Share YOUR THOUGHTS

Resilience: A community's ability to provide for and protect itself, and its resources, against a changing climate and ecosystem.

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Our community leaders have advocated and placed resilience as a key goal in local government over the last several years at the County, Cities, Port, and PUD. I plan to continue and refine that focus at the County Council.  Resilience focused projects will provide Whatcom County multiple benefits including local food security, increased water quality and supply, local energy autonomy, and new sustainable jobs. We can:

• Safeguard our water, tributaries, rivers, and in the Bay through expanding buffers, encouraging conservation, enabling water banks, and adaptive water management. 
• Support more local community solar & wind energy, energy storage, and broadband deployment that provides connectivity even during personal and countywide crises. 
• Invest in our food security by increasing local production, distribution, and local market channels.

Projects focused on resilience end up having multiple benefits, for example:

1. An energy storage array on the Lummi Peninsula could provide combined benefits to support backup power and fast charging for the Lummi Island Ferry planned upgrade. 
2. Adaptive water management could provide needed water while protecting instream flows (supporting salmon) by shifting summer demands toward natural storage, wells, and surface water.

Exploring Ideas for Feasibility:

1. Expand Conservation and Buffer Lands Along Waterways
2. Revise Policy to Allow for Water Banking in Our County
3. Request Federal Assistance to Finance Piped Water and Wells
4. Accelerate Community Solar and Wind Projects in the County
5. Design and Construct a Multisource Digester in the County
6. Apply Water + Carbon Footprinting on Natural Resource Decisions
7. Educate and Support Electric System Expansion by Local Government
8. Local Energy Storage, E.G. - Support Lummi Island and Peninsula 
9. Expanded Public Broadband Deployment Including Dig Once
10. Support New Food Businesses with Access to Capital and Facilities
11. Develop a County-Wide Carshare Program

Livability: The ability of all residents to earn wages that ensure the basics of food, housing, and healthcare. 

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Many of us are in an economic struggle. The economics of maintaining housing, health care, and earning a living is difficult for many of us. 

• We MUST help provide shelter. 
  • We can support projects that support livability which are self-sustaining and build community at the same time. 
  • We can improve how we know and understand our homeless community with a census that collects a myriad of data.
• The most efficient method is to support more tiny home villages on the Homes Now (highest return on investment) model.  
  • Tiny home villages are the most resource efficient method of sheltering people while creating community and we now can grow it further. 
  • These villages teach teamwork, create a sense of community, and shared ownership that many residents deeply value. 
• We can guide our health system by first assessing the real needs of Whatcom County families. This enables us to effectively gauge the cost effectiveness and level of service needed to support our community. 
  • Incentives to train and stay in our community can expand the health professionals that are available for the growing needs of our community. 
  • Community service networks (e.g. Bridge to Services, Serenity Outreach Services) strengthen coordination and relationships across the community. 
• We can incubate new local non-profit social benefit companies to help finance, train, and hire people locally. 
  • Workers are increasingly wanting work they can believe in.
  • Entrepreneurial solutions to our community's problems are needed.
  • We can keep, grow, and support our local talent.

Exploring Ideas for Feasibility:

1. Diversify the Whatcom County Health Board with Technical Experts
2. Define Health Wellness Metrics and Rate Providers Accordingly
3. Ask Health Board to Investigate the Creation a of a Hospital District
4. Provide Every Homeless Person With an Address Using Google Plus Codes
5. Build 300 Tiny Homes / Year and Rent Them for $300/month
6. Buy and Bank Land for Affordable Housing / Workers Cooperatives
7. Education for Social Work and Nursing with Tuition Forgiveness (after 10 yrs)
8. Create a Social Benefit Incubator to Increase Local Living Wage Jobs
9. Revise County Procurement Practices to Support Living Wages

The Big Lift: https://news.yahoo.com/big-lift-advocates-devise-large-120000140.html

Safety: Our ability to move throughout our community without worrying that we might experience violence, regardless of our status. 

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Our public health and safety crisis continues to unfold. We need bolder, more effective, and smarter policies that are based on community needs and wants. This requires a local government that is willing to learn from our mistakes.

• We MUST implement preventative maintenance and hygiene immediately.
• We MUST refurbish our jail immediately and implement humane management practices that are common nationwide. 
• We can retrofit new ventilation systems and natural light delivered via solar tubes that save money and deliver results soon! 
• We can support the expansion of peer mentoring programs in community groups to reduce recidivism and deepen community relationships.
• We can replace the demand for private security with lived-experience mentors who understand crisis needs, de-escalation, and conflict resolution. 
• We can expand the use of Division Street Minimum Security Jail to focus on work release, diversion, re-entry, and electronic home monitoring (to keep people in their jobs and in their homes) because that benefits almost everyone. 

Exploring Ideas for Feasibility:

1. Community Needs Assessment on The Justice and Behavioral Health System
2. Bail Bonding for Low Incomes in Lieu of State Cash Bail Elimination Policy
3. Supplement Electronic Home Monitoring for Low Income Individuals
4. Support Crisis Peer Mentoring Programs Partnering with Nonprofits 
5. Streamline Services by Reducing Redundancies and Implementing Recommendations Identified by the Vera Institute of Justice
6. Reduce Conflicts of Interest: Separate County Jail Management from Whatcom County Sheriff's Office; Independent Oversight of Justice System
7. Reduce the Load at the Public Defender’s Office by Creating a Restorative Justice Advocacy Team With the Goal of Reducing Incarceration and Trauma.

Reimagining Public Safety: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z_cr-81t8-qsWM1IalRP-TH5v0XUTp0LfBgUp8zjQrM/edit