Whatcom County leaders voice frustrations over jail project funding proposal
A special meeting held by the Whatcom County Council on Tuesday morning over funding for the new Whatcom County Jail was filled with criticism and complaints from mayors, police department leaders and even the county executive.
The proposal outlining preliminary budget caps of $205 million for the jail and $34 million for the Behavioral Care Center was revised following a tentative recommendation from the Whatcom County Council Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on May 5.
However, the full council and other stakeholders did not receive a copy of the new proposal until 7 p.m. Monday, prompting the council to push back their vote for at least another week. The revised proposal still was not publicly available online as of 11 a.m. Tuesday.
The majority of the critiques at the special meeting centered around a new provision of the proposal that would involve revisiting the Interlocal Agreement between Whatcom County and the cities within it. It asks County Executive Satpal Sidhu to negotiate an updated agreement — something Sidhu said Tuesday he would not do.
“I do not want to be part of this project which is doomed to fail because of the council’s interference,” Sidhu said. “I will not put my name on the project which is designed to fail, just because of the vertical shenanigans.”
Sidhu said he was tired of “appeasing” the council, and that the new resolution “is not grounded in reality.”
“It’s an excellent effort to be paper perfect, but when it comes to implementing, I don’t think I have any confidence that it can be implemented,” Sidhu said.
The mayors of multiple cities involved in the Interlocal Agreement shared similar sentiments and pointed out that they have not had the time to thoroughly review the new proposal due to how recently it was distributed.
“We’re far from collaboration right now,” Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund said.
The mayors of Ferndale, Everson, Lynden and Blaine — as well as the Blaine Police Department chief and Whatcom County sheriff — all voiced concerns over the proposed reduction in jail size due to budget constraints, which came after a rise in construction costs and a decrease in expected sales tax revenue meant to fund the project.
“The goal post changes week by week, year by year — now day by day,” said Whatcom County Sheriff Donnell “Tank” Tanksley.
Tanksley said no one consulted him about the potential reduction of the jail’s “footprint” if needed, and he feels as though his voice isn’t being heard by the council.
Blaine Police Department Chief Rodger Funk expressed similar worries about possible downsizing and continued booking restrictions.
“It feels like at this point, why are we even doing this?” Funk said. “We need to quit talking about this, and we need to start taking some action.”
Whatcom County Council member Jessica Rienstra said she was “surprised” by the feelings of division, and that the new proposed resolution was made “in good faith.”
“We’re hearing your voices, but we’re also hearing from others as well,” she said.
The council voted 5-2 to hold the main motion of passing the resolution to establish the preliminary budget cap and affirm governing commitments for further discussion until the May 12 meeting of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.