LIVE from Bellingham: Council candidates share their vision for Whatcom County

Here comes the home stretch of yet anoth­er elec­tion season.

As cam­paigns move into get-out-the-vote mode, vol­un­teers are phonebank­ing and knock­ing on doors, can­di­dates hope to make an impact on more civi­cal­ly active vot­ers by speak­ing at forums. While many of these just serve to engage the base and get a few more peo­ple to vol­un­teer, it also delin­eates clear dif­fer­ences between the can­di­dates on spe­cif­ic issues that atten­dees care about.

Here at the League of Women Vot­ers’ forum in Belling­ham, the can­di­dates for What­com Coun­ty Coun­cil are get­ting ready to talk about issues impor­tant to cities and com­mu­ni­ties like Belling­ham, Lyn­den, Fer­n­dale, Birch Bay, and Blaine. And no issue is more impor­tant than the fate of the largest pro­posed coal ter­mi­nal on the West Coast, which the can­di­dates who get elect­ed will be vot­ing on.

The can­di­dates for Coun­ty Coun­cil this year are Ken Mann (incum­bent) and Ben Elen­baas for Dis­trict 2, Posi­tion A; Bar­ry Buchanan and Kathy Ker­sh­n­er (incum­bent) for Dis­trict 1, Posi­tion A; Carl Wiemer (incum­bent) and Michelle Luke for Dis­trict 3; and Rud Browne and Bill Knutzen (incum­bent) for the at-large seat.

The four can­di­dates endorsed by the What­com Coun­ty Democ­rats, envi­ron­men­tal groups, labor, and oth­ers are Ken Mann, Bar­ry Buchanan, Carl Wiemer, and Rud Browne. All four need to win if the Coun­cil is to have a reli­ably pro­gres­sive majority.

While such a major­i­ty is crit­i­cal for major issues in the com­mu­ni­ty like water qual­i­ty, robust human ser­vices pro­grams, infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment, and the like, what hap­pens here will also (as men­tioned) deter­mine the future of the Cher­ry Point Coal Ter­mi­nal. This pro­posed coal ter­mi­nal would have seri­ous region­al effects, includ­ing neg­a­tive impacts on pub­lic health, trans­porta­tion, and quality-of-life.

The ter­mi­nal would also hurt our efforts to com­bat the cli­mate cri­sis. It would take us in the wrong direc­tion. Forty-eight mil­lion tons of coal would poten­tial­ly be export­ed through the ter­mi­nal each year. Forty-eight mil­lion tons.

The con­ser­v­a­tive can­di­dates were just recent­ly found to have been receiv­ing mon­ey from coal and ener­gy com­pa­nies to sup­port their cam­paigns, and are sub­jects of an active Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion com­plaint for vio­lat­ing pub­lic dis­clo­sure laws. The com­plaint might come up dur­ing the forum, and it could cer­tain­ly lead to a live­ly exchange between the candidates.

I will be live­blog­ging through­out the evening, so be sure to check back for updates.

UPDATE, 6:30 PM: We have arrived at the forum, as the crowd and the can­di­dates file in. It’s good to see that the con­ser­v­a­tive can­di­dates have shown their faces, as they’ve decid­ed not to attend two pre­vi­ous forums which they decid­ed was not friend­ly enough territory.

UPDATE, 6:35 PM: The mod­er­a­tors are going through the ground rules for the forum, and a brief descrip­tion of what the coun­ty coun­cil does.

UPDATE, 6:42 PM: The first round of can­di­dates are speak­ing, which are Bar­ry Buchanan and Kathy Ker­sh­n­er, both run­ning for Coun­cil Dis­trict 1. Kathy start­ed by talk­ing about her bout with can­cer, the busi­ness envi­ron­ment, and West­ern Wash­ing­ton University.

UPDATE, 6:44 PM: Kathy’s done with her intro­duc­tion, and Bar­ry Buchanan start­ed into his family’s long his­to­ry in the area, his work in the mil­i­tary, and how he wants to pro­tect water qual­i­ty, farm­land, and the environment.

UPDATE, 6:46 PM: The first ques­tion is about the Growth Man­age­ment Act, and how the can­di­dates would pri­or­i­tize devel­op­ment, What­com Coun­ty is one of the only coun­ties left in the state to not be in com­pli­ance with the act, and Bar­ry Buchanan sup­ports its implementation.

UPDATE, 6:47 PM: Kathy Ker­sh­n­er oppos­es the Growth Man­age­ment Act cit­ing a “board in Olympia” that doesn’t know What­com Coun­ty. She’s mak­ing them out to be “the Oth­er”, not their role in main­tain­ing smart growth.

UPDATE, 6:49 PM: Top­ics moved quick­ly from water rights to the pro­posed jail devel­op­ment, and Bar­ry Buchanan believes we need to pri­or­i­tize men­tal health and diver­sion tech­niques, to end a cycle of mass incarceration.

