March 6, 2023

Presentations:  

Service Grant Presentation: Brad Burdick made a $1,000 Service Grant presentation to the Silver Beach
Elementary School librarian, Kristin Cleary, for the funding of a visit to the school by local author and illustrator Kjersten Hayes. She and 1st grade teacher Sharie Burdick gave a great slide presentation showing Kjersten giving a talk to the 128 first and second graders in an assembly, sharing ideas on creativity and how she writes books. She discussed her book, The Elephant’s Guide to Hide and Seek. Later, she went to each of the classrooms and answered many questions from students about her writing and how she comes up with her ideas for books. Kjersten’s visit to Silver Beach Elementary School was obviously a big hit with the students, and our Service Grant was well used.

Paul Harris Foundation Presentations: President Paul presented Steve Gray with his first Paul Harris award and Sandy McIntire with his fourth Paul Harris award. They both received a standing ovation. Congratulations to both Steve and Sandy!

New Member Induction: Roland Trenouth introduced new member Jose Ledesma for induction into our club. Jose’s parents immigrated from Mexico. Jose was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Following high school, he joined the Marines and spent 20 years with the Corps in places like Okinawa, San Diego, two tours in Iraq, and many other places around the world, ending at the University of Washington, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business and finance. He then relocated to Bellingham and is a financial advisor at Edward Jones and Associates. He has a wife and two daughters.

Former president Sandy McIntire gave Jose the charge, extolling the benefits of Rotary internationally (with 1.4 million members in 46,000 clubs worldwide), and our 105-year-old Club in particular. He emphasized the seven areas of focus for Rotary worldwide: promoting world peace; fighting disease; providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene; supporting education; saving mothers and children; growing local economies; protecting the environment. His tips for enjoying and getting the most out of Rotary included being as active in the club as possible, sitting at different tables every week to meet different members, getting involved with service projects and actively participating on club committees.

Program:

Bellingham Police Chief Rebecca Mertzig gave an update about her department. She took over as police chief in June, 2022. She is a native of Ferndale, where she currently lives with her husband and young son. She attended WWU, where she became interested in criminal justice. She transferred to Eastern Washington University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. Chief Mertzig has been working in law enforcement for 18 years. She began her career working for the Snohomish County Sheriff's office, eventually attaining the rank of lieutenant. She was subsequently named Chief of Police for the Town of Stanwood prior to assuming her current position. 

Chief Mertzig singled out staffing shortages and a woefully inadequate jail as the major challenges facing her department.  Not having enough qualified applicants to be police officers is a new phenomenon. She noted that, when she was starting out, there would be dozens, if not hundreds, of applicants for positions with county sheriff’s offices and police departments and it was very difficult to get hired due to the competitive nature of the application process. However, in recent years, there have been far fewer applicants, and in particular very few qualified applicants. Chief Mertzig attributes this to a generally negative reputation for law enforcement officers in recent years, stemming from incidents like the George Floyd and Tyre Nichols cases. However, she believes this is a cyclical process, and that the pendulum is swinging back. Applications are beginning to increase, as people see the benefits of a career in law enforcement. She recently swore in 7 new recruits and hopes to hire more in the near future.

Chief Mertzig stated that the biggest source of stress for officers, because of the lack of a functioning jail with adequate capacity, is the virtual decriminalization of many offenses: Most offenders are merely given a ticket (which they usually ignore), rather than being booked in jail, because there is no room and no rehabilitation services. These people thus lose the opportunity to try to break their cycle of repetitive criminal behavior. She fervently hoped that funds for a new jail would finally be approved by Whatcom County voters this November.

Chief Mertzig noted that homelessness presents a spectrum of needs. Some people on that spectrum have greater needs than others. Some people may be without a permanent place to live, but may be able to stay with friends in relative comfort, while others have nowhere to turn and may suffer from mental illness as well, compounding their needs.
She rejected the notion that drug addiction is a victimless crime. She pointed out that the offender is a victim of his
own addiction. In addition, since he needs money for drugs, he will commit crimes to obtain that money, making others victims as well.

In response to a question about what to do if a citizen observes public drinking of alcohol, she noted that officers respond to complaints in the order of their seriousness, with situations involving physical danger getting the most immediate response. So, although she encouraged the reporting of any potentially criminal behavior, something like drinking in public would usually not elicit a police response.
Asked about her officers' response to the George Floyd and Tyre Nichols cases, Chief Mertzig stated that they were even more horrified than the general public because they were concerned that members of the local community  would think that they, the local police officers, would behave like the officers in those situations did. Her officers verbalized that, if they had been there, they would have had a duty to intervene when those cops began acting like criminals and call for back up to arrest them.