Program Guest Speaker April 24, 2023

On April 24th, Malora Christensen, Whatcom County Health and Community Services’ Response Systems Division Manager, was our guest speaker and gave 11 of us in attendance on Zoom an informative overview of the County’s GRACE, LEAD, and ART programs.

Malora is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been working in Whatcom County for the past 13 years.   Over the years, Malora has worked in the areas of farm worker rights, permanent supportive housing, diversion programs, behavioral health and overall system improvement for our most vulnerable community members.  Bufsters know Malora from her time working with Community to Community.

According to the County website https://www.whatcomcounty.us/4179/GRACE-Program, the Ground-Level Response and Coordinated Engagement (GRACE) program is a community-based effort to find solutions for individuals who are high utilizers of emergency and criminal justice systems. The aim is to offer intensive, coordinated services to these “familiar faces” whose needs span beyond any single agency.

According to the County website https://www.whatcomcounty.us/3933/LEAD-Program, LEAD (known nationally as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion is a community-based effort to find solutions for individuals who are high utilizers of criminal justice systems. The aim is to lead people out of the criminal justice system and into intensive case management where those who are dealing with behavioral health challenges can have their needs met appropriately.

According to the County website https://www.whatcomcounty.us/3934/ART-Program, the Alternative Response Team (ART) is an innovative program that benefits people having mental or behavioral health challenges, and it will also benefit our police personnel, allowing them to respond to other emergent calls requiring law enforcement intervention. Launched in January 2023, this Bellingham program sends a behavioral health specialist and a public health nurse to respond to specific non-violent behavioral health 911 calls.

In addition to discussing the above programs, Malora also provided us with insights on the issues associated with the Whatcom County jail and trauma-informed design, of which there are 3 facilities in the U.S., including the one visited by the County in Tennessee this year.

Malora emphasized the need for the public to lobby elected officials to move off old paradigms and seek the advice and input of subject-matter experts when it comes to rethinking emergency and police response policies and practices.

ARAOMC Beloved Community Moment of April 9, 2023

 Good morning.  I am Rupert Ayton. My beloved community message today is about resurrection.  But not the joy of spring, or Jesus, or the Buddha.  And not the horror of Jefferson Davis’s risen South, even though today is the 158th anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox and this past week we saw Jim Crow rising again in Tennessee.

Instead, I’ll examine with you an insidious serpent of institutional oppression that has recently resurrected its ugly self.  I am referring to bank failures.  And the failure of banking to serve society inclusively, equally, and without discrimination.

This was not always the case.

Our banking system is barely 110 years old.  It was fixed in 1933 with the Glass-Steagall act.  That distinguished commercial banking, saving and loans, and building and loans.  Banking was local. It set fixed terms for deposit and loan products for each.  It established deposit insurance to build confidence against bank failures.  It created examination and oversight.  It kept Wall Street, capitalism’s henchmen, at bay.  But that all changed with Jimmy Carter and deregulation in 1980, and subsequent bouts of deregulation that one could argue has led to a series of banking crises over the last 50 years.

Deregulation started because capitalism insinuated itself into banking.  It made it all about money, not people.  It made it complicated.  Capitalism drove a wedge of oppression into banking.

I won’t bore you with the details, but think about this:  the story of failed Silicon Valley Bancshares is both comical and criminal.  It reads like buffoonery, but don’t let that fool you as we have seen and still see what buffoonery hides: oppression.

As reported in the press, it seems the Silicon Valley Bank CEO, a darling of Wall Street, was so convinced of his genius in discovering how to make money in banking that he believed himself a venture capitalist instead of a banker.  He argued against regulation.  He ignored regulatory oversight.  He ignored his own risk models that forecast disaster. He even cashed in his risk insurance policy.  Notice it was a “he.”

And it appears his underlings and board went along with him.  As did Wall Street.

We’ve seen this before, and what irks me is that we still let this happen.  And we are perpetuating inequitable service in the name of greed.  Silicon Valley Bank was providing deposits to the wealthy and making loans to the wealthy.  And in doing so creating more wealth for the wealthy.  All backed by our tax dollars.  Meanwhile, we have banking deserts, and we continue to have discriminatory banking practices.  The rich get richer, the poor and oppressed get poorer.

The bottom line for most banking today is that clients have to fit a box.  There is not a lot of room in that box for people of color or people living outside of the social norm or below the poverty line.  And regulations intended to deal with that problem function like a software programmer who does not understand user needs.  The result does not do what we want.

If you asked me for a social institution analogy to banking, I’d say health insurance.  Like we need a single payer system for healthcare, I think for banking we need something similar.

I am complicit in this problem, because I used to work in banking and I use one of those banks for the wealthy, even though I am not wealthy.  I am now motivated to work solely with a credit union.  It is the most equitable option I can find.  I am looking at how credit unions in the deep South are working to provide banking services and loans to excluded communities.

Thank you.

Program Guest Speaker March 20, 2023

Our BUF BLM guest speaker was Blaine Chief of Police Donnell “Tank” Tanksley.  He is currently a candidate for Whatcom County Sheriff.

Tank worked with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department from 1993 to 2014, the last seven of which he served as commander. He moved to Bellingham to become assistant chief of police at Western Washington University from 2014 to 2017 and then chief of police at Portland State University before joining Blaine in 2019. He’s a 22-year veteran in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force.

Tank discussed his background, what got him into policing, and into military service.  He explain why he wanted to be Sheriff.  He gave examples of the tough issues he's handled in law enforcement; the PSU shooting was one.  He discussed the county jail and would like to see it built on the current parking lot.

He described how he will keep the department staffed and trained, and how policing the unincorporated areas of the County may or may not differ from policing an incorporated area or campus. He talked about 

citizen oversight of law enforcement, including measures passed by the state that change how officers conduct themselves.  He discussed his personal view on firearms.  He described his sense of being a "peace" officer, and steps the County could take to take the burden off law enforcement, and divert people out of the criminal justice system where it makes sense.

MInutes of April 10th BUF BLM Business Meeting

 BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team

Minutes

April 10th, 2023, 7pm

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/96292952504

Meeting ID: 962 9295 2504

Passcode: BUF

Attending: David Curley, Naomi Gary, Claire Lending, Murray Bennett, Mel Hoover, Rupert Ayton, Pam Graham, Mike Betz

1. Communication Subcommittee

a. David suggested a subcommittee for communication

i. David, Ellie and Rupert volunteered

b. Rupert gave a demo of Slack

c. The group discussed MailChimp and agreed to take a look at it

d. Group discussed need to have tools for internal communication and external communication

2. Kitchen Rules

a. The group discussed the kitchen rules and the requirement of a food handler certificate.  Naomi has one.  So does Sean Foster.

3. Projects

a. Speaker Series

i. Malora Christensen April 17.  Mel raised the question of event conflict with the jail conversation schedule at the same time

ii. No response from Kendi.  Pam will follow up.

iii. Speaker Honorariums

1. Malora works for County so no honorarium

2. Shu-Ling wants hers to go to Whatcom CRE—Rupert following up with Kayla at County

3. Rupert checking with Kathy to make sure all other honorariums have been sent.

b. Voting Rights

i. Need a plan.  Claire will look into. David will check with Jane Freudenberg

4. Planned Events

a. Rupert hosting Tank on April 15, 4pm

i. Invitation open to all

b. May 25 George Floyd/Juneteenth video event notes

i. Naomi gave an update