UPDATE, 6:51 PM: Ker­sh­n­er cites the dis­re­pair of the cur­rent jail, and want­i­ng to cut costs to save mon­ey on the jail, also say­ing that peo­ple in the coun­ty need “jobs, not jail”.

UPDATE, 6:56 PM: After a few fluff ques­tions, it was asked what cri­te­ria the can­di­date would use to review the per­mit of the coal ter­mi­nal. Kathy was non­com­mit­tal, using vague terminology.

UPDATE, 6:58 PM: Bar­ry Buchanan answered the ques­tion to say he would look at envi­ron­men­tal impacts and envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards. Def­i­nite­ly a envi­ron­men­tal candidate.

UPDATE, 7:00 PM: A ques­tion was asked about where the can­di­dates are get­ting their mon­ey. Kathy said that she didn’t get any out­side mon­ey “that she knew of”, and Bar­ry spoke on con­tri­bu­tions by labor groups, envi­ron­men­tal groups, and cit­i­zens that were excit­ed to make a change on the council.

UPDATE, 7:03 PM: We’re near­ing the end of ques­tion­ing the first round of can­di­dates, and both Bar­ry and Kathu gave their clos­ing state­ments. Kathy deliv­ered her state­ments with lit­tle emo­tion, and seemed very scripted.Barry, on the oth­er hand, cir­cled around to his fam­i­ly his­to­ry, and restat­ed his com­mit­ment to pre­serv­ing the environment.

UPDATE, 7:08 PM: Ken Mann and Ben Elen­baas are now up. Ken’s per­sona, as a for­mer radio host, engi­neer, and finan­cial man­ag­er, and now a green refur­bish­ment con­sul­tant, is very charm­ing and smart, and Ben comes across as a very plod­ding speak­er, an earthy, next-door neigh­bor qual­i­ty. I sus­pect he bar­be­cues on the weekend.

UPDATE, 7:10 PM: In his intro­duc­to­ry state­ment Ben spoke about his dis­taste for either-or ques­tions, and Ken spoke about his defense of the Women, Infants, and Chil­dren (WIC) pro­gram, and his vote for pro­tect­ing Lake Whatcom.

UPDATE, 7:12 PM: Ques­tion­ing once again went to the Growth Man­age­ment Act. Ken Mann spoke about many of its defi­cien­cies, and Ben Elen­baas explained his belief that the Growth Man­age­ment Board was biased against rur­al living.

UPDATE, 7:17 PM: Ben Elen­baas talked about cer­tain­ty being nec­es­sary to bring busi­ness­es into the coun­ty. Ken piv­ot­ed smooth­ly and talked about how cur­rent con­ser­v­a­tive mem­bers of the coun­cil were hyp­o­crit­i­cal on that point, hav­ing passed an emer­gency mora­to­ri­um on cer­tain forms of renew­able ener­gy some time ago, imply­ing that the goals of con­ser­v­a­tives to pro­vide cer­tain­ty and pre­dictabil­i­ty to busi­ness­es may only be for the types of busi­ness­es that they like.

UPDATE, 7:20 PM: A ques­tion was asked about what the can­di­dates would ask their ques­tion. Ken stat­ed a pre­vi­ous answer of Ben’s about how busy he is, ask­ing how he would serve as coun­cilmem­ber. Ben’s answer was flat, stay­ing most­ly that we would “make time”.

UPDATE, 7:24 PM: Ben accused Ken of say­ing dif­fer­ent things in the north part of the coun­ty than in the south part (Belling­ham in the south, small­er towns in the north), and brought up slaugh­ter­hous­es, a very heat­ed local issue. Ken refut­ed Elen­baas’ state­ment that he was speak­ing out of both sides of his mouth.

UPDATE, 7:24 PM: Both can­di­dates agreed that elec­tions financ­ing should be pub­lic. Go figure.

UPDATE, 7:30 PM: On a ques­tion about pri­vate vs. pub­lic own­er­ship, Ben Elen­baas spoke again about his family’s pres­ence in the coun­ty, and spoke vague­ly on stew­ard­ship of the land. Ken asked for the ques­tion be restat­ed, agreed with Ben that land needs to be tak­en care of, but piv­ot­ed to speak on stormwa­ter runoff, incin­er­a­tion, and how actions that own­ers take on their own prop­er­ty can affect oth­er people.

UPDATE, 7:35 PM: On clos­ing state­ments, Elen­baas repeat­ed his slo­gan, adver­tised his farm, and re-empha­sized his local cre­den­tials. Ken spoke on the impor­tance of local issues and his work cur­rent­ly as a councilmember.

UPDATE, 7:38 PM: Carl Weimer and Michelle Luke, run­ning for Coun­cil Dis­trict 3. Michelle ran against Carl four years ago and lost, and was the sub­ject of much con­ver­sa­tion back then when she was asked how she was qual­i­fied for the job and could not respond, instead sit­ting in silence.

UPDATE, 7:41 PM: Carl expressed his sup­port for the Growth Man­age­ment Act in help­ing smart growth and main­tain­ing qual­i­ty-of-life. Michelle Luke explained her thoughts that she believes the Act has been improp­er­ly inter­pret­ed in the County.

