Patrick Kissinger, Western’s AS Legislative Liason (left), and Grace Drechsel, AS Board Assistant for Representation Comittees, mediate the Local Candidate Forum. Ella Banken//AS Review
By Soleil de Zwart
Patrick Kissinger, local issues coordinator, worked together with Natasha Hessami, VP for governmental affairs, to host two back-to-back local government forums.
“Even if people don’t vote, I want them to stay in contact with the issues,” Kissinger said.
The event was a non-partisan forum for the local community to meet the candidates on their Whatcom County ballots, just in time for Election Day on Nov. 6.
Candidates present were running for Public Utilities Commissioner, District Court of Appeals Judge, County Council At-Large and Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney. There was also a speaker on the Low-Income Housing Levy, officially known as Bellingham Proposition 2018-5.
Public Utilities Commission:
Atul Deshmane and Paul D. Kenner are running for the position. Kenner was not present. The position of Public Utilities Commission deals with water and energy resources.
“When you have the right infrastructure, it makes it easier to do everything,” Deshmane said.
Deshmane volunteered at Whatcom County Planning Commission and feels that this is the natural next step.
Deshmane has spent 25 years working on environmental infrastructure and clean energy. In this position, he wants to focus primarily on renewable energy, water conservation and broadband.
When asked for a plan of bringing clean energy to Bellingham, Deshmane responded that he has spoken to the Port of Bellingham and City Council about a community solar project, giving more people access to solar energy. A lot of community members don’t have the tools for solar, either for the right location or the capacity for upfront capital, Deshmane said.
District Court of Appeals Judge
Tom SeGuine and Cecily Hazelrigg-Hernandez are running for this position.
Tom SeGuine has been a practicing lawyer for 30 years in Northwest Washington as a prosecutor, working on civil cases and representing plaintiffs and defendants. SeGuine worked as a public defender in the last ten years in Skagit County.
“I believe strongly in the law and that people are supposed to follow it,” SeGuine said.
The court system is occupied by people and the justice system is not immune to it, Seguine said.
SeGuine’s philosophy is to use incarceration as a last resort because of cost, as well as empathy and sympathy for what happens to people’s lives when they’ve been incarcerated. Even though this position doesn’t sentence people, the county court judges are responsible for seeing people after they are convicted of a crime.
Cecily Hazelrigg-Hernandez is an alum of Fairhaven and returned to Bellingham after law school to teach in the American Cultural Studies program. Hazelrigg-Hernandez was a Public Defender for Skagit County and emphasizes access to justice.
Hazelrigg-Hernandez wants to work on a strong foundation in the intersection of race, poverty and sexual identity that make up the unique experiences in this world. Raising issues of race issues or biases is important to Hazelrigg-Hernandez.
“I like to stay engaged in the community so I know what’s going on,” Hazelrigg-Hernandez said.
County Council At-Large Seat
Carol Frazey and Mike Peetoom are the candidates, Peetoom was not present.
Frazey never planned on running for a government position, until the 2016 election. Frazey wants to focus on environmental protection, women’s rights and equity, as well as health in Whatcom County. This includes individual health, environmental health and economic health.
Politics is about knowing how to reach out to people and knowing how to make connections, Frazey said.
“I realized locally we can do a lot to protect people, to protect the environment,” Frazey said.
In relation to the housing crisis in Bellingham, Frazey wants to focus on affordability and homelessness.
“We might not agree on politics, but we can agree that we want to help people,” Frazey said.
Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney:
The incumbent David S. McEachran is retiring after about 47 years in office.
James Erb and Eric Richey are both democrats and running for the position.
James Erb is running because he believes that there are three statutory responsibilities, criminal offenses, provide civil legal advice at the county and constantly seek to improve inaccuracies in the justice system. He was a Bellingham City attorney for eight years with civil and crime experience.
The U.S. has lost the war on drugs and that drug court should be more utilized, Erb said.
Erb also believes the jail system has inherent biases and that this is a problem in the criminal justice system at large.
He believes it is not the job of local law enforcement to enforce federal law when it concerns immigration. But it is their job to make sure people without citizen status feel safe approaching law enforcement officials, without fear of immediate deportation.
Erb opposes mandatory minimum sentences because they have led to the explosion in incarceration in this country. He would go down to Olympia to make sure that the written sentencing laws do not lead to sentencing outcomes. He was asked by members of the community to run for this position, Erb said.
Eric Richey is the second in command in the current prosecutor’s office. He was asked by the other prosecutors in the office to run for the open position, he said.
Mass incarceration is a main focus for this position.
According to Richey, there has been implicit bias training in the prosecuting attorney office and believes law enforcement officers should receive it as well.
Richey has worked with people with immigration issues and would never call officials on them. Law enforcement officers are trained not to ask about someone’s immigration status, he said.
He looks forward to changing the office to reduce simple drug possession cases to misdemeanors, to make a safer community and treat people for both their drug addiction,as well as their mental health.
Proposition 2018-5 Bellingham Home Fund
The 2012 voters voted yes on this home fund. It includes an increase in property tax. The money is used to build and preserve homes for veterans, seniors, working families and people with disabilities. It was passed in 2012 and is up for renewal, according to the Whatcom County Official Local Voters’ Pamphlet
It is only opposed by the Whatcom County Republicans, according to Paul Schissler, affordable housing consultant.