INSIDE

The new, improved taxpayers

By Meg Olson

The Point Roberts taxpayers association wants to reinvent itself and is hiring a consultant to direct the process.

“The key to a vital organization is doing things people want to be involved in,” said president Michael Rosser to the remaining members of the association’s board at their October 7 meeting, a month after the group’s annual general meeting was cancelled for lack of quorum. “We want, we need, to excite our membership. What do you want us to do?”
There are seven members left on the taxpayers’ association board of directors, which is at full strength with nine regular members and two alternates. The stalwarts who have kept the association strong for the last 30 years are running out of steam, Rosser said, and the group needs new blood and its current format isn’t getting it.

“Maybe we need to shift how we do business,” Rosser suggested. “I’m not sure how relevant some of the things we’re doing are anymore.” He suggested that there was dwindling interest in what the fire district and the water board were up to, and more focus on growth issues, planning and land use. Derek Yip Hoi agreed that what the community was looking for was leverage with Whatcom County, beyond voicing concerns at one of county executive Pete Kremen’s quarterly community meetings. “Getting people to a meeting is one thing but getting people active and really involved is what needs to be done,” he said.

Knick Pyles said there was renewed interest in the community in looking at incorporation as a city. “We’re getting a pretty big and growing tax base,” said Yip Hoi and Rosser said it was one way the community could take the reins of government. “People worry we’d end up with jerks in charge but at least if we were a city they’d be accountable and we could vote them out,” he said.

Rosser said the group needed to do more to recruit the growing number of new arrivals in the community, but also needed to reach out to the existing membership. “I think we need to get on the phone with each one of our members, talk to them and invite them.” What members and the community at large would be invited to, board members agreed, would be a visioning meeting this fall, which Rosser said he hopes to have Mary Dumas facilitate. Dumas, who runs a Bellingham mediation and facilitation firm specializing in public involvement in community issues, was also hired by the county to facilitate a community meeting in April.

Board members agreed to invite Dumas to their October meeting to establish the process, after which they would call members to determine a good date for the visioning meeting, at which they also hope to fill vacant board positions. “I’m getting very excited by all of this,” Rosser said. “Positive change.”