BELLINGHAM – Open public comment has been suspended through the end of the year at Bellingham City Council meetings as city officials take a close look at security measures for City Hall.
Suspension of open public comment started with Monday’s 7 p.m. City Council meeting, according to the weekly online newsletter “Inside Bellingham.”
City Council President Dan Hammill said he expects open public comment to resume in January.
“My intent is to resume public comment at the beginning of next year,” Hammill said at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
During the open public comment period, anyone can have 3 minutes to speak on any topic, within certain limits.
In the meantime, comments directed at city officials can be emailed to ccmail@cob.org.
Mayor Kim Lund discussed City Hall security in an email to city employees on Thursday that was obtained by The Bellingham Herald.
“While safety is an important consideration for all our facilities, we recognize that there are concerns that are unique to City Hall. City Hall is the heart of our city government. It is where we host daytime and evening public meetings, where utility customer needs are met, and where questions surrounding design and development can be addressed. It has multiple entrances and publicly accessible spaces that are not monitored consistently. There have been several incidents in recent years that have highlighted some vulnerabilities and escalated concerns” Lund said.
Most recently, a speaker was removed from Council Chambers at City Hall on Oct. 7 for conduct that Council President Dan Hammill said was in violation of open public comment rules that ban verbal attack on individuals.
At the Oct. 21 meeting, the lectern for speakers was moved from a spot next to the council dias to a location in the second-floor audience gallery.
Previous incidents have included hate speech targeting Jews in February of this year and a March 23, 2020, City Council meeting that was disrupted by political activist Tim Eyman and a handful of supporters who falsely claimed that emergency rules enacted for the coronavirus pandemic would restrict gun rights and other civil liberties.
YouTube — the online video-sharing service where the city live-streams and archives its meetings and other information — briefly removed the video for the July 12, 2021, City Council meeting because several speakers spread lies and distortions about COVID-19, its treatments, and the vaccines against it. Some of the remarks at that meeting were criticized by a national anti-hate organization as trivializing the Holocaust.
City officials and others have expressed public and private concerns about the security of City Hall for several years. The building’s exits are open and unguarded, as opposed to the Whatcom County Courthouse nearby, where visitors must pass through a metal detector and have their belongings scanned.
Open carry of firearms was banned at City Hall in 2023.
Among the measures that Lund has taken to improve safety involves hiring a supervisor to manage security at City Hall and the Bellingham Public Library across the street.
“To support our vision for a safe, welcoming City Hall, my 2025 proposed budget includes the first steps of building a city security team, important to reducing our reliance on contract security and maintaining a welcoming and trained presence at City Hall, the library and elsewhere,” Lund told employees.
