Bellingham council takes this stand on four citywide ballot measures
Bellingham City Council members are urging voters to reject the four citywide initiatives on the Nov. 2 ballot, saying that they are well-intentioned but that they fear unintended negative consequences from each of the measures.
A resolution against the initiatives passed unanimously Monday, Oct. 12, with Councilwoman Lisa Anderson absent.
Council President Hannah Stone said that the council didn’t comment publicly on the measures earlier because they wanted to let voters make their own choices.
“But the concern was growing that our silence was misinterpreted in some ways,” Stone said Monday. “Our silence wasn’t serving the good of the community.”
Measures brought forward by a coalition of local groups called People First Bellingham are seeking renter protections, limits on police technology, neutrality on labor issues from city contractors and hazard pay and other rights for hourly wage workers, volunteer Sage Jones told The Bellingham Herald.
“Don’t let the fear-mongering of some folks get in the way of your priorities,” Jones said in an email. “Vote as if your pay, and your rent, and your ability to organize for better working conditions with your co-workers, and your privacy and constitutional rights, and your quality of life depend on it — because they do.”
Stone said that the council had no choice but to place the measures on the ballot in July because People First Bellingham gathered enough signatures — but that doesn’t mean the council agrees with them.
She said she and other council members couldn’t offer specifics about their objections to the measures because the city would be forced to defend them in potential lawsuits if the measures are approved.
City Council members support the intent of the initiatives, according to the text of the resolution, (but the) “council notes that many of the terms, concepts, and aspects of the initiative measures are difficult to interpret or admit multiple possible interpretations; and (the) council recognizes that each initiative measure may have unintended fiscal and legal consequences for the city, the local business community, or both.”
Eve Smason-Marcus, a People First Bellingham supporter who is challenging Councilman Michael Lilliquist for the council’s 6th Ward seat in November, said the council missed an opportunity to collaborate on legislation.
“What People First Bellingham has done is imagine a Bellingham that puts workers first, keeps people housed, and helps protect Black, indigenous, and people of color from being targeted by the police,” Smason-Marcus told The Herald in an email. “Change may be difficult, but change is needed to truly create a city that cares for everyone who calls it home.”
Lilliquist said at the meeting that he agrees with the intent of the measures.
“As we’ve said many times, these initiatives are well-intentioned but flawed in many ways, both big and small, some more than others,” he said. “Some aren’t that problematic and maybe won’t be much of a problem. Others are a disaster in the making.”
