Whatcom County Council Member Kathy Kershner has been the Chairperson only a short time, but she has already adopted an aggressive, pro-active approach.  From her first meeting as Chair, she has attempted to adjust the order in which the Council conducts its business.  Unfortunately, these changes have a chilling effect on public input.

Under the County Code, the Open Session, an opportunity for citizens to address the Council for three minutes on any topic not set for hearing, is held at the beginning of the Council meeting.  Ms. Kershner has been pushing the Open Session further back on the Council agenda. 

Now the Bellingham Herald reports that Ms. Kershner wants to amend the Whatcom County Code to change the order of business at County Council meetings.  Under Council Member Kershner’s proposal, Open Session will not begin until after close of public hearings and completion of the “consent agenda” (Council business matters not set for hearing that are usually grouped together and voted upon at the end of the meeting).

Ms. Kershner is well aware that public hearings can last several hours. If citizens are required to wait a significant length of time before speaking at Open Session, many will leave.  These citizens often have pressing considerations, such as the bus and ferry schedule, evening classes, or family needs, and are generally not interested in the subjects discussed during public hearings.

For example, this Tuesday, people from the South Nooksack area of the County, some with small children in tow, came to speak at Open Session regarding possible expansion of a gravel mine.  Ms. Kershner, with approval by a Council majority, unexpectedly moved the remainder of the public comment period to a later time in the meeting.  The alleged basis for this was to avoid inconvenience to the Staff.  I have frequently seen the Council agenda rearranged to accommodate the public, but I have never seen it rearranged to accommodate County employees.  Many speakers were unable to return home until almost 10 P.M. (Coincidentally, Kershner voted in favor of the gravel mine expansion that citizens were opposing during Open Session.)

Open session serves an important public function.  It allows Council to hear from citizens that may not regularly participate in the public process.  It is an opportunity to raise issues that are going unnoticed or unaddressed.  It can be used by mobilized citizen groups to express a high level of community concern on a matter that is not set for public hearing.  The citizens of the South Nooksack are an example of how effective this can be.

In what appears to be an attempt to justify the Code change, the County Council Clerk stated that the public will be asked if they wish to remove an item from the consent agenda at the beginning of the meeting, the public can address their concerns during the Open Session later, and the Council will vote on the matter at an even later point.

Hey….guess what? The public already has the right to request an item be pulled from the consent agenda.  WCC 2.02.045.C.  And a good time to make that request would at the Open Session that occurs at the beginning of the Council meeting.  There is simply no real problem that needs fixing, nor should this be such a high priority item for a new Chairperson.

I am sure that Ms. Kershner is concerned about the expediency of Council meetings.  I do not have statistics to confirm this, but it appears that the number of people speaking at Open Session has increased, and that the pendulum is swinging back towards environmental and public health concerns.  A more effective approach to the problem of long Open Sessions is for the Council to comply with state and federal law, and to work on behalf of the public, rather than special interests.  Were that to occur, many of us would be happy to stay home.   

On a final note, our Council Chair made a passing comment regarding Council’s willingness to extend the Open Session beyond the allocated 20 minute period, leaving unstated the implication that she would consider enforcing a time limit.  Never once did I hear any Council Member voice time concerns when “land use victims” in yellow shirts filled the Council Chamber.  I hope that Ms. Kershner will carefully consider the backlash she will face if she attempts to enforce a time limit on public comment.