prevention and reduction.

Law enforcement and the criminal-legal system need to evolve to meet the changing needs of our community today. This means a more holistic approach that addresses our behavioral health and fentanyl crises and restorative justice, diversion, prevention, and support services. This is why I support:

Alternative response system programs: Ground-Level Response And Coordinated Engagement (GRACE), Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), Alternative Response Team (ART), Street Medicine, and Homeless Outreach Team (HOT),
Therapeutic court options: Teen Court, Recovery Court, and Mental Health Court,
Treatment options: Anne Deacon Center for Hope Crisis Stabilization Center and Didgwalic Wellness Center,
Prevention: meeting every person's basic needs including but not limited to housing and shelter, healthcare, and food security,
Embedding social workers into law enforcement and first responder agencies, and
Ensuring that those who are incarcerated are housed in a humane, safe, trauma informed, and therapeutic jail facility.

The next few years are going to be critical and I will continue to support public safety and criminal justice reform.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

I am committed to fighting for a more progressive and representative government with policies that better serve all people, especially those who have been historically underserved. I seek input from people with different identities and lived experiences than mine in order to more fully represent our community because we all belong in all places where decisions are being made. Racism and discrimination is embedded into our policies and systems at every level of government, and we must intentionally work to dismantle that.

At the local level, we moved towards restorative justice and equity, but there is still a lot of work we have to do. I am proud to be a member of the Whatcom Racial Equity Commission and am committed to doing the work to make sure people of all racial backgrounds are not only able to live in Whatcom County, but are able to truly thrive in every aspect of their lives. I plan on working with my colleagues on the Whatcom Racial Equity Commission to intentionally incorporate equity in all budget and policy decisions. In this time of healing, we must acknowledge the disproportionate impact to underrepresented communities and work diligently to correct historical injustices that continue to impact our community members. Our government needs to better serve and represent all communities, especially those who have been historically marginalized, disenfranchised, underrepresented, and underserved. We must also acknowledge and honor the treaty rights of sovereign Tribal nations.

I am committed to this every day.