Advocacy over coffee

by Guy Occhiogrosso, Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce President & CEO

As your chamber of commerce, we regularly work for you advocating behind the scenes on community and policy issues. Once every quarter, I sit down with our Mayor of Bellingham. Our conversations are usually robust and lively and I certainly appreciate her time.

As you can imagine, we have an ample amount of content to cover. Our discussions traditionally revolve around the big community issues, recent decisions, or ongoing discussions.

Recently when we had to make the tough decision to remove the Blossomtime Parade from our lineup of events, Mayor Kelli Linville was one of the first people we contacted. Not only as the Mayor, but she was also a former Blossomtime parade Queen. Like all of us, she was disappointed but she understood why the decision was made.

Over the last year, our conversations have revolved around the topics that seem to be encapsulating Bellingham: housing, homeless, and jobs. Our job market tends to be one of the high points of our conversation, or at least one that consumes the majority of our time. I certainly believe that the Mayor hears the concerns regarding our workforce needs in the community and is eager to find solutions.

At a recent meeting, I asked her “What can the Chamber do for you?” Her response was not surprising as it was simply paraphrased to “let’s get some more jobs.” My response was “Simple. We just need more housing options.” I’m pretty sure she agreed.

What topics would you like me to ask the Mayor?  Just email me at guy@bellingham.com.