News - Elections

POSTED: Tuesday, Apr. 14, 2009

After 22 years on City Council, Bjornson won't run again

BELLINGHAM - City Councilwoman Louise Bjornson announced Friday morning, April 10 that she will not seek re-election after 22 years representing the at-large seat.

Bjornson, 66, said she's enjoyed her time on the council but has other things she'd like to do - especially spending more time with her "two growing grandchildren."

The announcement caught her fellow council members by surprise, because she "played the decision pretty close," said Councilman Stan Snapp.

But Bjornson said it's simply time for other things.

"I've been on the council now for 22 years, and so it was a hard decision to make. Do I continue or spend more time with my grandchildren?" she said. "I finally decided after finishing spring break with them I need to spend more time with my grandchildren."

Wearing her signature purple clothing, Bjornson was a fixture at many community events and could always be picked out of a crowd, whether it was at a political function, neighborhood meeting or at the Saturday farmers market at Depot Market Square.

Bjornson was lauded by her fellow council members and Mayor Dan Pike as a very active council person who really cared about the interests of the entire community.

"She's been an institution," said Councilman Gene Knutson. "I've worked with her for 16 years. She's been 'Lady Bellingham' for a long time, I think she's done a fantastic job and she deserves a happy retirement."

Pike said he didn't know anyone who attended as many events and meetings as Bjornson had in her years on the council.

"I think the city's losing a council member who just paid tremendous attention to the concerns of neighborhoods and her constituencies," the mayor said.

Councilman Terry Bornemann, while praising Bjornson's service on the council and his friendship with her, said he was concerned that there is now potential for the first time in a long time that Bellingham may end up with an all-male council.

Councilwoman Barbara Ryan has already announced that she, too, won't seek re-election.

"I hope some good women would step forward to run," Bornemann said. "We will lose out as a city without strong women there."

Bjornson said being in a two-year term and representing the entire city was one of her favorite aspects of the job. Running in many elections was tedious, she said, but "it really kept me out there in touch with people.

"I really made a point during my time on the council of trying to find out what was happening in all parts of the city, so that if decisions came before us then I would know how people felt and what the problems were," she said.

Before her time on the council, Bjornson was active in her neighborhood, serving 12 years on the Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission and five years on the Bellingham Planning Commission.