Monday, March 9, 2015 -- The Fifth Meeting of the Charter Review Commission

The fifth meeting of the Whatcom County Charter Review Commission was held on Monday, February 9, 2015.

The meeting was called to order at approximately 6:30 pm by commission chairman, Ben Elenbaas. 

After the flag salute and roll call, the floor was opened to public comments.

County prosecutor David S. McEachran attempted to address the question of what we do about situations where the county is not in compliance with the charter. McEachran and Commissioner Bell seemed to be talking at cross-purposes, and did not appear to resolve the issue. 

Sheriff Elfo and several other citizens spoke in opposition to Proposed Amendment 6: Shall the Charter be amended to apply term limits to the County Council members, Executive, Auditor, Treasurer, Assessor, and Sheriff?

Public comments included several about Proposed Amendment 7: Shall the County Charter prohibit grants and expenditures to non-profit organizations unless the County is reimbursed by another organization or jurisdiction?

A couple of citizens spoke in favor of Amendment 7, indicating that it needed work, but that we really need a way to ensure fair and transparent processes to apply for grants and funding, as well as accountability for how the funds are used and distributed by these non-government organizations after they are funded.

Several others spoke in favor of Proposed Amendment 1: Shall the Charter be amended to provide for election of council members within the council district from which the candidate was nominated?

In addition to favoring Amendment 1, at least two speakers suggested that some means be provided to prevent the Whatcom County Council from reverting representation by district this time (addressed by proposed amendments 3 and 10).

Proposed Amendment 3: Shall Charter Section 8.20 be amended to prohibit the County Council from proposing Charter amendments on matters that have been approved by a 2/3 majority of voters? and Proposed Amendment 10: Shall Charter Section 8.23 be amended to prohibit the County Council from proposing any Charter amendment to Charter Sections 2.12 or 2.13? were discussed.

The commission discussed Proposed Amendment 4: Shall the Charter Preamble be amended to affirm the diversity of our citizens? but did not move that one forward.

Proposed Amendment 2: Shall the Charter in Article 5.40 and Article 5.60 be amended to increase the "concise statement" limit from 20 words to 40 words? was wordsmithed a bit to make it consistent with state law, and passed.

Proposed Amendment 7: Shall the County Charter prohibit grants and expenditures to non-profit organizations unless the County is reimbursed by another organization or jurisdiction? was discussed, and voted down. This may be brought back up again in a different form, to better address the original problem of fairness, transparency and accountability.

Proposed Amendment 6, about term limits was modified to affect only the county council, and not the Executive, Auditor, Treasurer, Assessor, and Sheriff. The term limit was increased to three terms, and passed.

Here is the audio from the full meeting:

 

The meeting adjourned at approximately 9:30 p.m.