During this evening’s Ferndale City Council meeting, his fellow councilmembers appointed Councilmember Keith Olson to the Jail Task Force by unanimous vote.
The Jail Task Force was created in June of this year by the Whatcom County Council in response to the failure of the plan to build and fund a jail that was put in front of voters in 2015. The group is charged with developing a project plan, identifying revenue sources to pay for it and how costs will be split among the county and the cities who use the jail.
The task force is to be made up of officials from Whatcom County, Bellingham, the local tribes, law enforcement agencies and one member of the city councils of Blaine, Lynden or Ferndale and mayor of one of those cities.
With the addition of Olson, the current makeup of the Jail Task Force is shown below:
| Position # | Name/Address |
|---|---|
| Whatcom County Council | Barry Buchanan |
| Whatcom County Council | Todd Donovan |
| Bellingham City Council | Pinky Vargas |
| Bellingham City Council | Gene Knutson |
| Small City Council | Keith Olson, Ferndale City Council |
| Lummi Indian Business Council | Vacant |
| Nooksack Tribal Council | Vacant |
| Whatcom County Executive | Jack Louws |
| Bellingham Mayor | Kelli Linville |
| Small City Mayor | Scott Korthuis, Mayor of Lynden |
| Whatcom County Sheriff | Bill Elfo |
| Bellingham Police Chief | Cliff Cook |
| Bellingham Resident | Kelli Carroll |
| County Resident | Harold Cummings |
| Incarceration Prevention & Reduction Task Force | Jack Hovenier, Task Force Co-Chair |
| Corrections Officer | Mark Holst, Corrections Sergeant Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office |