Bellingham council will return to in-person meetings for the first time since pandemic started

Robert Mittendorf
·2 min read

Bellingham City Council will begin meeting in person next week for the first time after more than two years of remote sessions under emergency orders issued in March 2020 amid a growing COVID-19 pandemic.

A committee vote taken Monday afternoon, Sept. 26, showed unanimous support for a return to Council Chambers on Monday, Oct. 3, and the vote was affirmed at the council’s Monday night meeting.

In committee, Councilman Dan Hamill introduced a motion to conduct the public’s business face-to-face “after looking at you all in these little boxes for two years,” referring to the digital format of a remote meeting.

Hammill’s motion came after a short discussion of Gov. Jay Inslee’s announcement on Sept. 8 that all pandemic-related emergency proclamations and the state of emergency will end by Oct. 31.

Related state law requires remote-participation capabilities for the public and elected officials as part of a “hybrid” online and in-person meeting.

Meanwhile, Mayor Seth Fleetwood told the council, which was meeting as the Committee of the Whole on Monday, that his local emergency orders will end Oct. 31.

In a statement posted Monday to the city’s website, Fleetwood said COVID-19 vaccinations “will remain a condition of employment for city employees and volunteers through an executive order that will remain in place.”

Bellingham lost 27 city employees because of COVID-19 vaccination mandates from Inslee and Fleetwood, according to previous Herald reporting.

In addition, a City Council measure requiring an additional $4 an hour hazard pay for grocery workers will end as the emergency orders expire Oct. 31.

Bellingham City Council members last met in person on March 23, 2020, in a raucous session where anti-tax activist and frequent initiative sponsor Tim Eyman led an effort to oppose pandemic measures that the City Council was considering.

A hybrid meeting on Dec. 13, 2021, honored Councilwoman Pinky Vargas for her two terms on the council and also Councilman Gene Knutson, who served for nearly three decades.

That move allowed the two council members to sit in Council Chambers one last time before their terms expired. Neither ran for re-election.