Samish Neighborhood Association
Annual Meeting Notes  April 1, 2009  Bellingham Elks Lodge
The 2009 SNA annual meeting was attended by approximately 50-60 people. Scheduled speakers were Mayor Dan Pike and
WWU President Bruce Shepard. Other city officials also attending included City Council at-large representative Louise
Bjornson and COB Neighborhood Coordinator Linda Stewart.
SNA President Eric Weight called the business meeting to order at approximately 7 p.m. April Markiewicz gave the 200809 treasurer’s report including: Revenue: $1,500 membership and $4,500 COB support. Expenses: $100 meeting room
rental, $10 non-profit registration, $58 post office box rental, $1,200 printing and mailing expenses for postal newsletter (two
per year), $500 annual September barbecue/picnic, $4,070 neighborhood signs. Carry-over: $1,733.53. Eric followed with a
review of SNA activities during the 2008-09 fiscal year. In particular, he noted that:
 There has been a slow-down on completion of neighborhood plans with no funds available from the city, so final
work on the SNA plan is on hold.
 Our “Welcome to the Neighborhood” signs have been completed and are now in place.
 The board is working toward development of an SNA Web site and is looking for volunteers who would be able to
help with this effort.
 Public comment period at the board’s monthly meetings has been moved to the beginning of the meeting as is done
at City Council meetings.
 Thank you to the Elks Lodge for their support of our annual meeting by providing meeting space.

Recognition of long-term board members who are retiring from the board: Bill Baldwin, Glen Hallman, Pauline
Palmer, Ted Perry.
Board Election. Each year, SNA elects one-half of its Board of Directors for two-year terms. Candidates for 2009-11 were
announced as follows: New board nominees: Dick Conoboy, David Gilbertson, Trinn Murray. Re-election: Joe Carpenter,
Garey Vodopich, Eric Weight. There were no nominations from the floor. Moved and seconded to vote on the slate of
candidates as a whole, and passed by unanimous vote.
WWU President Bruce Shepard made some general comments, noting that one of the unique features of WWU is the
amount of research that faculty and students, including undergraduates, work on together. Also: there is “maybe over a
million” hours per year of community service provided by students; many students would like to stay in this area, but there
aren’t enough opportunities for them to do so; and the University is working with the city on development of the waterfront.
Q: Free parking for events on campus so community members can attend? A: A huge challenge he hears mentioned often. He
has a group now looking into weekend/evening parking at no charge. Q: What’s happening with the budget crisis? A: Still
trying to figure out what it means. With 200-250 projected job losses, would no longer be the county’s largest employer.
Could also affect enrollment. Q: Is the campus less diverse? A: No. Admission activity is up with 18 percent students of
color. Q: Various neighborhoods have issues with “party houses” and students need to be motivated to become better
citizens. A: There is a campus-community connections group working on this. Part of the challenge is quality of landlords.
Linda Stewart noted that the mayor was at another meeting and would be here as soon as possible. She made brief
comments on the infill toolkit process and the initial meeting re the Fountain Urban Village. Q: When will Planning move
again on neighborhood plans.? A: No idea. Some that have carried over may be gotten to. Re Samish, Governor Road, etc.,
pieces are coming slowly but not yet fitting together. Q: Capacity to investigate code compliance? A: Notify Police
Department if there are immediate problems, or contact her at lstewart@cob.org and she will check things out.
Mayor Dan Pike noted this was his third meeting of the night and invited questions and comments. Q: What’s on your
mind? A: (1) Trying to manage the budget crisis; trying to be transparent with city employees and the public. (2) Longer-term
issues such as growth management  a more robust transit system, water quality involving more than just Lake Whatcom,
growth in cities rather than open county areas. Q: Your attitude toward tax increases? A: Taxes shouldn’t be taken off the
table but are not a good solution. The city has “structural challenges”  sustainability is important; we need to size
government better; service provision needs to be looked at. We need to talk about the hard stuff  there is no magic way to
get more resources. We need a model that stops the cycle of having to do a fix on a regular basis. Q: Comments on the city
promoting growth in urban villages with neighborhoods keeping zoning as is? A: Not every neighborhood will want to use all
of the infill toolkit options. People want to have confidence that what they accept will be appropriate growth for their
neighborhood. Q: Re Bruce Shepard’s comments on landlord responsibility, where do we stand on having tools to deal with
this? A: Landlord licensing isn’t allowed  solution has to be revenue neutral. The city is now looking at different options;
we should expect a public comment session on that to be scheduled later this year. Q: Port vs. city re waterfront? A: Still in
discussion; still some challenges. Biggest change: port and city are communicating better and working together. He still
wants to keep development site lines pulling from the city out, with the city building enough for the developers to continue.
Public Comment: Question was: The stairsteps issue has been tabled, but for how long? How do we keep it on the agenda?
Dan Pike noted that Public Works has an idea about how to solve this issue. April Markiewicz said that it’s on the Samish
Transportation Improvement Program request and in the SNA Neighborhood Plan, so the board will keep this issue open.
Next Meetings: April 14, May 12.