By Ralph Schwartz
The public is welcome to Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville’s “state of the city” presentation, put on by the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The event is 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 15, at Best Western Lakeway Inn and Convention Center, 714 Lakeway Drive, Bellingham.
The room isn’t yet full, said Shelli Jones of the Chamber, and she encourages walk-ins. Chamber members pay $25; nonmembers pay $35.
There will be plenty of time for questions from the audience.
For those who don’t make it, the talk will air on BTV10 soon.
Some details about what Linville will discuss are in the Chamber’s press release, copied below:
Mayor Linville to give her State of the City Address
The Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce & Industry is proud to announce that Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville will give her State of the City Address at the Chamber Speaker Series on Tuesday, January 15th from 2pm-3:30pm at the Best Western Lakeway Inn and Conference Center.
Mayor Linville will share highlights of her first year in office, including accomplishments such as: identifying financial and service priorities, completing her first budget process, completing key steps of the waterfront redevelopment plan with the Port of Bellingham, partnering with Whatcom County officials and others to address emergency medical services needs, meeting with all the neighborhood associations in the city, and more.
The cost is $25 for Chamber members and $35 for non-members. Reservations can be made at the front door of the community, www.bellingham.com or by calling the Chamber at 360-734-1330. (Walk-ins OK.)
This is the second in this season’s Chamber Speaker Series. The next Chamber Speaker Series will feature Bill Conerly presenting his Economic Forecast for 2013 on Thursday, February 28th from 7:30am-9am at the Best Western Plus Lakeway Inn and Conference Center. Conerly is the author of “Businomics: from the Headlines to Your Bottom Line – How to Profit in any Economic Cycle” and is an on-line contributor to Forbes magazine.
State of the City: Cold, wet.
Nice that one has to pay to hear the address, what an accomplishment by her nibs.
The rest of the accomplishments sound like an average to slow learning curve and no brainier catching up. Plus a lot of politicking. By the time she catches up to her job, it will be time for another election. But apparently we like to keep doing the same old over and over again like spinning wheel son the ice.
Paying $35 to attend what’s being billed as a “State of the City” speech, doesn’t sit very well with me either.
Unless this is some kind of tradition of the city that I’m unaware of, it strikes me
as excessive and out of touch.
I can see charging for a lunch or meal, and then a small fee to attend without for the facility rental (unnecessary) but this is bordering on vulgar.
That $35 is just enough to keep any rowdy opposition at bay.
The mayor will give a more detailed version of her “State of the City” to city council, I believe on Monday, Jan. 28. If not it will be scheduled for February. Admission to City Council meetings is free, of course. The talk will have a different tone – more technical, for a council audience. I or Stark will put up a reminder closer to the date.
Thanks for clarifying there will be another presentation, Ralph. I haven’t seen the packet for our next meeting so can’t confirm it’s on the 28th yet either, but I’d appreciate you finding out and letting folks know as soon as possible. The way the article was written makes it sound like people had to pay $35 to attend a Chamber meeting if they wanted to attend the City’s official State of the City, which of course is not true. Right? I’m getting quite a bit of guff about it myself and now assume it’s a pretty pervasive assumption, as a result.
It is offensive that the “State of the City” address was presented to a private group before presentation to the Council and citizens. Charging an exorbitant fee to hear what state we are in is even more offensive.
Next chance I’ll get, I’ll ask Kelli to explain why a talk called a “State of the City address” was given behind a $35 curtain. She might appeal to the City Council presentation she plans to give. The title of the talk may have been an unfortunate choice. There was nothing “official” about the presentation. She was filling a slot in the monthly Chamber speaker series.
I’ll let everyone know the details of the mayor’s presentation before the council as soon as I find out. Cathy, feel free to chime in on the comments here, or give me a heads up via email, because you might learn about it before I do.
Also, check the BTV10 schedule. The mayor’s State of the City in front of the Chamber is going to air a few times over the next couple weeks on that channel, I’ve been told.
Don’t expect much explanation from the not very artful dodger Ralph. Her whole campaign relied on obfuscations to outright lies and the gullible Dems who either couldn’t control Pike and turned on him or listened to the likes of the McShanes who after running a nasty campaign of lies, lost and never got over it. But then they are also very good at pulling the wool over the gullible in the Dem party, of which there are a boatload.
The ‘State of the City’:
Downtown has become a cesspool of cigarette butts, broken glass, litter, dog poop, and pools of vomit.
The streets and city-run parking lots are coated in layers of gasoline, antifreeze, and oil.
I’ve lived downtown for a year and have watched it degenerate over this period.
The previous mayor did marvelous things for the downtown central business district; it’s sad to see the condition it has become.