UPDATE, 7:45 PM: When talk­ing about per­mit­ting the coal ter­mi­nal Michelle stum­bled and said she would look at the doc­u­ments. Carl spoke on how he believes in cli­mate change, ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion, and the effect the project would have on marine pop­u­la­tion and how that knowl­edge would help make his deci­sion. He’s def­i­nite­ly the envi­ron­men­tal can­di­date in this race.

UPDATE, 7:47 PM: When asked about the slaugh­ter­house ordi­nance which just passed the Coun­ty Coun­cil, Carl spoke on how much of a mess the ordi­nance was when it came from the Plan­ning Com­mis­sion, which his oppo­nent chairs, forc­ing Michelle to spend her time defend­ing her work on the ordinance.

UPDATE, 7:49 PM: Carl’s def­i­nite­ly tak­ing the lead in this race, slam­ming Michelle again and again with the unsat­is­fac­to­ry work of the Plan­ning Commission.

UPDATE, 7:52 PM: Michelle calls plan­ning codes out­dat­ed and insuf­fi­cient to pro­tect farm­land. Carl expand­ed on the top­ic, and moved to say­ing that farm­land shouldn’t be used to build hous­ing, and that farm­ers need ded­i­cat­ed water rights.

UPDATE, 8:02 PM: Michelle and Carl launch into their clos­ing state­ments. Michelle thanks the League of Women Vot­ers and say they know where she stands. I hope they do, because I sure don’t, espe­cial­ly on the specifics. Carl end­ed with pas­sion and excite­ment, ani­mat­ed in his actions and his voice. Next up are the final can­di­dates in forum, Rud Browne and Bill Knutzen for the At-Large position.

UPDATE, 8:04 PM: Bill Knutzen intro­duced him­self first, speak­ing about agri­cul­ture, jobs, and his fos­ter chil­dren. He also made sure to make a joke about his opponent’s name.

UPDATE, 8:08 PM: Rud made com­par­isons between him­self and his oppo­nent, stat­ing how he became a US cit­i­zen by choice, migrat­ing from Aus­tralia and being part of the Coast Guard Aux­il­iary. He also made com­par­isons between his busi­ness and his opponent’s, stat­ing the hun­dreds of employ­ees and mul­ti­ple awards his com­pa­ny has.

UPDATE, 8:09 PM: Bill Knutzen called zon­ing changes “steal­ing”, and talked about the faces behind the changes. I’m wor­ried about the log­i­cal exten­sions of that statement.

UPDATE, 8:10 PM: Rud Browne dis­pelled the myth of the Growth Man­age­ment Act as a big, bad enti­ty, stat­ing it’s role in pro­tect­ing all prop­er­ty own­ers and cit­i­zens in the area.

UPDATE, 8:13 PM: When asked about how as a coun­cilmem­ber they would help with pover­ty alle­vi­a­tion. Rud spoke on his work as CEO and his char­i­ty work, and Bill Knutzen explained his work get­ting Com­cast to pro­vide inter­net access to low-income indi­vid­u­als and his church work.

UPDATE, 8:16 PM: When asked about racial pro­fil­ing in the coun­ty, Bill Knutzen denied it was going on. Rud Browne spoke to the issue where Cus­toms and Bor­der Enforce­ment have been called on as inter­preters by the police, and then ask­ing for the doc­u­men­ta­tion of the very same peo­ple who were call­ing for help.

UPDATE, 8:20 PM: When asked about the coal ter­mi­nal, Bill talked about using the infor­ma­tion giv­en to him and serv­ing in the role of the qua­si-judi­cial body that the Coun­cil must adhere to in mak­ing the per­mit­ting deci­sion. Rud Browne made an oath that he would do noth­ing that would make the per­mit be decid­ed in court, instead of by the Council.

UPDATE, 8:23 PM: Bill Knutzen wants to pri­or­i­tize bud­gets instead of rais­ing tax­es, includes parks among “friv­o­lous” things the coun­ty spends on. Rud talked about mak­ing sure chil­dren are edu­cat­ed and fed.

UPDATE, 8:30 PM: Already at clos­ing state­ments, and Bill Knutzen stum­bles a bit, but regains his foot­ing by say­ing that deci­sions need to be made local­ly in What­com Coun­ty. Rud Browne spoke about how wel­com­ing the com­mu­ni­ty is, before re-empha­siz­ing his busi­ness expe­ri­ence and his qual­i­fi­ca­tions in cre­at­ing jobs.

UPDATE, 8:47 PM: The forum is over, and a few last thoughts: the con­ser­v­a­tive can­di­dates are try­ing to bur­nish their local cre­den­tials to make the out­sider the Growth Man­age­ment Board and not the coal com­pa­nies which have been donat­ing to their cam­paigns. The forum was filmed to be put on local access tele­vi­sion, and I’ll link to it when it goes online. Good night folks!