County Council’s ignorance of the law is not the public’s bliss

by Shane Roth

We are no longer wondering if the newly conservative County Council, headed by Chairman Sam Crawford, will ignore the Charter and the County Code at a council meeting. It is now only a question of when will they learn what the law actually allows, and how much taxpayer time and money will they waste before they figure it out.

Sam Crawford, aided by Barbara Brenner, Ward Nelson and the two new members of the council, Bill Knutzen and Kathy Kershner, have managed to stumble blindly into conflict with various state laws, city statutes and their own county charter in the course of the last month, forcing needless and embarrassing ‘do-overs’ on what should be routine matters, like filling vacancies in Commissions, and posing a very real threat to public health with clumsy attempts to pass feel-good legislation that appears to conflict with State law.

It isn’t the new council members that are stumbling; they are simply following the lead of Crawford, Brenner and Nelson who have a combined 44 years of council experience. Experienced leadership that ignores laws and fair public process is what we are getting from this council.

Previous articles have touched on the fact that Ward Nelson was not elligible to be appointed by the Council and that he voted against numerous qualified Council nominees despite his own financial interest in the outcome, but in the last month the County Council has disregarded the spirit and letter of its own charter to pack the planning commission with hard-line conservatives. Barbara Brenner accepted an application for failed conservative candidate Michelle Luke literally the day of the meeting, after the publicly announced deadline for applications had elapsed by more than one month. This was in spite of the fact that there were already over a dozen other qualified candidates for the position who actually met the application deadline. In their zeal to appoint Ms. Luke, the Council made a simple but crucial procedural error that rendered the entire appointment process invalid. The process had to be repeated at the next meeting.

Next Sam Crawford and Barbara Brenner proposed an ordinance that suspended the requirement for septic tank inspections. The language in the ordinance directly contradicted state health laws and common sense. Apparently the health and environmental quality of our community are not of concern to Brenner and Crawford. When asked about this motion, Carl Weimer summed it up best, “It stinks!”

Once the fatal flaws in the language of the ordinance were discovered, there was another last minute change. Once the new Council discovered that they couldn’t pass an ordinance without giving notice to the public, they slapped together some flimsy feel-good resolution on the spot and passed it, without any consideration as to its validity.

In the latest meeting, Crawford took a break from stepping on legal rakes long enough to attempt to slash funding to the Bellingham Food Bank, and remove vital funding for the water projects budget. Water projects include testing Lake Whatcom, and the rechanneling of the Jones Creek to prevent flooding the nearby elementary school and town of Acme.

A certain amount of inexperience was to be expected from the newly elected members of Council, but how do Sam Crawford and Barbara Brenner not know how their own Municipal laws work? These “rookie” mistakes weren’t made by rookies. They were made by some of the most experienced members of the Council. How many more years are Sam Crawford and Barbara Brenner going to need to be in office before they figure out how to do the people’s business?

Having done damage to the hungry, the flood-prone and those who drink water in this county, we can only hope that the newer members of the council will give pause to these reckless moves. If you would like to tell Sam Crawford and the rest of the County Council what you think of these and other decisions, or if you just want Carl Weimer and Ken Mann to see a few more friendly faces, you can attend their meetings on Feb. 9th and 23rd at 7pm in the Whatcom County Courthouse.