Maginnis speaks out on coal, jobs, transparency, farmland

I'm running for the Whatcom County Council District 2 position against Sam Crawford. While this was a tough decision, it's the right one for our community, my family and for me. We're facing big decisions and we need new leadership.

I will be your voice and will represent your values.

We can do better to achieve our goals and make principled, transparent decisions involving the public and not just special interests.

With issues like coal trains through our waterfront, and a multimillion-dollar county jail coming before the council in the next few years, I know that my passion, my values, my scientific training and my experience working with local governments will allow me to be a strong leader to grow local businesses with living wage jobs at all skill levels, provide you honest answers on the proposed coal terminal, maintain our legacy of family farming with water for farms (not urban sprawl), and to fight for a reasonably sized, affordable jail.

I believe our current leadership wasted six years and $1 million for consultants who delivered an unusable plan for a huge new jail we can't afford to build or maintain. I'll work to build a jail in the next four years that's the right size and affordable for our community.

As a mom and a wife, I know how important good jobs and a healthy environment are to families. On the Whatcom County Council, we have the opportunity to create the conditions for people to live a high quality life and invest both their time and money. My job experience makes me qualified to ensure our county follows state land use laws, so we have a predictable future with urban and rural areas clearly defined. We've lost hundreds of acres of irreplaceable farmland to development. I'll work with farmers to support training for new farmers and loans to buy farmland and development rights, so we preserve our rich farming legacy with better food security for all of us.

Clean drinking water is one of my priorities. With my training and career as a water quality scientist, you can count on me to work for clean drinking water for your family. I'm a five-year member of the Lake Whatcom Watershed Advisory Board. As a scientist, I know what the problems are. When proposals for restoring our watershed come forward, I have the background to evaluate them and use our tax dollars wisely.

We need good jobs at all skill levels. This is one of the best places to live in the world --- if you have a good job. I support a plan to bring in more medium-sized businesses with stable jobs to Whatcom County and use our economic development fund dollars to help grow businesses already here. I'll work with our colleges to kick-start training programs for a green job work force here in our community.

Transparency and trust are critical, and I am deeply concerned about the plans and recent violations of SSA Marine, a privately held company planning to build a pier at Cherry Point in order to ship 54 million tons of coal per year to China.

This means 18 coal trains running through Whatcom County. The trains are expected to have 150 cars (1.5 miles long) that would go every day through our waterfront and 12 miles north through the county. Coal was never a part of the original proposal at Cherry Point. We need more information on the local jobs that will be created and on the health impacts of coal.

Given that this is one of the biggest decisions we'll be facing, we need a county council focused on an open and fair process for citizen input and elected leaders who always ask the tough questions and share honest answers on projects before voting. You need to trust that your government is informed and will represent your values.

Whatcom County has changed a great deal over the past decade, and I am committed to growing more businesses, making multimillion-dollar decisions with citizen involvement, and finding solutions to avoid the expensive lawsuits.

Please help me bring change that works to the Whatcom County Council.

I'd be honored to have your vote in this election.

***

Christina Maginnis is a candidate for Whatcom County Council seat 2B. The general election is Nov. 8.