Split Whatcom County Council approves formation of Racial Equity Commission
The Whatcom County Council approved the formation of a Racial Equity Commission, a panel to promote diversity and advise elected officials on policy to address disparities that affect people of color in a range of areas, including economic, educational, housing, health care and criminal justice.
The vote Tuesday night, Oct. 11, was split 4-3, with Councilmembers Ben Elenbaas, Tyler Byrd and Kathy Kershner opposed.
Those members represent Whatcom County’s most rural areas, from Custer and Ferndale to Lynden, Everson and the South Fork Valley.
County Executive Satpal Sidhu said it was an historic moment in a region that only recently has begun to recognize its racist past that targeted minorities including Indigenous people, Chinese, Japanese, Blacks and Sikhs.
“It was a long time coming and needed in this community,” Sidhu told The Bellingham Herald at a community celebration before the meeting.
“I look forward to seating the committee and they will have my full support,” said Sidhu, who is Sikh.
But Elenbaas said that the new panel should focus on equity, rather than race.
“I want to get diversity and inclusion right, I really do,” Elenbaas said as council members discussed the measure.
“What concerns me is that the equity commission is very set on looking through a racial lens. I would feel much more confident about the ordinance if it was equity, an Equity Commission. I truly believe that equity, diversity and inclusion has more to do than the color of your skin,” he said.
Both Whatcom County and the city of Bellingham are helping to launch the commission with $100,000 each annually, and each council has voted to address systemic racism as a public health crisis.
Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood told The Herald that efforts to form the commission emerged from the social justice activism that gelled in the summer of 2020, after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and other people of color at the hands of police and vigilantes.
“George Floyd’s murder was a tragic moment in our history but also the year from which profoundly consequential change will emerge. It sparked a rallying cry and movement for reform and greater fairness and equity, which will not subside until systemic problems are fundamentally addressed,” Fleetwood said at a two-hour public hearing on the issue.
“It’s been a period of enormous growth and learning for us,” Fleetwood told The Herald. “So many people worked so hard. It feels good to see it come to this important moment.”
During the public hearing, Bellingham Councilwoman Hollie Huthman said “everybody was invited to the table” as the commission worked for two years to plan how it will work.
“I expect the Racial Equity Commission to be one more tool in the work to help leave my (infant son) and every other kid born today with structures and systems that get us ever closer to the expectation — and the right — of liberty and justice for all,” Huthman said.
But many in the audience objected to the commission, including Richard Johnson.
“It’s just another bureaucratic thing. We’re all just supposed to feel sorry for the minorities, basically,” Johnson told the council.
Whatcom County’s new Racial Equity Commission will be composed of elected officials and appointed members who speak for a variety of community interests, including representatives of business and social justice organizations, according to its founding document approved Tuesday night.
Dozens of U.S. cities have similar advisory groups or have pledged to create them, according to the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Shu-Ling Zhao of the Chuckanut Health Foundation, who worked with Bellingham Councilwoman Kristina Michele Martens to outline the scope and focus of the Racial Equity Commission, told The Herald that she was filled with gratitude, a feeling she emphasized during testimony to the council on Tuesday night.
“I want to share a sense of deep gratitude for everyone who shared in this hearing,” Zhao said.
“It has been incredible to hear the voices tonight — and I mean that authentically — both the voices who are here in dissent and the voices who are here in support, because council created an opportunity for public conversation and civic participation,” Zhao said.
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 12:37 PM.
